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W.Va. Primary Features Culture Wars, Public Works Office Changes

Voters have endured a gubernatorial media campaign blitz with unprecedented mudslinging – coupled with a dominant campaign to see a new but familiar face representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

Tuesday’s primary election may be the most important the state has seen in quite a while. Voters have endured a gubernatorial media campaign blitz with unprecedented mudslinging – coupled with a dominant campaign to see a new but familiar face representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

In their debates and interviews, the four Republican candidates for governor, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, former Del. Moore Capito, car dealership magnate Chris Miller and Secretary of State Mac Warner have offered plans to tackle issues like education, and substance abuse. All four are pro-coal, pro-Trump and claim to be the most conservative.

However, for all but Warner, the radio and TV campaign advertising culture wars on who is most strongly opposed to transgender children participating in girls’ sports and entering girl’s bathrooms have vilified this already challenged minority.

When asked about his reasoning behind joining the mudslinging fray, Capito avoided a direct response.

“I’ve been around a lot of campaigns in my life,” Capito said. “Generally when you’re getting peppered it means you’re winning.”

Morisey and Miller did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

With state unemployment at a low, corporate economic development at a high, and fairly steady economy, the broad-brush strokes of many short TV campaign ads can get refocused. Political analyst and Associate Professor of Political Science at Marshall University Marybeth Beller said national studies show going negative stimulates the base and beyond.

”What we’ve got candidates doing is trying to look at a social agenda that’s going to promote hatred, promote fear,” Beller said, “Because the facts on the ground don’t support anything but a positive future. We do know that hate and fear are a motivating factor among the electorate.”

Interviews with 15 random voters during a downtown Charleston lunch hour, showed all but one had the same campaign ad sentiment as South Charleston’s Linda Workman.

“My husband automatically clicks every ad off as soon as it comes on,” Workman said. “I can’t stand them anyway. They’re all the same. I don’t believe anything anyone says.”

The lone Democrat running for governor, three-term Huntington Mayor Steve Willams, has saved his campaign war chest and rhetoric for the general election.

Term limited Gov. Jim Justice is leaving the governor’s mansion he periodically occupied. State polling shows Justice with a commanding lead over U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney in the Republican primary race to replace outgoing U.S. Sen Joe Manchin. Among the two frontrunners, Mooney touts his redness in a red state.

“I’m a proven conservative with a conservative voting record,” Mooney said. “I’ve proven that over the years by voting against the out of control spending, and I’ll continue to be a fighting conservative you give me a chance.”

Justice said he plans to bring his folksy presentation to a Washington, D.C. he has always shunned, and plans to be a senator, his way.

“I have to be able to go to D.C. and shake up the world,” Justice said. “I’m not going to just ride along. There’s nothing that excites me about going to D.C. I’ll have to do it in my style. It’ll be different. It’ll be really different.”

Manchin has endorsed Wheeling Mayor Glen Elliot for the Democratic nomination in the Senate race. His primary challengers include former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury of Princeton.

Other Board of Public Works offices in primary contention include Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Auditor and Commissioner of Agriculture.

West Virginia primary polling places open at 6:30 Tuesday, and close at 7:30 p.m. West Virginia Public Broadcasting will have live primary election results and reactions throughout Tuesday evening and you can follow primary results with our live blog, highlighting “voices of the voters.” That’s on our website, wvpublic.org.

Online Voter’s Guide Covers Mountain State

Nonprofit newsroom Mountain State Spotlight has created a statewide voter’s guide. News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Editor in Chief Ken Ward to get the details.

Newspapers traditionally produced voter’s guides for local and regional races, helping voters understand what the candidates stand for. As papers have declined, those guides have gone away.

But now, nonprofit newsroom Mountain State Spotlight has created a statewide voter’s guide. News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Editor in Chief Ken Ward to get the details.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Douglas: Let’s talk for just a second big picture election. This election is billed as a monumental one. What are you seeing in this election?

Ward: This is obviously a very important election. Folks smarter than me seem to think there’s some national race that’s really important.

But in West Virginia, we have a senator retiring and an open US Senate seat. We have an open governor’s office, a whole slate of people in the Board of Public Works, lots of legislative races. And what people sometimes forget is some really important races in West Virginia get decided in May — nonpartisan judicial races, Supreme Court, the Intermediate Court race is very hot. And of course, school boards on the county level get decided in May. So it’s a really important election, lots of things that are on the line.

