The election may be over. But jockeying for position is underway around the West Virginia statehouse

The West Virginia Weakly Reader for Saturday, November 16, 2024

With the election behind us, we now have less than two months until Patrick Morrisey will be inaugurated as governor.¹ Morrisey has promised to run the state with “West Virginia values”² as he leaves the role of Attorney General and becomes the state’s chief executive.

“I’ve always been very worried that there were agendas coming out of the Biden-Harris Administration,” Morrisey said this week. “You’ve heard the word ‘woke’ before, you’ve heard the word ‘DEI’ [an acronym for “diversity, equity and inclusion] before, and those are not, in my mind, West Virginia values, and we’re not going to be an administration that’s going to be advancing those values.”

Morrisey is set to take the oath of office on January 13. But there’s a bit a wrinkle in the timeline, because current Gov. Jim Justice is scheduled to take his oath as a U.S. Senator ten days earlier, on January 3.

Should Justice step down as governor before then, outgoing Senate President Craig Blair would oversee the executive branch for less than a week.³ But with Blair set to leave office January 8, state lawmakers will have to pick another Senate President and, thus, acting governor until Morrisey steps in.

At a virtual briefing Friday, Justice said the easiest way to handle it all is for him to stick around as governor until Morrisey’s inauguration. But he also said nothing is definite quite yet.

“Cleanest way is for me to stay in office until the 13th and then pass the torch to [Morrisey], you know, as the proper way to do it, but with the dates and everything, all that may not work out that way,” Justice said Friday. “But we’re still working on it. So that’s not set in stone yet at all.”

Which is to say, there’s a lot of moving parts in government — all of which will need to be sorted before mid-February when the Weakly returns to its bread and butter time of the year: the 60-day regular session of the West Virginia Legislature.

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The West Virginia Weakly Reader — For more on the sources we use, have a look at the footnotes to see the original reporting from news outlets across West Virginia.

🏛️ The 2024 election cycle may be over for the general voting population, but there’s some campaigning still going on around the state Capitol. With Senate President Craig Blair (R-Berkeley) on the way out following his primary election loss in May, the Republican caucus and its soon-to-be 32 members in the West Virginia Senate are now looking for a new leader. With an election for Senate President slated for December 8, Senators Randy Smith (R-Tucker), Eric Tarr (R-Putnam) and Tom Takubo (R-Kanawha) have emerged as the top three choices.⁴

🏛️ As the state Senate considers new Republican leadership, the West Virginia Legislature got together for interim meetings this past week. Among the meetings and presentations was the findings of an audit that focuses on the state’s healthcare facilities. In a meeting of the Post Audit subcommittee on Tuesday, lawmakers learned that state-run hospitals are heavily reliant on contract workers and are struggling to fill positions. The reliance on contract workers cost the state $284 million since 2015, mainly because contract positions pay more than full-time nursing jobs.⁵

🏛️ As Republicans in the West Virginia statehouse work through things post-election, lawmakers in the nation’s capital are doing the same. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito — now the senior senator from West Virginia — is rising in the ranks of her party, which now controls the U.S. Senate. She was elected as chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, making her the fourth-highest ranking member of her party.⁶ Capito is ready to move forward on confirming some of president-elect Donald Trump’s early administration picks — including former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.) for Attorney General, Democrat-turned-Independent-turned-Republican and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence and FOXNews host and veteran Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.⁷ Capito has been cautious in answering questions about how she feels about Trump’s nomination of Gaetz, who was under a House Ethics Committee investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct and other potential offenses.⁸

💵 Joining Capito in the nation’s upper chamber will, of course, be Gov. Jim Justice. While he won his senate race handily, litigation over the Justice family business troubles is still making headlines.⁹ Attorneys for the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. have asked for a lawsuit to be moved from federal court in Louisiana to the Southern District of West Virginia. This summer, the Louisiana-based First Guaranty Bank sued the Justice-owned company for more than $36 million for principal, accrued interest and late fees for a $35 million dollar loan granted under the pandemic-related CARES Act.

