What Republicans call a cost-cutting measure, West Virginia Democrats describe as a partisan purge. Either way, the firing of state secretary of the arts, Gayle Manchin, is quickly becoming an ugly political story.

The dismissed state arts secretary, it happens, is married to Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator who is struggling to keep his blue head above the water in red West Virginia. Gayle Manchin, originally appointed to her position in Jan. 2017, long before Gov. Jim Justice switched parties to become a Republican, was critical of legislation that would dismantle her office at the state Department of Education. She called it “politically motivated” and threatened to resign.

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