Report: WV Gov. Jim Justice Plans to Launch Senate Campaign Next Week

[Bigun]

Capito is carrying water for the Turtle and this will continue.

[catfish1957]

This guy is probably the top political commentator in W.Va.W.Va. Metro News

Here's a known: Justice is going to travel the state with his extra heavy-duty stool (because no normal chair can accommodate his girth), his ugly bulldog Babydog and his annoying cornpone country yokel schtick.

Worked for John Kennedy.   

[mountaineer]

Capito is carrying water for the Turtle and this will continue.

She always has been establishment GOP. A nice person - she and I have had a few very pleasant conversations in the past - but she's not what you'd call a true conservative.

[Bigun]

She always has been establishment GOP. A nice person - she and I have had a few very pleasant conversations in the past - but she's not what you'd call a true conservative.

We MIGHT have thirty actual conservatives in congress. Might!

[catfish1957]

We MIGHT have thirty actual conservatives in congress. Might!

And that number IMO is generous. 

[Bigun]

And that number IMO is generous. 

Counting loosely.

[Bigun]

She always has been establishment GOP. A nice person - she and I have had a few very pleasant conversations in the past - but she's not what you'd call a true conservative.

I'm very familiar with that type of politician @mountaineer I was friends with the now retired former chair of the House Ways and Means committee (Kevin Brady) for more than thirty years. Helped him get elected to the state house and then congress. In the end he betrayed me in favor of his K street benefactors.

[mountaineer]

From Politico, so get that grain of salt ready:

Manchin’s ‘playing with fire’ — and some Democrats are tired of the drama
The West Virginia senator contends the administration is defying Congress in its rollout of the last year’s climate law. Some fellow Democrats fear he’s undermining the legislation he shaped.
By Josh Siegel
05/01/2023 11:36 AM EDT
Updated: 05/01/2023 11:39 AM EDT

Sen. Joe Manchin is losing patience with his fellow Democrats over their signature climate law — and the feeling is mutual.

The West Virginia Democrat has spent weeks escalating his attacks on President Joe Biden’s implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping bill that Manchin helped write in a deal that stunned Washington last summer. Last week, he threatened to join Republicans in voting to repeal the law, as the House GOP is demanding in its legislation for raising the nation’s debt limit.

Manchin’s comment caught his caucus colleagues off guard, even if such a repeal would be a long shot in Congress. It came just as Biden was launching a reelection campaign that rests heavily on that legislation’s climate and health care provisions.  ...

The IRA is far less of a political bright spot for Manchin, whose potential reelection hopes are clouded by growing disapproval ratings in his home state, partly driven by his support for the law. Manchin has yet to announce whether he’s running, but a formidable challenger entered the West Virginia Senate race last week — GOP Gov. Jim Justice.

Manchin’s fellow Democrats understand that his reelection could determine whether they retain their slim 51-seat Senate majority in 2024. But they are also growing weary of his attacks against their marquee climate law — even if they’ve come to expect it and know there’s little they can do to change his mind. ...

Rest of article

[mountaineer]

Politics reporter for a chain of W.Va. newspapers weighs in:

Reporter’s Notebook: Let there be Justice
May 1, 2023
Steven Allen Adams
News & Sentinel, Parkersburg, WV

Judging by the crowd Thursday evening at the Greenbrier Resort, Gov. Jim Justice is heading into the 2024 Republican primary for U.S. Senate with a lot of support.

It was notable that U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, ranked number five in the Senate Republican leadership, and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., were the ones to introduce Justice and endorse him.

I don’t recall ever seeing Capito endorse in a Republican primary before; not even in the 2022 Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District that saw U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney defeat former 1st District Congressman David McKinley – someone who worked closely with Capito for 12 years.  ...

t appears the Mooney campaign plans to use a combination of the strategy that helped them defeat McKinley combined with the playbook of Woody Thrasher’s failed Republican primary for governor in 2020.

They’re hitting Justice with the tax increase he called for in 2017 (then as a registered Democrat), his April 2020 30-day shutdown of non-essential business and activities at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shutdown of public schools at the end of the 2019-2020 school year due to COVID and for mask requirements in public schools at the beginning of 2020-2021 school year, support of the trillion-dollar American Rescue Plan Act and bipartisan infrastructure bill, and comments about limiting the purchase of certain kinds of rifles to those older than 21.  ...

Of note: Larry Puccio, the long-time advisor to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and advisor/lobbyist for Justice, was in attendance at Justice’s announcement. Puccio, the former chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party and chief of staff for then-governor Manchin, also advised Justice’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns for governor.