Douglas: Local elections really are more important to the average person, or should be more important than the presidential races. Those have a more intimate effect on your life than those big races.

Ward: A number of municipalities in West Virginia have council and mayor’s races. Local government still is meat and potatoes stuff that people need. And I think that all politics ultimately is local, as they say, so there’s lots of important things on the ballot for West Virginians to be paying attention to.

Douglas: We unfortunately don’t pay as close attention to as we used to either.

Ward: It’s no secret that newspapers have been in the decline for a long time. It’s been a hard couple of decades for the business model. West Virginia is really fortunate to still have a lot of vibrant, local, weekly and daily newspapers, Ogden with newspapers all over the state, the HD Media chain, so West Virginia is very fortunate. But at the same time, there’s been a pretty steep decline in the resources that go toward covering basic, important local politics and statewide politics. Across the state, there’s a void of information.

Mountain State Spotlight was formed to try to fill some of that void. I think we’re fortunate to see the public media space still strong here. I think that we’re seeing the nonprofit news space evolve in West Virginia, which is a really important aspect of the industry for West Virginians. But still, there’s a lot of voids there. And those really become evident around election time.

Douglas: Newspapers used to produce large voter’s guides.

Ward: That’s one of the voids that we set out to fill was that void of basic information about elections. In 2022, our Managing Editor Erica Peterson, designed and produced our first ever voter guide for the general election in November. And it was a pretty basic thing. It was right on our website, basically a sample ballot of who’s on your ballot when you go to vote on Election Day, broken down by county photos, basic information about the candidates release, just like simple civic information.

We were just floored by the response that it got. One-fifth of the West Virginians who voted in the midterms that year used some part of our voter guide. I think we had at least 100 readers of the voter guide in each of the state’s 55 counties. We were really amazed by that.

In a state with really bad broadband and an older population, one-fifth of the voters needed to use our website to figure out who they were gonna see on the ballot.

Douglas: So you did it bigger and better this year?

Ward: Many, many, many hours sorting through information from the Secretary of State’s office, from counties. It’s 1800 candidates. We have photos for many, but not all of them. We have links to biographies and social media accounts. And it’s organized by county. For state races, national races, local races.It also has basic information about how and where and when to vote, which we think is very helpful. And so far, it’s getting a lot of readership. We have plans to make it even bigger and better for November, and bigger and better in two years. And in four years. This is obviously a core function of those of us who are journalists. What more important thing is there for us to do except help people know what their choices are.

Douglas: Shifting gears a little bit, the turnout, unfortunately, in primary races is dismal, usually under 20 percent or so, even on a presidential cycle. How do we increase those rates?

Ward: One thing that is kind of interesting is some of these races that are nonpartisan are on the ballot for the primary. And I don’t really know the history of why that is. But wouldn’t it improve participation in those important races like the state Supreme Court, or the Intermediate Court or circuit judges? Wouldn’t it improve that participation if those were on the ballot in November for the general election?

I think the other thing that we’re working very hard on, there’s polarization. There’s the vitriol of campaigns these days. That really is kind of tearing apart the fabric of the community sometimes. And we’re trying something new and different to change that called the citizens agenda. It’s been used in other states, a number of smart journalism professors and other organizations came up with it. And it’s built around the idea for us at Mountain State Spotlight that the election should be more about West Virginians than about race horse coverage or public opinion polls, or 30 second ad spots. It should really be about West Virginians and their communities and what they need. So we’re going out and asking voters and would-be voters, what do you want to hear candidates talking about, as they are asking for your vote. And when you approach it that way, you find out all sorts of fascinating things.

You find out, for example, that on the local level, and communities, West Virginians agree about more things than they disagree. People care about their kids’ school, they care about their local roads, they care about family and friends who need addiction treatment, they care about their local water supply. So we’re going out and asking people, What do you want to hear candidates talking about? And then we’re lifting up those voices by doing stories about those voices. Then we’re taking those questions and giving them to candidates and saying, “hey, people in your district or the district you’d like to represent have these questions, what are your answers?”