⛈️ With a few months left in his term, Justice also has plenty of state business to keep his eyes on. Following a number of wildfires that broke out as a result of a drought, the governor had instituted a burn ban. But after heavy rains on Thursday helped put out fires in the southern coalfields, Justice lifted the statewide outdoor burn ban Friday.¹⁰

📚 The West Virginia Board of Education has voted to approve the closure of six Kanawha County Schools at the end of the 2024-25 academic year.¹¹ The closures come as enrollment has been reportedly down in a number of larger counties. “We are hemorrhaging population loss in public schools. It’s going to get worse,” board member Paul Hardesty said at the meeting. “I’m sorry I cannot provide you any comfort today, but I owe you the truth, and that’s what I want to try to do.” Belle, Mary Ingles, Malden and Midland Trail elementary schools will be consolidated into a new Eastern Kanawha Elementary Center — and East Bank Middle School will be merged into DuPont Middle School, while McKinley Middle School will merge into Hayes Middle School. Another school closure — in Wood County — will go before the state board at next month’s meeting.

🏕️ The Morgantown City Council will soon reconsider an ordinance it approved earlier this year that places a ban on camping in public places. The Morgantown Coalition for Housing Action collected signatures of voters opposed to the ordinance and filed a petition to have the measure either repealed or put it on the ballot during a city election. According to the city’s charter, an ordinance can be reconsidered (and, if it isn’t repealed by the council, it would be placed on a city election’s ballot as a referendum) if more than 10% of the voting public sign onto a petition.¹²

🏈 High school football in front of West Virginia’s high court? Apparently so. Courts in Mason and Wood counties¹³ offered conflicting opinions on court cases related to playoff rankings¹⁴ and now the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals is being asked to step in and resolve the matter. The case is rooted in that some teams are frustrated by their class (Class A through Class AAAA, based on size) Gov. Justice expressed frustration that the high school football playoffs could be delayed, saying it might cross into the schedules of other school sports.¹⁵

🦬 With Giles and I both being Marshall alumni, we can’t leave you without mention of the commemoration ceremony of the November 14, 1970 plane crash.¹⁶ On Thursday, members of the Marshall and Huntington communities gathered to honor the 75 players, coaches and community members killed in the Southern Airways Flight 932 crash as the team was returning home from a game against East Carolina. Like the university does each November 14, school officials turned off the memorial fountain on campus.

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What we’re reading: Opinion and anything else that gets our attention

• A police chief was accused of paying $100 to rape a teen — and trying to cover it up. (INVESTIGATION) ~ Jessica Contrera and Jenn Abelson, The Washington Post

• Secret Meetings, Big Money Drove Republicans’ Senate Wins ~ Lindsay Wise, John McCormick, The Wall Street Journal

• Priorities: Football scramble teaches wrong lesson ~ EDITORIAL, Parkersburg News and Sentinel

1. West Virginia governor-elect Morrisey to be sworn in mid-January ~ Leah Willingham, Associated Press

2. Morrisey centers policies focused on ‘WV values’ as he transitions to state’s executive office ~ Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch

3. Justice Undecided On Transition Timeline ~ Caelan Bailey, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

4. Race for Senate president comes down to Randy Smith, Tom Takubo and Eric Tarr ~ Brad McElhinny, WVMetroNews

5. Audit finds contract nursing in WV state facilities costs $284M, hiring process typically 688 days ~ Amelia Ferrell Knisely, West Virginia Watch

6. GOP Conference elevates Sen. Shelley Moore Capito to 4th ranking Senate Republican ~ Rick Steelehammer, The Charleston Gazette-Mail

7. Capito says she’s ready to consider nominations of Gaetz, Gabbard and Fox host Hegseth ~ Brad McElhinny, WVMetroNews

8. Capito cautious on Gaetz ~ Hoppy Kercheval, WVMetroNews

9. Greenbrier Hotel Corp. attorneys want $36 million suit against firm moved to WV ~ Mike Tony, The Charleston Gazette-Mail

10. Justice lifts outdoor burning ban following Thursday rain ~ Jeff Jenkins, WVMetroNews

11. More School Closures Approved By State Board Of Education ~ Chris Schultz, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

12. Morgantown council to reconsider camping ban following successful petition ~ Lori Kersey, West Virginia Watch

13. High school football teams await word from West Virginia Supreme Court ~ Kerry Patrick, The Parkersburg News & Sentinel

14. Supreme Court Will Rule On Football Rankings ~ Chris Schultz, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

15. Justice airs frustrations over postponement of football playoffs ~ Brad McElhinny, WVMetroNews

16. Community remembers the 75 lost in MU plane crash ~ Alex Jackson, WSAZ