West Virginia Senate race could devolve into Roy Moore redux
BY TINA NGUYEN
APRIL 17, 2018 3:45 PM
... Don Blankenship, a Republican primary candidate in West Virginia ... also happens to be the former C.E.O. of a controversial coal-mining company, and recently served a year-long stint in federal prison for his role in the deaths of 29 miners in a 2010 explosion at one of his mines. Just as McConnell’s allies at the Senate Leadership Fund spent millions on ads in an attempt to stamp out Moore, last week the newly formed Mountain Families PAC, which has connections to several G.O.P.-linked firms, began a West Virginia ad run that squarely targets Blankenship. According to Politico, the nearly $700,000 buy focuses on how Blankenship’s company dumped “toxic coal slurry” into drinking water, asking viewers, “Isn’t there enough toxic sludge in Washington?”
The national Republican Party has not taken credit for the ads and, in fact, fiercely debated attacking Blankenship at all, fearing the onslaught would allow him to position himself as a populist anti-Establishmentarian. As expected, Blankenship hit back on Monday, blaming McConnell for attempting to manipulate the race from afar. “McConnell should not be in the U.S. Senate, let alone be the Republican Majority Leader. He is a Swamp captain,” Blankenship said in a statement. “The Russians and McConnell should both stop interfering with elections outside their jurisdictions.” He added that “the media, McConnell, and others also like to spread the rumor that my candidacy is akin to that of Roy Moore. This is nonsense. Roy Moore’s accusers were women and teenage girls . . . my accusers are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I was imprisoned for a misdemeanor based on false charges and a political prosecution” ...
... in Trump’s wake, Republicans have been forced to contend with a wave of political fringe figures who feel emboldened by what they see as burgeoning populist sentiment. These candidates won’t go away and, worse, any effort by the G.O.P. to flatten them lends credence to their cries of “drain the swamp” ...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/west-virginia-senate-race-don-blankenship
= new reply since forum marked as read
that the voters in West Virginia would have a strong memory of what Blankenship has done to their citizens and not be fooled by his "hate the Dems" bullshit! 