We started prior to the primary, and we’re going to be doing it through now in November, and we’ve made a commitment to our readers, we’re going to interview voters in all 55 counties using this model. Other places that this has worked, it’s reduced polarization. It’s increased voter turnout. I mean, I think we all know that, in the absence of strong local journalism, there’s more corruption, right. There’s more overspending by government. There’s all sorts of problems. And this is a very basic thing we can do to try to help West Virginians reframe the election and reframe campaigns about the things that matter to them, and not the things that matter to career campaign consultants.
Check out Mountain State Spotlight’s Online Voter’s Guide.

Local Water Districts To Receive Federal Funding For Improvements

Five water districts will receive funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects.

The awards were secured through congressionally directed spending requests made by Sen. Capito and authorized through the Water Resources Development Act.

“These projects will provide the support local entities need, especially in our most rural areas to improve water infrastructure that helps residents and businesses,” Capito said. “I am excited to announce these projects and look forward to seeing them completed.”

Tomlinson Public Service District will receive $2 million, Mason County Public Service District will receive $1 million, Kanawha Public Service District will receive $1 million, Masontown Water Works will receive $900,000, and the City of St. Marys will receive nearly $900,000. The funding is for new infrastructure and improvement aimed at helping residents and businesses.

The funding is part of the Water Resources Development Act of 1992 that established an environmental program that allows the congress to partner with non-federal entities in order to carry out water projects.

AP Decision Notes: What to expect in West Virginia’s primaries

Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who’s running for Senate, is just one of a handful of high flyers in West Virginia who decided it was time for a change of pace.

A former billionaire who owns the Greenbrier Resort, Justice is ineligible to run for reelection in West Virginia due to term limits. So, Justice set his sights on Washington, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was facing his toughest race yet in a state that former President Donald Trump last won by about 40 points.

Justice, a former Democrat, switched to the Republican Party in 2017, making the announcement at a Trump rally in Huntington, West Virginia.

Instead of attempting to run for another term, Manchin decided to pass, adding another open seat to the map in which the Republican nominee will be the heavy favorite in the fall.

In the race for the GOP nomination for Senate, Justice is the front-runner. His top competitor is Rep. Alex Mooney, though five other Republicans are running as well.

Don Blankenship, who was convicted of violating safety standards after 29 people died in a 2010 coal mine explosion, is running for the Senate as a Democrat, even though he ran as a Republican in the 2018 Senate race. Blankenship faces Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who has Manchin’s endorsement, and Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury, who has support from the Progressive Democrats of America.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican nominee in the 2018 Senate race against Manchin, is running for governor, as are the sons of two members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation: car dealer Chris Miller, whose mother is Rep. Carol Miller, and former state Rep. Moore Capito, whose mother is Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and whose grandfather is the late Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr..

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner is running for governor, as well. Two lesser-known candidates — Kevin Christian and Mitch Roberts — will also appear on the GOP ballot. On the Democratic side, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams is unopposed.

Mooney’s pursuit of the open Senate seat means he’s leaving a Republican-leaning district open, prompting a competitive primary for his U.S. House seat. State Treasurer Riley Moore won early endorsements from then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and from Mooney himself. Speaker Mike Johnson has also endorsed Moore. Moore is one of five Republicans running to replace Mooney, though retired Air Force Brigadier General Chris “Mookie” Walker is the only one who has come close to keeping pace with Moore on fundraising.

In the 1st District, Derrick Evans, a former member of the House of Delegates who served a three-month sentence after livestreaming himself participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, is running against incumbent Carol Miller.

The least competitive races of the bunch might be the presidential primaries, which Trump and President Joe Biden are expected to win easily.

Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday.

Primary Day

West Virginia’s primary election will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.

What’s On The Ballot

The Associated Press will provide coverage for 61 races, including the presidential primary. Four candidates, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, join Trump on the Republican presidential ballot. On the Democratic ballot, Biden’s name appears along with four others. There is no “uncommitted” or write-in option on the presidential ballot.

In addition to the open seats for governor, U.S. Senate race, and the 2nd Congressional District, West Virginia is holding primaries for multiple statewide offices, including secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, commissioner of agriculture, and attorney general.

Who Gets To Vote

Registered Democrats may only vote in the Democratic primary, and registered Republicans may only vote in the Republican primary. Independent or unaffiliated voters may participate in either primary. Voters who registered with a party that is not officially recognized by the state may also vote in either primary.

