West Virginia’s U.S. Senate race is getting even spicier now that Don Blankenship has decided to enter it — the former coal boss who spent a year in prison for violating mine safety laws. “Government corruption” will be a cornerstone of his campaign and one designed to take down Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
Blankenship, whose conviction came in December 2015, is a proud man who believes in his heart that he was railroaded by the same government that had repeatedly cited his company. But a jury felt differently, ultimately finding him guilty of a single misdemeanor — a verdict that has been upheld on appeal and one that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear.
West Virginians-at-large may soon get their chance to weigh in if Mr. Blankenship carries through with his senatorial campaign — either giving him the vindication he seeks or affirming the verdict he despises. “The evidence of a government cover-up is overwhelming,” Blankenship said, in a release announcing his candidacy.
That's a reference to the cause of the mine explosion in April 2010 that killed 29 coal miners outside of Beckley, W.V.: Government regulators said that methane had combusted with excessive coal dust while Blankenship’s own experts disagreed, saying that escaping natural gas combined with too little ventilation that mining regulators had ordered.
Prosecutors said that the former Massey Energy under Blankenship’s rule had placed profits ahead of safety. Workers, for example, were ordered to disconnect monitors to detect leaks as a way to keep the mines running.
That had led to 835 citations between January 2008 and April 2010, when the accident occurred. Massey had been assessed fines of $900,000 but had only paid $168,000 of that, all part of what prosecutors said was the company’s modus operandi — to drag its feet and to disrespect regulators.
How will all of this play out among voters and with the other candidates who have officially announced their intention to run? West Virginia is now decidedly “red,” which played to President Trump’s advantage and which may do the same for Blankenship, or another Republican.
Political Charges
Senator Manchin said that Blankenship has “blood on his hands.” The former coal mining boss fired back, maintaining that the senator is covering for the mining regulators who he says are the true villains.
Along those lines, Blankenship has said that his prosecution was part of a Democratic conspiracy against him, which includes not just Manchin but also President Obama, former Senator Jay Rockefeller and the former U.S. prosecutor who had brought charges against him and who had been a gubernatorial candidate in 2016.
Before Blankenship could get a shot at Manchin, however, he would have to best two other Republicans who are also in that senate race that takes place in 2018: Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Rep. Evan Jenkins, each of whom issued releases that have welcomed the former energy executive into the race. All of those Republican candidates are emboldened by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s switch from Democrat to Republican over the summer.
Indeed, while the deep south had flipped its political allegiances in the 1960s, West Virginia had remained a devout “blue” state, mainly because of its strong participation in the labor movement.
But fast forward to 2012 and again to 2016: the state’s primary economic driver — coal — had, well, burned out. The country, in fact, was generally becoming more environmentally conscious and consumers were demanding cleaner fuels. President Obama thus promised the New Energy Economy — one that would promote renewable energy and modern technologies. To facilitate that, public policies were altered to favor low-carbon fuels. Coal was thus being pushed to the edges.
In 2012, Obama lost all 55 counties in West Virginia. In 2016, Donald Trump trounced Hillary Clinton there 68% to 26%.
“The evolution from blue to red is largely due to the decline of unions in the state, as the number of coal miners decreased and the influence of the United Mine Workers disappeared,” James Van Nostrand, professor of law at West Virginia University law school told this writer. “So this traditional source of support for the Democratic party and its candidates ceases to be a factor in elections. Those factors are gone, so maybe the state is now starting to look more like its southern neighbors.
“There is also the ‘job’ aspect — that if we get the government out of our lives and roll back these regulations, there will be more jobs — that resonates in West Virginia,” Van Nostrand adds. “It seems to be political suicide to suggest that the state will ever be anything other than a coal state.”
The Ultimate Verdict
To that end, West Virginia’s voters see the Republicans as their economic allies and the Democrats as beholden to the national leadership — the same ones who spearheaded the rules and regulations that have turned their lives upside-down. And without a doubt, the one politician who best captured that angst was Donald Trump, who vowed during the 2016 campaign to bring back coal.
The implications on the 2018 senatorial race in West Virginia? Manchin has perfected the art of walking right down the political middle, using that skill to bridge the divide on some issues between Republicans and Democrats. But in the general election, he will be portrayed as a Democratic loyalist.
In the end, however, Manchin may be the only one left standing not just because of his lifelong devotion to West Virginia but also because the Republican candidates will inflict deep wounds on each other during their primary. Morrisey, for example, hails from New Jersey and has been accused of having family ties with a pharmaceutical company that dispenses addictive opioids. Jenkins, meanwhile, had been a Democrat before taking the state’s temperature and switching parties.
Blankenship’s possible participation will certainly add even more flavor to a high-profile senate race. For his part, the former coal executive is loathed in some corners for his treatment of workers but respected in other parts for creating jobs and running a once-successful business. And that, of course, is the platform from which Governor Justice ran and won in 2016 — not to mention the sitting president of the United States.
