The opinion of this writer does not align with the opinions and beliefs of The Ridgeview News
A West Virginia US Senate seat is open after Joe Manchin bowed out. The Democratic candidate, Glenn Elliott, is an 8-year mayor of Wheeling, WV, who’s done a great job for the city. Wheeling has one of the fastest growing economies in West Virginia. Elliott was 2022 Mayor of the Year.
A legislative assistant to Senator Robert Byrd from 1994 to 1999, Elliott is a lawyer who came back home to Wheeling in 2009. He’s a 7th generation West Virginian. His solo law practice was in an historic building he rescued and preserved. He’s a musician, a drone pilot, and a genealogist. But no one’s heard of him.
The Senate race is dominated by term-limited Governor Jim Justice. At 6’7” and close to 400 pounds, 73-year-old Justice is unwell and unfit to serve. Aides closely accompany him with a chair for public events. Justice is a do-less deadbeat with a folksy manner and a bulldog that is also too heavy to walk on its own.
Back in the day (1959 to 2010), West Virginia had a powerful Democratic senator, Robert Byrd, who brought the bacon to the folks back home. As chair of the Appropriations Committee, he secured funds for highways, dams, schools, and federal agency offices like the FBI fingerprinting center and the US Coast Guard computing facilities. As senator, Byrd lifted our state out of poverty and into the 21st century.
WV Democratic Senator Joe Manchin was no Robert Byrd. The impediment to Democrats passing Build Back Better, Manchin worked tirelessly for the fossil fuels industry, leaving little time for ordinary West Virginians.
Sensing defeat ahead, Manchin announced his retirement from the Senate, apparently ceding the race to Republican Governor Jim Justice. West Virginia remains in thrall to Donald Trump and MAGA Republicanism. Trump did nothing for WV, but the voters still believe somehow he will.
In 2016 self-proclaimed billionaire Jim Justice won the WV governor’s race as a Democrat, with Democrats working hard to elect him. In August 2017, he appeared at a Trump rally toshuck his sheep’s clothing and announce he was now a Republican. “I love [Trump] to death,” he said. “You know we are a lot alike.”
True that. One, both lie about their wealth. (In 2020, Justice’s $800 million debt revealed he wasn’t close to a billionaire.) Two, neither pay their bills; it’s their way of doing business. Three, they are both always the victim. Justice’s massive debts, he says, were created by the evil Democrats trying to keep him from flipping the Senate.
The Greenbrier Hotel, once a world-renowned luxury resort, which Justice bought out of bankruptcy in 2009, is slated to go on the auction block in two weeks. It’s all “a political stunt by the Democrats.” “It almost approaches blackmail.”
More likely, it’s what happens when you don’t pay your bills for decades. Hundreds of millions in loans, renegotiated by Justice & companies, remain unpaid. He owes property taxes, income taxes, and mine reclamation penalties. Legal matters involving the Justice businesses often reveal a tangle of overlapping liabilities pitting creditor against creditor.
If all the Justice debt and the diminishing assets of a business “empire” based on coal could finally be sorted out and reckoned, it’s very possible Jim Justice is bankrupt. His federal candidate disclosure form for the US Senate, however, claims assets up to $2 billion and liabilities less than $110 million. Just like Trump, repeat the lie and make it even bigger.
Also like Trump, Justice likes the power of office holding, but not so much the work. What engages his attention is coaching girls’ basketball at Greenbrier East HS as he’s done since 2000,even during his two terms as governor. He won’t say if electionto the Senate will change that.
Mostly a no-show to legislative leadership, Governor Justice let the overwhelmingly Republican legislature ignore ongoing crises, lower taxes while siphoning funds from public to private education, and stew in cultural issues like defining what a “woman” is.
WV has the worst fatal drug overdose rate in the country, serious statewide teacher shortages, the highest rate of kids in state custody in the nation, and a regional jail crisis that required the National Guard to work in the jails for more than a year to supplement inadequate manpower.
In his last State of the State address, Governor Justice had three requests: eliminate the personal income tax, a pay raise for public employees, and the big ask – a fix for the high school transfer portal. Last year, WV legislators made it easier for high school football players to transfer from program to program, creating powerhouses that produced 45% of games with 35-point margins and triggering a mercy rule in the 4th quarter.
Justice says “as a coach” he knows that this major state problem must be fixed.
As a Senator, Jim Justice will be nothing but a reliable Republican vote when he chooses to show up. (Greenbrier East plays girls’ basketball from late November to early March.)
Democrat Glenn Elliott knows how to represent the people of West Virginia and our needs in the US Senate. Jim Justice doesn’t have a clue how to do that job and he couldn’t care less. He is likely the worst Senate candidate in the country.
If you live in WV, vote Blue, and vote Democrat Glenn Elliott for US Senate.
If you live elsewhere, vote Blue, and would you consider donating at ElliottforWV.com? Jim Justice wants to be the one to flip the Senate red. Glenn Elliott can stop him. Pass it on.