With Puccio being close friends with both Justice and Manchin, what side does he end up on? It will be interesting to see.

[mountaineer]

Jim Justice's unconventional Senate quest gives GOP a boost
by Andrew Donaldson
May 05, 2023 12:15 PM
Washington Examiner

As campaign launches go, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's was conventional until it became unconventional. Cathy Justice kicked off her husband’s Senate run announcement by introducing Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). To drive home the point that the GOP powers that be in the upper house have made their choice, she then introduced Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who got right to the point of the festivities: “This is the highlight of my life,” South Carolina’s senior senator admitted. “I get to introduce … Babydog.”

Babydog, for the uninitiated, is the Justice family’s ever-present English bulldog, described by Jim as “a 60-pound brown watermelon.” Graham leaned into the moment, no doubt wanting a better crowd response than he got solely by being Lindsey Graham: “I've been with presidents, kings, and potentates, but I met Babydog and Babydog’s a winner and Babydog is going to the Senate — might as well take Jim and Cathy with her.” The crowd, as all crowds do, popped big for Babydog.

By the time Graham introduced “Gov. Jim Justice, the next senator from the great state of West Virginia,” the conventional portion of the festivities was over and the unconventional went on full display. The hulking frame of the 6-foot-7, nearly 400-pound Justice passing the 5-foot-7 Graham onstage made for quite the optic. To announce his candidacy for Senate, entering the race to unseat West Virginia’s remaining Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, Justice bypassed the lectern his introducers had been using in favor of his typical onstage stool. ...

 Staged in a chandeliered room in the legendary Greenbrier resort he owns and treasures, Justice presented himself as a plain-spoken truth-teller, all the while dressing his political and professional accomplishments with his usual rhetorical flourishes, made-up sayings, and heaping helpings of hyperbole.

The vibe of Justice is hard to articulate without experiencing it. He is an Appalachian Dickensian character who talks with the endless metaphors and descriptors Faulkner would utilize, lumbering about in Gorilla Monsoon’s body with the vocal stylings of Ben Matlock after a few old fashioneds. The characteristics of Justice — businessman, politician, community leader, basketball coach, dog lover — are perfectly ordinary. The sum total is anything but.  ...

As was the case with Trump, Justice's various business dealings haven't dented his popularity. Litigation follows Justice and his businesses around, including a current spat with his longtime bankers in Virginia over loan repayments. Various fines, lawsuits, regulatory movements, settlement payments, garnishments, and other legal comings and goings over the years have mostly gone over the heads or under the radar of concern for West Virginians.  ...

The Governor and Babydog
 

[catfish1957]

Jim Justice's unconventional Senate quest gives GOP a boost
brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F43%2F5e%2F57de706944038097784b324585ac%2Fbigjim-babydog-050923.jpg[/img]
The Governor and Babydog
 

Bad start.  He is holding his dog democratic side up.

[mountaineer]

Bad start.  He is holding his dog democratic side up.

It's the dog's best side, believe me.

[mountaineer]

As I've noted a time or two, Gov. Justice has an untidy habit of not paying his bills, fines and taxes.

Ninety lots in Governor Justice’s name are set for auction in McDowell County
By Brad McElhinny
June 7, 2023 - 3:35 pm

Ninety lots in Gov. Jim Justice’s name are up for auction next week in McDowell County.

The lots add up to a total tax value of $46,796. They are available to the highest bidder because the owner, listed as James C. Justice II, is considered to be delinquent on property tax payments.

There’s another lot listed under both James Justice and National Resources, one of the family’s businesses, listed for another $181.18.

This is in addition to dozens of lots owned by Justice or his family businesses up for auction next week in Wyoming and Raleigh counties. ...

[Cyber Liberty]

As I've noted a time or two, Gov. Justice has an untidy habit of not paying his bills, fines and taxes.

Deadbeat.  So right now it's a race between a crypto Communist and a deadbeat?

[mountaineer]

Deadbeat.  So right now it's a race between a crypto Communist and a deadbeat?

Assuming Manchin runs, it's likely some commie will try to primary him. Every time we have an election, some ultra-leftist pops up to challenge the more traditional Dem.

On the GOP side, so far it's Gov. Justice, current Rep. Alex Mooney and a pro-2A, MAGA coal miner, Chris Rose.

[mountaineer]

 

Supreme Court sides with Glade Springs property owners on most issues against Justice Holdings
By Brad McElhinny
June 19, 2023 - 2:00 pm
WV Metro News

West Virginia’s Supreme Court sided with Glade Springs homeowners on most issues in a complicated financial dispute with a development company owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family.

