Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie McGinty has returned $40,000 in campaign contributions from a western Pennsylvania coal executive, citing his ties to the West Virginia chemical spill.
McGinty’s campaign manager Mike Mikus said Monday the two 2013 contributions from J. Clifford Forrest, owner of Kittanning-based Rosebud Mining Co., were returned Jan. 18.
Mikus says campaign officials only learned through news reports that Forrest owns the parent company of Freedom Industries, the company at the center of the Jan. 9 spill that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians.
A call to Rosebud headquarters Monday afternoon wasn’t answered.
McGinty is one of seven candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge the re-election of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. She’s a former environmental adviser to ex-Gov. Ed Rendell and the Clinton White House.