Attorney General-elect J.B. McCuskey, who is the current state auditor, is shown in the state Capitol in 2022. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
West Virginia’s incoming Attorney General J.B. McCuskey said this week the state’s natural resources industry and economy will be priorities for his office.
“The biggest priority that we have is ensuring that we continue to allow our natural resources industries to thrive, and to make sure that West Virginia’s economy is able to do what it does best, which is provide low cost energy throughout this country and right here at home,” McCuskey said.
McCuskey was elected state auditor in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Prior to being auditor, McCuskey served two terms in the state House of Delegates.
On Tuesday, he won the attorney general’s election over Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva, a Democrat. McCuskey pulled in 70% of the votes, compared to Toriseva’s 30%, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office.
McCuskey said he’ll work well with Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey, the state’s current attorney general, and be a “key player” within his administration.
“One of the really amazing things that happened in this election is that we now have a governor who knows how to deploy the attorney general to help advance their agenda,” McCuskey said Wednesday. “I work very, very closely with General Morrisey now. We have a trust and a friendship that I think is going to enable me to be a real key player in his agenda and the ways in which we’re going to finally make West Virginia’s reality match its potential.”
As attorney general, Morrisey signed on to a lawsuit along with several other states that sought to overturn the Affordable Care Act, a monumental health law commonly called Obamacare that, among other things, allowed the state to expand its Medicaid program to thousands of low-income residents. McCuskey said Thursday he doesn’t think overturning the law will be a “huge priority.”
Morrissey’s time has been a “leading force” against a number of policies by the federal Environmental Protection Agency aimed at curbing pollution, according to the Gazette-Mail.
McCuskey said fighting overreach of “rogue” federal agencies into the state’s economy is “of the utmost importance,” along with ensuring that the role of the federal government is constrained to what the constitution allows it to be.
“Very frequently, especially in a world where Congress moves so slowly, bureaucracies extend well beyond what their authority is,” McCuskey said. “And it’s our job to make sure that they’re held in check.”
McCuskey said he also sees attorneys general — and specifically his office — playing a part in carrying out President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda for the nation. Trump will have a “big agenda,” he said, and the federal bureaucracy will likely try to keep the status quo.
“[What we] are going to need to do is ensure that our bureaucracies are allowing him to pursue his agenda in the ways that he wants,” McCuskey said. “And we live in a world where Congress moves very, very slowly, and so the attorneys general have kind of moved into this role of being the place where we can swiftly solve big constitutional issues.”
Morrisey said his first priority will be to find and retain as much legal fire power for the office as he can. Under Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the office has become the go-to office for big cases, he said.
“That’s something that we’re going to continue,” he said. “Making sure that I am surrounded by the best lawyers in the world is priority number one, because the big cases are going to keep coming through West Virginia, and I’m really excited to be able to lead the charge.”
McCuskey said he and a small transition team of close legal advisors and friends from around the state planned to sit down this week and discuss priorities and identify people to hire so that he’s ready to start work the day he takes office. He said he doesn’t anticipate “large-scale” employee turnover in the office.
“Having a governor who was the attorney general, he understands the importance of this office, and he understands how important it’s going to be for me to have talent to not only make my office successful, but to make sure that his administration is successful as well,” McCuskey said.
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