The Supreme Court’s 57-page order written by Justice Haley Bunn sided with the homeowners association on most matters, went against them on a few and sent some details about assessments back to be resolved at the circuit court level.  ...

The dispute is over whether Justice Holdings, one of dozens of companies owned by the governor and his family, should have been paying the same property assessments as other homeowners.  ...

The majority agreed with the circuit court’s ruling that Justice Holdings is required to pay annual assessments to the association on that the lots that the developer maintains in its inventory.

Right now, the Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association has liens on Justice Holdings lots.

“Relatedly, GSVPOA has already begun the process of judicial foreclosure on the Justice Holdings lots,” board members wrote in the memo to homeowners association members.

[mountaineer]

Meanwhile: Justice’s Senate campaign gets financial boost this week from McConnell, Capito and more

Again: 

[mountaineer]

POLITICO:

Republicans have a plan to oust Manchin. This conservative won’t get out of the way.
The Freedom Caucus member is “disappointed” that the Republican establishment is supporting Jim Justice. That doesn’t mean he plans to step aside.
By Burgess Everett
08/04/2023 09:00 AM EDT

The Republican establishment wants nothing to do with Alex Mooney. Frankly, he’s a bit miffed about it.

Since the West Virginia representative announced his Senate campaign last fall, senior Republicans and the National Republican Senatorial Committee went out of their way to anoint Gov. Jim Justice as their pick to topple Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Then Justice racked up endorsements, a leadership-backed fundraiser — and most importantly, a big lead in the polls. ...

Top Senate Republicans are putting their thumbs on the scale in some states to support primary candidates they think are best equipped to defeat Democratic incumbents. No state is more important than West Virginia. Taking back Manchin’s seat in the deep-red state is a vital first step in the party’s drive to reclaim the Senate next year — if Republicans win the White House, it’s the only pick-up they need to flip the chamber.

Which makes Mooney a major obstacle to his own party leaders, with backing from pugnacious conservative groups and senators.  ...

“I’m actually more likely to beat [Manchin] because I show a difference between the two” candidates, Mooney said. “I’m a conservative and Joe Manchin and Jim Justice are liberals.”

Mooney asserted that Justice and Manchin are “essentially the same,” in part because they share West Virginia strategist Larry Puccio as a political adviser.  ...

He's absolutely correct. Justice is a deadbeat and a phony. Manchin stands for nothing unless it enriches him. Mooney is establishing himself as a solid conservative.

[Bigun]

The Republican establishment wants nothing to do with Alex Mooney.

Yep! That's how they roll for sure! Ted Cruz would not be in the senate today if they could have prevented it.

[mountaineer]

The coal empire owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice could be on the hook for up to $1.2 billion in fines in Virginia.
West Virginia governor’s family-run coal empire racks up $1 billion in fines in Virginia, filing claims

... According to a new court filing from the commonwealth, the companies in question continue to violate a cleanup deal over oil spills at eight Virginia mining sites.

Blackstone Energy Ltd., a Roanoke-based company run by Justice’s son, James “Jay” Justice III, reached an agreement with the State Water Control Board in 2020 to resolve “certain violations of State Water Control Law” on unauthorized oil discharges. ...

But a recent court filing on July 28 in Richmond Circuit Court from the Virginia attorney general’s office and state Department of Environmental Quality claims Blackstone Energy and its subsidiaries never completed the requirements in the order, leaving them open to daily fines for each alleged violation dating back to 2020.  ...

Yes, deadbeat.

[mountaineer]

Senate finance report for Justice shows pile of assets, not much income and stack of debt
By Brad McElhinny
September 25, 2023 - 8:33 pm
WV Metro News

Jim Justice has filed a federally-mandated financial disclosure for his Senate run, revealing a mountain of assets — with many indicating they produce little or no income — and also a riptide of debt.

Two debts on the filing are promissory notes characterized as between $1 million and $5 million each to Bray Cary, the broadcaster and businessman who served as Justice’s senior adviser, as well as his Cary Foundation Inc. No explanation is provided for the notes, both issued August 31, 2021, shortly after Cary left the administration.

For many years, Justice was described as West Virginia’s only billionaire, but Forbes downgraded him after 2021 debt disputes. He declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate on April 27, facing Congressman Alex Mooney in the Republican Primary and aiming for incumbent Senator Joe Manchin in the General Election. ...

This comes as a complete surprise to no one. He's a horrible businessman who doesn't pay his taxes or his debts.