Global Courant 2023-05-23 23:25:14
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Author of the article:
The associated press
Leah Willingham
Published on May 23, 2023 • read for 3 minutes
Gov. Jim Justice speaks during an announcement for his U.S. Senate campaign at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfur Springs, W.Va., on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Photo by Chris Jackson /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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CHARLESTON, W. Va. (AP) — The campaign arm of the Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate is asking a Charleston judge to order the release of the calendar of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican seeking to take the Democratic Party seat . Senator Joe Manchin in 2024.
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The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Office of Justice in Charleston’s Kanawha County Circuit Court in response to an April 13 rejection of public records related to the state leader’s schedule, according to court documents.
“Jim Justice can’t hide his work schedule — or lack thereof — from West Virginians, and this is an area that will surely come under further scrutiny in its tedious primaries and in court,” commission spokesman David Bergstein said in a press release. announce the suit.
Justice, whose family owns dozens of businesses and the luxury resort of The Greenbrier near the Virginia border, was the richest man in all of West Virginia when he was elected governor in 2016. For two terms, he’s been dogged by criticism that he’s rarely in the Statehouse and accused of being a “part-time governor.” His office has been reluctant to share his calendar because it doesn’t reflect his work schedule.
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Justice announced last month that he is entering the race for the 2024 U.S. Senate where he will run in a GOP primary where he will run against U.S. Representative Alex Mooney, who announced his candidacy for the Manchin seat less than a week after his re-election to the House in November.
Manchin has not yet officially announced whether he will run for re-election in 2024. The senator had recruited Justice to run for governor as a Democrat before Justice switched to the GOP at a rally for former US President Donald Trump during his first term .
The Justice Department campaign quickly opposed the Democrats’ lawsuit on Tuesday, calling it nothing more than a political ploy. Justice campaign manager Roman Stauffer said the governor is “the frontrunner in this campaign for the U.S. Senate.”
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“The polls show that he beats every other candidate,” Stauffer said in a statement. “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are in a panic and will do everything they can to keep Alex Mooney, who they know they can easily beat in the general election, up.”
The lawsuit says the Attorney General’s office has refused to provide “the most basic documents from his time as governor: lists of the official meetings scheduled for him and his top staff.” The commission is asking a judge to rule that the governor violates the public records law and prohibit him from “withholding unwarranted records.”
The lawsuit comes after a 2019 seven-month analysis of Justice’s calendar by The Associated Press revealed that there were almost no meetings with his cabinet and he was rarely in the Capitol. His schedule usually showed him in photo ops or simply missing.
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The Justice Department had initially rejected requests for the calendar from The AP and the Charleston Gazette-Mail under the West Virginia Public Records Act during Justice’s first term because it was in draft format and did not provide an accurate log of the appointments of Justice. They also claimed that the release could endanger his safety, but eventually complied.
The campaign committee mentioned that reporting in its lawsuit, saying that “understandably, the governor wants to avoid another round of similar criticism” by denying her request.
“But he is the chief executive of the state and has a duty to ensure that his laws are faithfully executed,” the suit reads. “His agency’s refusal to provide the requested data is an open violation of (the Freedom of Information Act).”
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