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The Voice of West Virginia
The Martinsburg North Middle School website gives the impression of a successful academic environment where the 750 students can excel. It describes “a safe and positive atmosphere of high expectations, professionalism, and enthusiasm for lifelong learning.”
The Mission Statement sets a high bar: “We at North Middle School are committed to doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to ensure that all students reach their highest potential.”
Lofty goals indeed, and ones that a community should reasonably expect from their school. However, a report by the State Department of Education Accountability Office released last week told a much different story.
The report, which was made public at the State Board of Education meeting, chronicled chaotic and violent conditions at the school:
There have been 160 physical fights this school year. Only half of the students feel safe at school. State DOE officials who visited the school last month saw “threatening and hostile behaviors” by students that were “ineffectively addressed by teachers and other staff members or not addressed at all.”
The inspectors described conditions at the school as “chaotic, destructive, and occasionally hostile to the learning environment.” Students roamed the halls and wandered in and out of classrooms, often with little or no redirection from teachers.
Just six percent of the students are proficient in math and only 24 percent are proficient in English language arts. Inspectors say lessons “were frequently below grade level standards and not relevant and engaging to students.” And those outcomes have been on a downward trajectory for the last decade.
One of the inspectors said a parent told them her daughter receives straight A’s, but she has trouble reading and writing, a classic example of social promotion of a child who will likely struggle in high school.
State School Board President Paul Hardesty called the situation at Martinsburg North Middle School “pathetic.” Hardesty put the blame on the Berkeley County School Board and the County Superintendent, since the school principal received good evaluations for more than a dozen years.
The Board responded by voting unanimously to issue a State of Emergency for the school. The school principal has been replaced by Holly Kleppner, Executive Director of the Department of Secondary Leadership. County Superintendent Ron Stephens, in a letter to the school community, said, “Ms. Kleppner, along with other administrators, is fully committed to ensuring a meaningful finish to the school year despite the challenges we are faced with.”
Kleppner, Stephens, the staff at Martinsburg North Middle and that community now must follow the credo highlighted on the school website to straighten out this mess and provide a thorough and efficient education for the children by doing…
…“Whatever it takes.”
The post A failing grade for a West Virginia middle school appeared first on WV MetroNews.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — United States senators from West Virginia don’t change very often.
Since 1958 only six individuals have held the office. Carte Goodwin was one of those, and he only served on an interim basis for six months. Only the oldest voters in this year’s primary election can remember any names other than senators Jennings Randolph, Robert C. Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin.
So when Manchin announced he would not seek another term it created a rare open seat in the upper chamber of Congress from the Mountain State and drew a lot of interest.
Republican Governor Jim Justice believes his eight years as the state’s chief executive combined with his business experience qualified him to be exactly what West Virginia needs in the position.
“I’m a pretty good negotiator and surely pretty good at the table. I’ve got a lot of business sense and everything, and I promise you nobody preaches the West Virginia story any better than I, because I believe it,” Justice said.
The governor won the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and has used his friendship with the past president as another potential appeal for voters. Justice contended for too long West Virginia has sent people to Washington who didn’t have the best interest of the state at heart.
“We’ve been short changed forever because everybody traded their vote away to get more stuff or prestige for themselves,” Justice said. “I don’t want anything for me, I never have. I am a patriot through and through. I have rock solid conservative values and with all of that being said, I just want to serve.”
MORE: If voters send Justice to Capitol Hill, he says ‘I’ll have to do it in my style’
But Congressman Alex Mooney, also a Republican, vehemently disagreed with Justice’s credentials — particularly his claim of rock solid conservatism.
“My opponent has supported all of the Biden spending bills. He’s supported the Fairness Act with special rights for transgenders. There’s only one conservative in this race and you’re talking to him, me Alex Mooney. Jim Justice is a liberal and was elected as a Democrat,” Mooney said.
