GOP fears rise over West Virginia Senate fiasco

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

Senate Republicans are escalating their attacks on West Virginia Senate GOP candidate Don Blankenship, increasingly worried that the coal baron and ex-prisoner will blow a winnable race against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Republicans see West Virginia as a prime pickup opportunity in November, given President Donald Trump’s huge popularity there. But they say the multimillionaire Blankenship, running in a tight three-way primary against Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, is indefensible as a candidate after serving a year in prison for conspiring to violate mine safety violations. Twenty-nine miners died at his company’s Upper Big Branch mine in 2010.

“Wasn’t he convicted of a crime?” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said in an interview Tuesday. “That sort of background doesn’t lend itself to public office, in my view. Being convicted of a crime is a real liability.”

As the race gets closer, alarms are going off in Senate leadership suites. At a Monday evening Senate Republican leadership meeting, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) focused on Blankenship’s weakness, explaining to other Republicans that the former coal magnate would be difficult for the party to defend in the state, according to attendees.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/17/west-virginia-senate-blankenship-republicans-530492

[UpInArms]

1. Kicking this mess to the top

Well done, Brooklyn I’ve

[appalachiablue]

2. GOP fears in WVa. over Don B. Good.

[Julian Englis]

3. The GOP leaders hate those who pubicly express their values except when they're in power

Blankenship shows the emperor has no values, as did Roy Moore. If he wins, the GOP will line up right behind.

[Mr. Sparkle]

4. I like how readily they would accept his money, but when it comes to working with him in the senate

no no no , we cant have that! Why hes a criminal. Cheque please!

[kimbutgar]

5. Manchin and the Democratic Party should run pictures in ads of miners who died in those mines

And remind voters who represents your best interests?

[Staph]

6. For the moment,

Manchin's commercials are uplifting, positive pictures of the good that he has done for West Virginians.

Blankenship started running ads in the fall of 2017, bashing Manchin. Evan Jenkins and Patrick Morrisey began running ads a few months ago. Their ads began as anti-Manchin ads, but in the last two or three weeks, they have both begun running ads against Blankenship and against each other. I love it when the Republicans turn on themselves!

[kimbutgar]

7. Excellent!

[jmowreader]

8. Am I terrible for hoping Blankenship wins the primary?

I understand no one here likes Manchin, but he's been a good senator for West Virginia. AND he'll beat Blankenship easily - the state knows what Manchin has done for them and what Blankenship has done to them.