WV-SEN: Mass murderer moves to the front of the Republican field

[RandySF]

National Republicans — on the heels of the Roy Moore and Rick Saccone debacles — worry they’re staring down their latest potential midterm election fiasco: coal baron and recent federal prisoner Don Blankenship.

With Blankenship skyrocketing in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary and blanketing the airwaves with ads assailing his fractured field of rivals as career politicians, senior party officials are wrestling with how, or even whether, to intervene. Many of them are convinced that Blankenship, who served a one-year sentence after the deadly 2010 explosion at his Upper Big Branch Mine, would be a surefire loser against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — and potentially become a national stain for the party.

National Republican Senatorial Committee, aides to Blankenship’s two primary opponents, Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, pointed to Blankenship’s traction and questioned what could be done to stop him. The Senate GOP campaign arm, which heard out the appeals, recently commissioned a survey to gauge the coal king’s electoral strength and determine his staying power in the race.

Those familiar with the party’s deliberations say the results are clear: With a little more than a month until the May 8 primary, Blankenship, a towering figure in West Virginia politics long before this campaign and an avid opponent of unions, has vaulted into essentially a three-way tie with his rivals and is positioned to move ahead.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/20/west-virginia-senate-republicans-blankenship-472050

[Botany]

1. W.V. has some of the dumbest people in the world .....

.... they really think that coal is gonna make a come back and that liberals,
environmentalists, and teachers are the root of their problems. Generations
of people have had their brains there turned into toxic waste land by their pastors,
coal bosses, Fox News, hate talkers, chemical companies, and racist/sexist thoughts.

Blankenship spent > $1,000,000 for an anti government/EPA rally for his coal
miners but all the time not doing the most basic safety maintenance for his mines
and that coal dust and methane built up and exploded killing some of the very
same miners who went to "Don's party."


BTW I love W.V. too. Rt 219 is stunning.

[kimbutgar]

2. All Manchin has to do is run commercials with the faces of the dead coal miners and say

Blankenship cared more about profits than the safety of his workers. boom.