The contradictions are heightening less than 24 hours before polls open in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary. Voters have a choice, a new digital spot declares, between coal baron Don Blankenship and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a decision between “a convicted criminal or a proven conservative.”
The quintessential attack ad is aggressive, brutal, and, the Morrisey campaign hopes, enough to hand him the nomination.
Rather than train his fire on rival Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., Morrisey is playing into fears of a wasted nomination. Polling shows the race in a dead heat and party leaders fear that Blankenship would easily lose to incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., because of his criminal record.
“Twenty-nine miners killed at Upper Big Branch Mine, owned and operated by Don Blankenship’s company,” the narrator says as pitiful images of that mining accident pop up on screen. “Families devastated, children left fatherless, wives widowed.”
The ad notes in an interesting twist on his conviction that, after serving a year in prison, Blankenship moved to Nevada, where he still lives and “where he reports to his probation officer, but he says he should be our senator.”
Republicans have been counting on another Republican senator from West Virginia to protect and even grow their majority. Manchin is vulnerable and presents a prime pickup opportunity. But in the last weeks, Blankenship has closed the gap with his GOP rivals. If he wins, Republicans fear they could lose West Virginia and their Senate majority.
“Liberal Democrats will easily defeat him,” the ad warns, “giving us more taxes, more abortions, gun control, and the end to our coal industry and jobs.”
