Wealthy Coal Executive Seeks to Turn West Virginia Republican

[Frodo]

Wealthy Coal Executive Hopes to Turn Democratic West Virginia Republican

By IAN URBINA
Published: October 22, 2006

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Don L. Blankenship is not the governor of West Virginia. But here in coal country some say he may as well be, considering the power he wields.

Mr. Blankenship, the chief executive of the state’s largest coal producer, Massey Energy, has promised to spend “whatever it takes” to help win a majority in the State Legislature for the long-beleaguered Republican Party in a state that is a Democratic and labor stronghold.

In a state where candidates who win typically spend less than $20,000, Mr. Blankenship has poured more than $6 million into political initiatives and local races over the past three years. Mr. Blankenship has spent at least $700,000 in his current effort to oust Democrats, and the state is awash with lawn signs, highway billboards, radio advertisements and field organizers paid for by him.

“Don Blankenship would actually be less powerful if he were in elected office,” said United States Representative Nick J. Rahall II, a Democrat whose district includes a majority of Massey’s coal mines. “He would be twice as accountable and half as feared.”

Rather than bankroll his own political ambitions, as have businessmen like Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, Mr. Blankenship has exerted his financial clout in the mold of Warren Buffett and George Soros, choosing issues and candidates in line with his partisan philosophy.

Union leaders say Mr. Blankenship, 56, is the main reason that less than a quarter of the state’s coal miners are now organized, down from about 95 percent just three decades ago. And environmentalists describe him as the biggest force behind a highly destructive form of mining called mountaintop removal that involves using explosives to blow off the tops of mountains to reach coal seams.

Local Republicans admiringly say that Mr. Blankenship combines the strategic savvy of Karl Rove, the White House adviser, and the fund-raising skill of Richard Mellon Scaife, the conservative financier. Mr. Blankenship personally oversees his media campaigns; he writes advertisements and designs polls, and speaks on talk radio more than the chairman of the state Republican Party.

“This has never been an easy state for Republicans,” said the party chairman, Doug McKinney, seated in his party’s headquarters, a dank cinder-block building in Charleston bought in 2002, half of it paid for with a $100,000 donation from Massey Energy. “But finally this state is at a tipping point, and Don is a big reason for that.”

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Don Blankenship would actually be less powerful if he were in elected office,” said United States Representative Nick J. Rahall II, a Democrat whose district includes a majority of Massey’s coal mines. “He would be twice as accountable and half as feared.”

That's a pretty accurate summary actually

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Uh huh. Tipping point, obviously.



Mind you, I find it interesting how open he is about the fact that his party is in the pocket of a plutocrat.

[merseysider]

Surely he would be better advised focussing on the statewide offices as state legislatures can be pretty hard to shift. Arguably what is happening in West Virginia is what happened in the South in the 70s and 80s, where traditionally Democratic states trended Republican on the back of social and cultural issues. However, bear in mind that places like Alabama and Mississippi, with solid votes for Bush and hard-right senators, still have Democratic-controlled legislatures. Texas's legislature only flipped over to the R's 4 years ago IIRC.

Blankenship sounds a nasty piece of work - a sort of 21st century version of a 1920s 'Robber Baron'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Surely he would be better advised focussing on the statewide offices as state legislatures can be pretty hard to shift.

Oh, he's been throwing his money around at any office that moves for a few years now... not with much success o/c, but he's had his way a few times.

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It did that at Presidential level in 2004 (2000 was lost for a different reason), but it's not something likely to have much of an effect at state level; the WV Democratic party isn't exactly full of social liberals. While the WV Republicans are full of cranks...

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Yep, that's because he is. Reason why he doesn't run for office himself (beyond the whole accountablity thing) is the fact that he'd likely lose.

[WalterMitty]

sounds like a great guy.

i support his goals, obviously.

[Nym90]

This guy sounds like your typical slimy corporate fatcat interested in lining his own pockets at the expense of the best interests of anyone else.

The right kind of Democrat always has been able to and still will be able to win in West Virginia. It's important to distinguish between Presidential results and campaigns and the actual partisan bent of a state. West Virginia is still fundamentally very Democratic and with good reason.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Explain to me how pumping money into political campaigns so that people will blindly elect politicians that actively work to push wages and workers rights back is a good thing?

