For the first time since I’ve been voting in the primaries, WV is going to have a say in the presidential primaries.

This means that for the first time in years, lots people are going to actually be voting in the state and local primaries.

Which is why I would like to point out that Chief Justice Elliot “Spike” Maynard is up for reelection this year. (Yes, WV elects supreme court justices. That’s another subject entirely.) Previously, I had no problems with Spike Maynard. But that was before his ties to Don Blankenship became public knowledge.

Who is Don Blankenship?

He is an out of state coal baron who spent millions of his own money in an attempt to put his own people in WV politics. Luckily, last election this backfired. Unfortunately, he’d already bought a seat on the Supreme Court.

Before you think he’s just some guy who is interested in WV politics because he works in the state, this is a man who assaulted an ABC reporter. “If you’re going to start taking pictures of me, you’re liable to get shot“. He helps to run non-union mines that have had a high number of fatal accidents in recent years. And ran a nasty campaign under the aegis of for the sake of the kids when he had in fact no interest in helping WV children. “You talk about the silo near the Marsh Fork School as if it were a negative. You should know that the silo, if anything, is an improvement for the school.”

So yeah, I think local politics are pretty important. And although we haven’t heard anything from Blankenship so far, we need to keep in mind who his friends are, and make sure they don’t end up helping to run the state.