Mooney has served as the state’s 2nd District representative in the U.S. House of Representatives since his first election in 2015. He is a hardliner for right wing causes in Washington and is aligned with the most conservative members of the Republican caucus in the U.S. House. Mooney ripped into Justice repeatedly in the campaign.
“He was elected as a Democrat. He tried the largest tax increase in the history of West Virginia when he was elected in 2017, the Republican Legislature defeated it, but he did raise the gas tax. Then he attacked me because I wouldn’t vote for Joe Biden’s $1.3 trillion infrastructure bill.”
Justice and Mooney have been the front runners who emerged from a crowded Republican field. The candidates on the GOP ballot also include Zane Lawhorn of Princeton, Don Lindsay of Hardy County, Bryan McKinney from Inwood, Janet McNulty of Martinsburg, and Bryan Bird from Beckley.
Manchin, long the standard bearer for state Democratic politics, endorsed Wheeling Mayor Glen Elliot for the Democratic nomination in the Senate race. Elliot started his career working for the late U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd. He admitted the Democratic party today isn’t the one he learned to appreciate growing up.
“I’m running in the traditional sense of the Democratic party going back to Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. That’s the Democratic party I speak of, I don’t know what voters think the Democratic party has become, but if you talk to people they are tired of the way things are and are hoping for a new direction. I hope I can be that messenger,” Elliott said.
He’s faced a challenge in the primary from another well-known individual. However, the emergence of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship as a Democratic candidate was a move few saw coming. Blankenship previously ran for the Senate as a Republican and has been one of those who has played a key role in the transition of West Virginia from a blue state to a red state in the past two decades.
“I was on the other side for a long time and now the Republicans have taken over West Virginia and the crazies have taken over the Democratic party nationally. I don’t think West Virginians are typical San Francisco or D.C. Democrats. Hopefully they’ll send me to Washington to send a message they are not for the things the national party represents,” Blankenship said.
He claimed his experiences in dealing in the business world with various federal agencies, often in an adversarial role, makes him best equipped to know what needs to be fixed in the federal government to benefit West Virginia.
Joining Blankenship and Elliot on the Democratic ballot for U.S. Senate is Zach Shrewsbury of Princeton.
The two party nominees will face off in November for the right to only be the 7th U.S. Senator from West Virginia in 66 years.
The post Familiar names vie for a rare open U.S. Senate seat in W.Va. appeared first on WV MetroNews.
(Photo gallery by Teran Malone)
GRANVILLE, W.Va. — Randy Mazey knew this day was coming and there has been no shortage of people reminding him about it.
“Everybody asked me about, ‘Has it hit you yet? Has it hit you yet?’ It hit me today,” Mazey said.
“Look at this place. Twelve years ago, West Virginia was thinking about dropping the baseball program. And look what it has turned into.”
A day of ceremony and celebration at Kendrick Family Ballpark was capped by a 12-5 win for West Virginia to secure a series victory over Kansas State in Mazey’s final home game as the leader of the Mountaineers. The 12th-year head coach is set to retire following this season.
“This is the team that I wanted to retire with. This is an unbelievable team, unbelievable kids. For them to go out and play the way they did today, knowing this was my last game on this field, I just can’t thank them enough. They played a great game,” Mazey said.
“I never asked them one time to do it for me. I never wanted this day to be about me. They showed up to play. I think they knew that I really wanted to sing ‘Country Roads’ in my last home game ever on this field. That was gift from them I will never forget.”
In front of 3,232 fans, the Mountaineers capped their regular season home schedule with a 17-6 record at Wagener Field.
After dropping Friday’s series opener, 4-3, the Mountaineers took two out of three games in the series by scoring 25 wins on Saturday and Sunday. WVU took a 3-0 lead through two innings courtesy of a Reed Chumley RBI double, a solo home run from Benjamin Lumsden and a run-scoring double from Logan Sauve.
