Cassandra, Political Crack, The Justice Files

Who Will Replace Jim Justice As Senator?

Over the weekend, Politico broke a story that is old news to West Virginians:  the governor has an attendance problem:

Jim Justice will almost certainly be West Virginia’s next senator. Whether he shows up to work is another question.

The current governor is rarely seen at the state capitol in Charleston, according to interviews with almost a dozen people involved in West Virginia politics on both sides of the political aisle. Some said it was difficult to get in touch with him when they sought guidance on his policy positions. That differed starkly from previous governors or other officials in state government.

Hmmm. Imagine a Senate GOP majority dependent on a senator who doesn’t like to work. Some Republicans have:

“If Democrats keep the Senate, Republicans take it, the majority is going to be slim regardless,” said Republican West Virginia state Del. Elias Coop-Gonzalez. “That means that a lot of those votes are going to really depend on him having to be there every single time. And my personal opinion is I don’t really have a lot of faith that he will be there for that.”

Oh, and then there’s this:

As governor, Justice also refused to give up his job as a basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School, which is approximately two hours away from the state capitol. And his resistance to moving to the state capital got him sued in his first term. He’d originally opted to live in Lewisburg instead, which is approximately 100 miles away. West Virginia has a residency requirement that requires governors to reside in the “reside at the seat of government” in Charleston. In 2021, Justice conceded, and moved.

The Republicans deserve the headache he is going to present.

Then there’s this leak via his political opponent:

Unfortunately, I do not think this will move the needle and am resigned to Justice becoming my next senator. But Justice has a bigger threat to holding his seat than his political opponent, and that is his aforementioned attendance problems.

There is no way that the national GOP is going to put up with a senator who constantly jeopardizes votes, and the speculation is rampant that Justice won’t serve as senator long. And you can see the senator auditions starting to take place, most obviously from my completely useless House Rep/ Alex Mooney, who is literally a cipher.

Mooney has accomplished nothing of note, although I guess he does sit on some kind of soccer commission which requires him to do nothing. He has zero interest in legislation, and even less interest in West Virginia since he is from Maryland and only moved to WV when he absolutely had to (a la Justice and his move to Charleston). Oh and he likely impeded an ethics investigation into his financial impropriety.

He’s also a lame duck congressman since he got his ass kicked by Justice in the WV GOP Senate primary. But he’s been painfully obviously performing for the cameras since the election break began, visiting small businesses he would never normally visit in small towns he had no interest in seeing except for the photo ops they now provide. Oh and he’s also accepting every participation trophy wingnut organizations are handing out in person. It’s funny and it’s pathetic.

It’s also for nothing as my money for the person who will take Justice’s seat is the current WV Attorney General and likely next governor, Patrick Morrisey. You won’t be surprised to learn this sack of shit is also a carpetbagger, this time from New Jersey, and he has been an embarrassing slug of MAGA slime. There’s no way this lazy wingnut is going to be happy in Charleston when DC grift is singing its siren song. And obviously he’s be a bazillion times worse than the hit or miss Justice.

It’s all so awful.

I’ll close with a siren song.