Delegate Allocation Rules

West Virginia’s 20 pledged Democratic delegates are allocated according to the national party’s standard rules. Four at-large delegates are allocated in proportion to the statewide vote, as are three PLEO delegates, or “party leaders and elected officials.” The state’s two congressional districts have a combined 13 delegates at stake, which are allocated in proportion to the vote results in each district. Candidates must receive at least 15% of the statewide vote to qualify for any statewide delegates, and 15% of the vote in a congressional district to qualify for delegates in that district.

There are 32 delegates at stake in the Republican presidential primary, all of which will go to the winner.

Decision Notes

Justice, a popular governor who was endorsed by Manchin in 2016 before Justice’s party switch led to a falling out between the pair, is favored to win the Republican nomination for the Senate. To have a shot at beating him, Mooney would probably have to rack up high numbers in his own 2nd congressional district.

The governor’s race, meanwhile, has become a messy messaging war as the candidates vie for the state’s conservative base, with Morrisey having spent most on the race as of the latest filing deadline, followed by Capito and Miller. All four of the top candidates have some sort of statewide appeal, since two currently hold statewide office and the others have famous last names.

Capito had represented Kanawha County for about seven years when he resigned in December to focus on his campaign for governor, and may be able to count on a small pocket of votes in the Charleston-based county.

On the Democratic side, Elliott’s endorsement from Manchin, a longtime fixture in West Virginia politics, could help boost him in the primary. Blankenship, meanwhile, has spent more than $100,000 on broadcast campaign ads, including a slate of ads in which he speaks directly to the camera, arguing that independents should vote for him. And Shrewsbury, who is running as the most progressive candidate with a working-class focus, has been the top spender in the race.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

What Do Turnout And Advance Vote Look Like?

As of March 31, there were 1,172,783 registered voters in West Virginia. Of those, 31% were Democrats and 40% were Republicans.

In the 2020 primaries, turnout was 15% of registered voters in the Democratic primary and 17% on the Republican side.

As of May 9, a total of 55,358 ballots had been cast before Election Day.

How Long Does Vote Counting Usually Take?

In the 2022 election, the AP first reported results at about 7:40 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at about 11:20 p.m. ET with about 87% of total votes counted.

Attorney General Sues EPA Over New Power Plant Rules

West Virginia and Indiana are leading a lawsuit, along with 25 other states, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop new rules on existing coal and new natural gas-fired power plants.

The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The EPA’s final rules were released at the end of April. Coal plants will have to ultimately cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent or shut down. New gas plants will have to also capture 90 percent of their CO2.

The EPA is working on a separate rule to cut carbon emissions from existing gas plants. About 40 percent of U.S. electricity comes from gas.

The new rules include updated limits on mercury and other toxic pollutants from plants that burn coal. They also include changes to how power plants dispose of the wastewater that results from treating coal emissions to remove toxic pollutants.

Finally, the rules require the cleanup of coal ash disposal sites that were closed prior to 2015.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the rule ignored the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, which said the EPA could not use the Clean Air Act to force coal-fired power plants into retirement.

“This rule strips the states of important discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the real world — this administration packaged this rule with several other rules aimed at destroying traditional energy providers,” Morrisey said. “We are confident we will once again prevail in court against this rogue agency.”

When those rules were announced, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, “By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans.”

The power plant rules align with changes that have been happening in the sector in the past decade. Electric utilities have moved sharply away from coal, largely switching to natural gas, and now, renewables and batteries.

“This year, the United States is projected to build more new electric generation capacity than we have in two decades — and 96 percent of that will be clean,” said White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi.

A separate statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council was more blunt.

“While polluters and their allies always complain that whatever technology EPA is requiring is not ready for prime time, in this case their argument is even more ridiculous: In addition to the technology being available, it’s also being supported with billions of dollars of tax incentives via the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Instead of fighting a losing legal battle, power plant owners and states should be locking up their lawyers and turning loose their engineers,” said David Doniger, a senior attorney at the organization.

Morrisey said in a statement that he would also file a motion to stay the new rule as soon as possible.

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming joined the West Virginia- and Indiana-led lawsuit.

W.Va. League of Women Voters Offers 2024 Legislative Scorecard

The League of Women Voters of West Virginia has released their 2024 Legislative Scorecard. It compiles the votes from all the members of the West Virginia House of Delegates and state Senators on 26 bills that became law during this past legislative session to give an idea where they stand on issues.