Leading 3-1 in the fourth inning, junior shortstop JJ Wetherholt connected for his sixth home run of the season to extend WVU’s cushion to 6-1. Wetherholt, projected to be one of the top picks in the MLB Draft this summer, likely played his final game in Granville.
“To see what he has developed and turned into, he is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of player,” Mazey said. “It was just an honor to say that he and I shared our last year together.”
Inserted into the weekend pitching rotation, junior left-hander Tyler Switalski delivered a quality start. He allowed three earned runs [five total] in five innings while striking out five batters. The five-inning outing tied a season-best.
“[Mazey] has come up to me after every outing, whether it is good or bad, and just instilled confidence in me,” Switalski said. “That has allowed me to stay in a groove and just get better and better every day.”
“He pitched great and we are going to need him to do that again,” Mazey said.
As they did on Saturday, West Virginia broke the game open in the late innings. K-State trimmed an eight-run deficit to four with a four-run sixth inning. However, the Mountaineers scored three runs in their final two frames at the plate to pull away.
Wetherholt led WVU with four runs batted in. Sauve and Sam White each had three hits. Skylar King connected for his sixth home run of the season.
In relief of Switalski, Carson Estridge tossed three frames and Joseph Fredericks finished the game off in the ninth.
West Virginia (31-19, 17-10 Big 12) will not play Tuesday. A potential addition to their schedule was discussed but the Mountaineers are off until Thursday when they open their final Big 12 series of the year at TCU. The team will remain in Texas for the start of the Big 12 Conference Tournament nine days from now. WVU stands tied for third place in the league with Texas. Oklahoma clinched the league’s regular season title on Sunday.
“Oh by the way, that is a huge series win for us to keep us in the hunt for the postseason. After all the show tunes and the dog and pony show, it was really good win for us,” Mazey said.
“I told them that when this day is over and they take their jersey off, it is time to start getting ready to play TCU next weekend because we still have a ton to play for.”
“This weekend was a must-win. I feel like the boys came together and everything worked out great,” Switalski said. “Obviously, next weekend is just as big. We just need to keep rolling and have a good weekend at TCU.”
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MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The Berkeley County Board of Education will hold a special meeting Monday following the recent report from the state Department of Education that described a “chaotic and occasionally hostile” environment at Martinsburg North Middle School.
After reviewing that report last week, the state Board of Education voted to place Berkeley County Schools under a state of emergency for the situation at Martinsburg North Middle. An update on the state of emergency is expected to be provided at the meeting.
State Department of Education Accountability Officer Jeff Kelley detailed the report to the board, describing an on-site visit made at the school in April. He said a lot of kids wouldn’t be in their classrooms and would not take orders well from the teachers.
“Most classrooms were observed to have a large number of students off-task in an environment that was not conducive to learning,” said Kelley in part of the report.
Kelley also spoke to the situation at Martinsburg North while on MetroNews “Talkline” last week. He said a team was sent to check out the school mainly due to an assessment of learning environment survey taken by the students in October 2023 that returned some not-so-good numbers.
“53% for students reported that they didn’t feel safe at school,” Kelley said.
According to Kelley, the statewide average in that category is around 20%. There have also been 160 physical fights at the school this year and 23 Title IX violations.
The review team who went to the school in April told Kelley that they observed multiple instances where students would act or say inappropriate things to each other or to teaches. He claims students were constantly off-task and were not listening to the adults.
“Threatening and hostile behaviors,” Kelley said from the review. “Profanity and inappropriate language directed at each other and the staff members.”
Kelley said students, staff members and even parents of the school were interviewed by the review team from the state Department of Education and relayed similar information about the environment and what happens at the school.
Math and reading proficiency is also a major concern. The school’s most recent student achievement results show only 24% of students are proficient in English and only 6% proficient in math.
Berkeley County Board of Education member Melissa Power says the board was blindsided by the recent news at Martinsburg North Middle School. She claims the review is “skewed.”
