One lingering question about the political philosophy of Governor Jim Justice has been whether he is, in fact, a “real Republican.”
We all know the history. Justice was elected in 2016 as a Democrat. As such, he had the support of such leading Democrats as U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.
Justice won the primary and went on to defeat Republican Bill Cole in the general election. Not long into his term, he appeared with President Donald Trump in Huntington and switched his registration to Republican.
I have always maintained that one is whatever he or she registers. I don’t believe in a philosophical litmus test to prove one is conservative enough to be a Republican or sufficiently liberal to be a Democrat. Given that test, I’d be neither one.
But Justice tests my limits on this definition. To be blunt, he doesn’t govern or behave like a Republican in any respect.
Generally speaking, Republicans are, in fact, conservatives who believe in less government interference in our daily lives.
Justice is neither of those.
Running the state by executive order for a year may be more of a power thing than political philosophy. It’s difficult to see why supposedly libertarian Republicans uphold him in his actions, however.
The 2021 legislature is now over. Mark it down as an embarrassment to freedom lovers. With a few notable exceptions, the peoples’ representatives stood with the dictator against the oppressed.
The bottom line, as Justice likes to say, is “simply this”: your legislature will not stand up to King James. Period.
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Oh, the House will take a victory lap for a symbolic 100-0 vote against Justice’s personal income tax proposal. But it was symbolic only, and everyone — including Democrats and Justice — knew it.
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There were a handful of liberty-loving Republicans who would have stopped Justice’s rule by executive order. But they were a significant minority.
Kanawha Republican Delegate Diana Graves at least made an effort to reign in some of Justice’s power play. As noted last week, Putnam GOP Delegate Joe Jeffries stood out as the peooles’ representative on mask mandates and social distancing.
There are clearly some good results from this session but they are blurred by the bows to kiss the king’s ring that occurred repeatedly.
We pundits were assured constantly by GOP leadership that the governor’s emergency powers would be curtailed by the time this regular session ended. Gullible freshmen legislators and others not in leadership were guaranteed the same thing.
Some in leadership lied. Limiting power didn’t happen and leadership knew it wasn’t going to occur. The Senate refused to call themselves into special session for a year because they didn’t want to ruffle the king’s feathers. They got in the building and still hid in the corner, afraid to stand up to the tyrant downstairs.
I am interested in seeing how about 60 Republican legislators handle re-election campaigns in 2022. Being conservative and standing for the people will surely be major themes. Empty but themes nevertheless.
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Graves’ House Concurrent Resolution 104 would have make most of Justice’s executive orders expire on May 17, but the governor’s state of emergency proclamation itself would have remained. Importantly, his mask mandate would have been gone. It would have been, as noted, a step in the right direction.
The House adopted the resolution just four days before the session ended. The vote was 76-24.
Three or four freshmen I met in the hall after that vote were jubilant. “We stopped him. No more masks,” said one.
Those in the House who have been around longer were more realistic. I asked one in leadership, “so no more masks, huh?”
He laughed. “Oh yes, the Senate’s probably already concurring. What a joke.”
Of course the symbolism of it was not a joke and the Governor now knows what the peoples’ House thinks of his mandates. Not that he cares. As I’ve pointed out, he’s a term-limited lame duck.
“I would say this adequately expresses the majority opinion of the House, and we should pass it, if we agree with it. “What the Senate does is probably no longer our concern,” Graves said on the floor. Thus, she understood it was symbolic at best.
The Senate should be the real concern of conservative voters. In 2022, we will go over everyone’s record on this issue. A quick death to bad government is called for.
So, praise for Graves and Jeffries. And a few others we’ll mention as spring rolls by.
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Any hope to stand up to the governor ended a few days earlier. We reported here last week of the confrontation of the joint committees on HB 2003.
The House passed a good bill. The Senate simply refused to concur. That ended any chance of legislative interference in tyrannical rule.
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The past session will no doubt also be remembered for creating a state appellate court.
Just as Delegates have maintained that former Senate President Mitch Carmichael kept the Senate from demanding an extraordinary session all of 2020 in exchange for a Justice appointment as Director of Economic Development, the rumors were rampant about appellate court.
