http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/jim-justice-don-blankenship-booth-goodwin-west-virginia
[videos in on-line article]
America's Most Notorious Coal Baron Is Going to Prison. But He Still
Haunts West Virginia Politics.
Don Blankenship is looming large over the contentious governor's race.
—By Tim Murphy
| Fri Apr. 29, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
As CEO of Massey Energy, central Appalachia's largest coal producer, Don
Blankenship towered over West Virginia politics for more than a decade
by spending millions to bolster Republican candidates and causes. That
chapter came to an end in April, when Blankenship was sentenced to a
year in prison for conspiring to commit mine safety violations in the
period leading up to the deadly 2010 explosion at Massey's Upper Big
Branch mine. But even in absentia, he casts a long shadow over state
politics. For evidence, look no further than the contentious Democratic
primary for governor.
The campaign pits Jim Justice, a billionaire coal operator and high
school basketball coach, against two opponents—state Senate Minority
Leader Jeff Kessler, and Booth Goodwin, the former US attorney who
prosecuted Blankenship. Justice holds a double-digit lead in the polls
and (not unlike another billionaire running for office this year) is
spending much of his time arguing that his 10-figure net worth will
insulate him from special interests. But when he was asked about the
Blankenship conviction at a campaign stop earlier this month, he ripped
into Goodwin for what he considered to be a sloppy, opportunistic
prosecution.
"I think we spent an ungodly amount of money within our state to
probably keep Booth Goodwin in the limelight and end up with a
misdemeanor charge," Justice told WOAY TV. "If that's all we are going
to end up with, why did we spend that much money to do that?"
Blankenship originally faced up to 30 years for making false statements
to federal regulators, but he was convicted on only the least serious of
three counts—the misdemeanor conspiracy charge. In Goodwin's view (and
in the minds of plenty of Blankenship's critics), his light sentence is
the product of weak mine safety laws, not lax prosecution. As he told
the Charleston Gazette-Mail, "It is not our fault that violating laws
designed to protect workers is punished less harshly than violations of
laws designed to protect Wall Street." (Nor was the Blankenship case a
one-time gimmick—prior to that trial, Goodwin also secured the
convictions of a handful of Blankenship's subordinates at Massey.)
Goodwin fired back at Justice in a fundraising email to supporters. He
referred to Blankenship as Justice's "good friend," alleging that
Justice "took him as his personal guest to the 2012 Kentucky Derby two
years after the horrific Upper Big Branch mine explosion," and that he
attended a gala that night with Blankenship, hosted by then-Kentucky
Gov. Steve Beshear, "while the families of the UBB miners who were
killed were still suffering their loss." (A Beshear spokesman told the
Louisville Courier-Journal at the time that Blankenship attended Derby
Day events as Justice's guest, which Justice's campaign denies.) For
good measure, he noted that Justice, like Blankenship, had racked up a
huge tab of mine safety violation fines, some $2 million of which had
gone unpaid and were considered "delinquent" prior to the start of the
campaign. (Justice began paying off the fines after an NPR investigation
made the total bill public.)
On Monday, Goodwin's campaign went after Justice again, releasing an ad
based on the front-runner's remarks about the Blankenship prosecution.
In the spot, Judy Jones Petersen, the sister of a miner who died at UBB,
speaks straight to the camera and suggests that the two coal operators
have more in common than Justice would like to admit.
"I don't really understand why Mr. Justice would step out against the
integrity of this incredible prosecution team," Petersen says. "He of
all people as a coal mining operator should understand the plight of
coal miners, but I think that unfortunately the plight that he
understands best is the plight of Don Blankenship."
She goes on to call Goodwin a "hero" for prosecuting Blankenship.
Justice, for his part, is running his own ad—touting an endorsement from
the United Mine Workers praising him for his record on safety and job
creation. The union's president, Cecil Roberts, previously called the
UBB disaster "industrial homicide," and fought Blankenship over mine
safety and workers' rights for three decades. His message is a
not-too-subtle contrast with Blankenship and Massey: "Jim is one of the
good coal operators."
Don't expect Blankenship's shadow to shrink as the race heats up. The
Democratic primary is set for May 10—two days before the notorious coal
boss reports to federal prison.
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