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Don Blankenship's Monaco vacation buddy Elliott Maynard now has a Democratic primary challenger. WVU law professor Robert Bastress.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) _ A West Virginia University law professor launched his Supreme Court campaign Wednesday, pledging to restore integrity to the state's sole appeals bench.
Robert Bastress cited the furor over conflicts of interest that prompted the court's chief justice to remove himself from a major case involving Massey Energy Co.
"Public confidence in the courts is at a low ebb, and for good reason," Bastress told supporters after filing his candidacy papers at the state Capitol.
Recently released photos show a vacationing Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard in Monaco with the top executive of Massey Energy while the company prepared an appeal of a $76.3 million judgment against it.
The July 2006 meet-up with Don Blankenship, the coal producer's CEO, president and chairman, shows "we have a problem," Bastress said to applause.
Personally I think it's ridiculous that state supreme court justices stand for election. We saw what happened in 2004 when Blankenship bought an election to the bench with Robert Benjamin. Despite spending millions on his campaign, Benjamin, unlike Maynard, doesn't have the honor to recuse himself from the pending Massey case. Benjamin knows who bought and paid for him.
So with that upfront, I'm torn as to whether we should set up an ActBlue fundraiser account for Maynard's opponent. Do we fight fire with fire -- admittedly we don't have the millions to spend like Blankenship -- and try to raise funds or not? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
See comments for pictures and links to more articles.
Suffering from a bit of insomnia tonight, I decided to get my obligatory round of news-reading out of the way a little early. So I'm working my way through the various sites I've bookmarked, and I come to the New York Times.
In what might be considered electronic "above-the-fold" story placement, this headline caught my eye: "Motion Ties W. Virginia Justice to Coal Executive."
I am not nearly as versed in the politics of West Virginia's coal industry as just about everybody here on this site, but somehow, in my heart, I knew this would be about Don Blankenship and Massey Energy.
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