It was allegedly the duty of GOP Senate leadership to keep any bill curtailing Justice’s power from passing.
In exchange, the administration went along with creating the new court to give Justice the potential of appointing Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Trump (R-Morgan) as one of its initial judges.
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I consider Senator Trump an honorable man and I would stake my home that he has no deal with the Governor on these matters.
However, I report rumors that stand some chance of becoming true. When I mentioned the Carmichael job possibility (though I had been told chief of staff was being considered), both Carmichael and Justice’s office fiercely denied they’d ever even discussed a job. I’m confident they hadn’t.
But two months later, Carmichael got the job which was elevated to a cabinet secretary position. Hmm.
Trump will make a great appellate court judge.
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As of Friday, Justice said he was hitting the road to win the public over to his eliminate personal income tax plan. His pronouncement came just after the House rejected his plan, 100-0.
Justice did not repeat his promise (or threat) of touring the state after both houses passed a budget Saturday.
We can assume that, if the Governor runs this statewide campaign, he’ll be assisted by his friends at Mercury Public Affairs, the public relations outfit that assisted a pro-eliminate-the-income-tax group garner support in the legislature.
It’s a puzzle to some of us why the Governor didn’t sell his tax elimination plan just a few months earlier while he was running for re-election. Perhaps he was convinced he was losing and his opponent, Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango would not want to cut out the tax.
Anyway, Mercury represents some odd clients to be working on a Republican governor’s initiative. In the 2019-20, even their donations favored Democrats.
Mercury donated $76,689 to Democrat candidates and PACs, including the “Future Now Fund.” That’s the group that worked to “flip” state legislatures from Republican to Democrat. They gave Republican Party Candidates and PACs just $43,625
Alleged Republican Michael Bloomberg’s aborted (how clever a term for me to use for the socialistic former New York Mayor’s run) presidential campaign was Mercury’s largest federal political client in the 2020 cycle.
Bloomberg’s platform included significant gun control measures as well as policies that would further decimate the fossil fuel industry.
If, in fact, the Governor does go on the road with Bloomberg operatives, I would say Mercury’s track record will become a factor.
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I know next to nothing about needle exchanges. But I do trust Boone State Senator Ron Stollings on this issue.
A Democrat State Senator and practicing physician, Stollings took to the floor several times during this session trying to share scientific medical information. He didn’t get far.
Although some minor improvements were made at Stollings’ urging, most of his suggestions were ignored.
Stollings will be in the “I told you so” position if HIV cases continue on the rise and opioids and other illicit drugs still flourish.
I would probably side with those who opposed the needle limiting bill anyway. In this case, I will trust the expert. Unfortunately, majority, Dr. Stollings told you so.
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Was the bill reducing and even eliminating taxes on gun and parts manufacturers a “sweetheart” deal for Ranger Scientific?
If not, it couldn’t apply any more to the group that’s been working for years now to bring such a plant to the Upper Kanawha Valley.
Kanawha Democrat Delegate Larry Rowe told me he felt the bill “greatly helps Ranger” in their plans for a munitions plant.
They’ve generally had unanimous governmental support for their project and obviously still do. The promise of as many as 400 skilled jobs in the Belle
and Montgomery areas sounds like a godsend.
If this new law brings a plant to the Upper Kanawha Valley and the NRA headquarters to the state, even I would have voted for it.
Ranger Scientific, more power to you.
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Finally, could we both be wrong?
Former Logan Democrat State Senator Richard Ojeda has dubbed the 2021 version the “Worst Legislature Ever” and says the state motto should be changed from “Almost Heaven” to “Almost Sold Out.”
What a man. The one who gave up (sold out?) his senate seat to get his little ego rubbed by running (poorly) for congress uses social media to criticize his former colleagues, especially Logan Senator Rupie Phillips.
Phillips’, as productive a legislator as there is, biggest sin is he stood up to and challenged Ojeda.
Phillips invited Ojeda to run for his old Senate seat, telling him he (Phillips) would run and beat him. Ojeda was afraid to take on Phillips, who eventually claimed the position.
Ojeda is not one-tenth the man Phillips is.
Ron Gregory is a regular political columnist who covers politics for lootpress.com. Contact him at 304-533-5185 or ronjgregory@gmail.com.