As the election nears, West Virginia’s major party candidates for governor have agreed to a debate. (Getty Images)
Gov. Jim Justice bragged during his weekly administration briefing that he didn’t ”put one single sign up” during the primary election and still won by “35+ points.”
This was after Brad McElhinny of MetroNews asked if he’d be willing to debate his opponent for the U.S. Senate, Democrat Glenn Elliott.
“The people of this state know me. They know me and they know me really well,” Justice said. “I’ve done almost zero campaigning.”
It turns out, West Virginians don’t know Justice really well. According to a poll by MetroNews earlier this month, most people said they have heard nothing or “a little” about Justice’s financial issues.
This poll was taken after 1) the Greenbrier Hotel was almost auctioned off because of a default in the loan, 2) employees at the Greenbrier resort almost lost health insurance, 3) the Feds held 23 of the Justice family’s coal mines in contempt for not paying for health and safety fines and 4) multiple liens were filed against the Greenbrier for not paying millions in taxes.
This isn’t even half of the Justice family company’s financial issues. They’ve been piling up for more than a decade.
It’s understandable that not everyone can be informed of everything going on in the news — there’s a lot all of the time and the news cycle moves quickly. I read the news all day long, and I miss things sometimes.
A debate really gives voters a chance to see how a candidate’s mind works — sure, they’ve probably prepped ahead of time with what they think they’ll be asked, but they have to think on their feet.
It also gives voters an exact time to know they can watch both candidates answer the same questions.
“We don’t need one debate, we don’t need 5,000 debates,” Justice said. “We went on a little debate with one of the newspapers in Morgantown and it was good, it was great. I said it in our little debate there, I wish Glenn the very best.”
The little debate he’s referring to is a meeting Justice and Elliott had with the editorial board of The Dominion Post. The men answered a few questions — on immigration, energy, The Greenbrier and decriminalizing marijuana — without much detail.
“From the Senate race standpoint, the race is over,” Justice said during his weekly briefing. “We’re going to win the race.”
Meanwhile, Elliott traveled to all 55 counties in West Virginia by Aug. 29 to meet with voters.
It doesn’t matter how much the polls say you’re winning — you owe it to West Virginians to put in some effort and let them know why you’re running for U.S. Senate.
Two of our gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Steve Williams and Republican Patrick Morrisey, have agreed to a debate, and we’ve been told by Willams’ campaign that it will be on Wednesday, Oct. 30. We’re still waiting to hear back on a time and location.
Last month, the MetroNews West Virginia poll found that neither Elliott and Williams were well known outside of their local areas.
Williams is the current mayor of Huntington and Elliott is the former mayor of Wheeling. Morrisey has been the state’s attorney general since 2013.
Morrisey and Justice have been in the news often because of their statewide positions, but the mayors haven’t had that same advantage. Debates would be a great way for more people to learn about them and how they differ from their opponents.
The race isn’t over. There are 42 days until the election to try to win over undecided voters.
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