Judy Ball, chair of the League’s Legislative Action Workgroup, spoke with Government Reporter Randy Yohe on the scorecard results.

Yohe: What is it that you hope to accomplish by putting out this scorecard?

Ball: West Virginia is one of several states that does not have a voter’s guide that comes out every year to help educate voters. And part of the mission of the League of Women Voters is voter education. So we decided that trying to give voters more information about the people who are representing them and how they’re being represented would be a valuable service. So, last year, we started this scorecard effort and had intended to continue it and this is the second time we’ve done it. And we made sure to get it out in time for this year’s election.

Yohe: The Secretary of State puts out a guide that gives you timetables and when you have to register and the things that you need to do to vote. That’s not the kind of voter’s guide you’re talking about, is it?

Ball: No. Voter’s guides in many states are something that has information about all the candidates that are going to be on the ballot. And oftentimes, a voter’s guide will include substantive information about what those candidates stand for that may be submitted by the candidates. But then it’s all compiled and published and sent out to, or made available to, voters in the state, perhaps online, perhaps it’s sent out in the mail. In the state of Oregon, for example, every voter in the state gets the voter’s guide in their mailbox. There was actually a bill in this year’s legislature to produce such a voter’s guide. There was a bill in last year’s legislature to produce such a voter’s guide. And those bills haven’t gone anywhere.

Yohe: Your scorecard compiles the votes of state Senators and Delegates on 26 bills that are significant to your organization, and they relate to certain policy areas. First of all is strengthening democracy. There are a number of voting and election related bills. What stands out there? I know you have bills you support and oppose.

Ball: What stands out most to me is the bills that didn’t make it through. There were many attempts to try to make voting even harder in West Virginia than it already is. We were opposing, for example, the bill that requires photo IDs to go from the DMV and other agencies to the Secretary of State’s office. The reason we oppose it is we believe that this is an attempt to make photo ID necessary for voting. There were other bills in the legislature that would protect poll workers that didn’t pass. There were other bills to remove barriers to voting that didn’t pass. We supported, however, bills that would do things like update the contested election procedures and to ensure that party affiliation is consistent with a candidate’s voter registration. That’s putting some quality control into the system.

Yohe: Safeguarding equal rights is your next policy area.

Ball: Yes, and one of the ones we oppose is the bill to not permit non-binary on birth certificates. And this is one of those bills that you have to wonder why it happened because non-binary isn’t an option on birth certificates, now. There was a bill to improve some data collection on fatalities and mortalities. Modifying the definition of sexual contact, to eliminate marriage as a defense for sexual assault, we definitely supported that. But there were other bills that didn’t make it through, the Crown Act, for example, died a horrible death in the Senate. And adding sexual orientation and gender identity to human rights law in West Virginia also didn’t make it through.

Yohe: Protecting children and families policy is next. That seems to be a big part of everybody’s agenda.

Ball: Even though this category has the most bills, this category probably has the most bills that never made it through the legislature. One of the principal bills in this category that we oppose is the state budget. Because things that are really critical in the state didn’t get attended to. There is not full funding for Medicaid. There was not full funding to take care of the foster care system or childcare. Additional funding for public education, all those things got left out. We supported the extra coverage for dental care and Medicaid. That’s a good thing, because dental services are really expensive, and people on Medicaid probably can’t afford them. We thought adding to the foster parent information system was a good thing. But that’s sort of nibbling around the edges of the problems in our foster care system.

Yohe: There’s a hue and cry out now that, after this federal education clawback was settled, these budget problems that you mentioned will be fixed in an expected upcoming special session. Are you satisfied with that?

Ball: I’m skeptical that that will actually happen. Let’s just take the evidence that came out of this legislative session. Our legislature spent an enormous amount of their 60 days debating things that were not the most consequential things for the population in West Virginia. I fully expect that the budget discussions will be the same. The legislature will spend a lot of time nibbling around the edges and not addressing the really big issues that are facing this state. I hope I’m wrong.

Yohe: Your final category on policy areas is creating a sustainable future.

Ball: We only ended up with two bills to even highlight in this year’s scorecard. There were more last year. They seem to be addressing local control issues, the legislature keeps trying to take power back from localities. And the things that we didn’t see that would have fallen under this category would have been strengthening environmental protections and bills to expand solar and to provide energy incentives. We didn’t get that from this legislature.