It would be one thing if the Republicans were saying "We need to take a new direction.  Sure, the workers might give a little, but we'll open up the economy so that West Virginia can gain a lot of jobs.. but we won't leave anything off the table, and if it doesn't work that well, we can move on and go back in the other direction".. but they're not.  They're basically saying "This guy is funding us, so he will run our party.  His interests are my interests are his interests and that's that"

The interests of the company owner are ALWAYS at odds with the interests of the workers.  Unfortunately they are wielding power that tricks workers into not joining the union and then you watch as wages fall, local economies suffer, and entire towns dry up.  West Virginia is no different.. it is the oldest state  (median age-wise) and faces huge issues with a dwindling young population and a burgeoning elderly population.. and yet the Republicans would have it their way and ruin the state with economic policies that do NOT work in blue collar, traditional industrial areas so the main party funder can expand his bank account.

This man should be ashamed of himself... but it's not like many Republicans like him to have really any conscience, let alone shame.  They cheat and steal to claw their way to the top and then they use their money and power to duke people into voting for their politicians. 

[WalterMitty]

This guy sounds like your typical slimy corporate fatcat interested in lining his own pockets at the expense of the best interests of anyone else.

union bosses are different?

[Nym90]

This guy sounds like your typical slimy corporate fatcat interested in lining his own pockets at the expense of the best interests of anyone else.

union bosses are different?

Sadly many aren't, but overall they are far less powerful, especially currently.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The interests of the company owner are ALWAYS at odds with the interests of the workers.

Not always.  Clearly  it is in the interests of both capital and labor for the company to prosper.  It is the apportionment of the benefits of that prosperity that divides the two, not the attainment of it.

[RBH]

Here's the map for the McGraw Supreme Court race:

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Summary of the elections to the WV legislature:

Senate: D 23 (+2), R 11 (-2)
House: D 72 (+4), R 28 (-4)

Clearly WV has reached it's tipping point

[Verily]

This guy sounds like your typical slimy corporate fatcat interested in lining his own pockets at the expense of the best interests of anyone else.

union bosses are different?

I don't see what that has to do with the matter at hand, but generally, no.

[Gabu]

Summary of the elections to the WV legislature:

Senate: D 23 (+2), R 11 (-2)
House: D 72 (+4), R 28 (-4)

Clearly WV has reached it's tipping point

Oh yeah, well there was a 13% swing away from Robert Byrd from 2000-2006!  Clearly this trend will continue ad infinitum and in 2018 a Republican will get elected with 59% of the vote!

[Adlai Stevenson]

Summary of the elections to the WV legislature:

Senate: D 23 (+2), R 11 (-2)
House: D 72 (+4), R 28 (-4)

Clearly WV has reached it's tipping point

God how did the Democrats actually gain seats?  I know the GOP had a good year in 2004 but surely the trend was going to continue their way? 

[minionofmidas]

Summary of the elections to the WV legislature:

Senate: D 23 (+2), R 11 (-2)
House: D 72 (+4), R 28 (-4)

Clearly WV has reached it's tipping point

Oh yeah, well there was a 13% swing away from Robert Byrd from 2000-2006!  Clearly this trend will continue ad infinitum and in 2018 a Republican will get elected with 59% of the vote!

If Byrd runs for reelection in 2018, this *might* happen.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

God how did the Democrats actually gain seats?

Half the Democratic gains in the HoD came in the two-member district based around Wheeling, one was in a rural district in the east of the state and I think the other two (one Democratic incumbent lost; she was ill and couldn't campaign properly) were in other multi-member districts.

One of the new State Senators is Erik Wells.

Almost as interesting as the gains were the holds; one of the Democratic seats in the Eastern Panhandle should have flipped, national swing or no national swing.
And Randy White got re-elected as well. Despite those pictures.

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Well, that's what the conventional wisdom said anyway. Sometimes the conventional wisdom is wrong.

[Deano963]

Union leaders say Mr. Blankenship, 56, is the main reason that less than a quarter of the state’s coal miners are now organized, down from about 95 percent just three decades ago.

...........And I'm sure the miners' wages have gone nowhere but up as a result .  That's the most disgusting line of the whole article.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Actually most of them aren't employed anymore; most of the larger mines in West Virginia were shut down in the '80's and '90's.