“The buck stops with us to a point on the school board,” said Power. “We were presented with information that actually provided us a glimpse into what was going on at North but that glimpse was highly skewed and dare I say such a level of skewing that lying took place in my opinion.”
That “glimpse” was handed to them at their board meeting on February 21.
Power said she was listening in to the state board of education meeting last week and was dumbfounded at what she heard in the report broken down by Kelley. She says the presentation was misleading.
“What was provided to us was information that told a completely different story than what we heard at the state school board meeting,” Power said.
According to Power, it’s difficult for board members to fact-check or verify the information presented. She said they don’t have access to WVEIS, a state education platform that teachers and administrators use to log discipline matters, as a way to possibly see the full picture of the situation at Martinsburg North.
“We have to take it for what it is when they present it to us,” she said.
Power, who is running for reelection to the Berkeley County Board of Education, is advocating for a report from each school in the county to be provided to the board that details statistics fights or other interactions including ones relating to Title IX.
Monday’s special meeting will also include a few personnel hearings and discussions on recommendations from the superintendent relating to disciplinary action for an employee matter. There’s also expected to be a discussion and possible action on an appointment of a county superintendent. The contract would range from one to fours years starting July 1, 2024.
Monday’s special meeting of the Berkeley County Board of Education is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. in the Board Room of the Central Office at 1453 Winchester Avenue in Martinsburg.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — United Bankshares, Inc., the parent company of United Bank, is acquiring The Piedmont Bank in a merger agreement with Piedmont Bancorp, Inc.
The merger will make United the 39th largest banking company in the U.S. based on market capitalization. This transaction represents United’s 34th acquisition. The deal is valued at approximately $267 million.
“We are excited to bring these two great companies together,” said Richard M. Adams, Jr., CEO of United Bankshares, Inc. “We share similar commitments to serving our customers and communities with a relationship-focused approach.”
Combined, the organization will have more than $32 billion in assets and over 240 locations in eight states and Washington, D.C. United will also acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Piedmont in exchange for common shares of United. The merger has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.
“Piedmont is thrilled to join the United Bank family,” said Monty Watson, Chairman and CEO, The Piedmont Bank. “We believe this merger will allow us to better serve our current customers and reach new audiences with enhanced products and services, all while maintaining our personalized community bank approach.”
Upon the closing of the merger, Watson will serve as Regional President responsible for Georgia operations at United. Piedmont is a $2.1 billion asset bank holding company headquartered in Peachtree Corners, Ga. with 16 locations in the Atlanta area and North Georgia.
The merger is expected to close late in the fourth quarter of 2024 or early in the first quarter of 2025. United and United Bank will become the surviving entities in the merge.
As of March 31, 2024, United had consolidated assets of approximately $30 billion. They have more than 225 offices located all across the country, mainly in the eastern United States.
United’s stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the quotation symbol “UBSI”.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board plans to begin a data analysis of arrests and traffic stops conducted by the police department.
Board Chair Rich Burks said the disproportionate number of African-American arrests over the years in Morgantown has been blamed on drug dealers that don’t reside here and this is an opportunity to test that.
“The narrative is that you have these out-of-town drug dealers who are predominantly African-American that are causing these numbers to go up,” Burks said. “Is that true, or is that not true? Because we heard that for many years.”
Secretary Bob Cohen said the report from the department said that in 2018, a total of 1,158 arrests were made by Morgantown police. A report from the U.S. Census from July 2022 said the Morgantown population is 4.2% African-American.
“From January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018, African Americans represented 19.60 percent of arrests,” Cohen said. “That’s a staggering number compared to the population.”
Burks said police have agreed to supply the information requested, and they are working to determine the best way to organize the data for analysis. For the arrest reports involving African- Americans, Cohen offered to go through the reports by hand.
“In these numbers, there were 227 African-Americans; we can look at the 227 actual reports and see who they were,” Cohen said.
About a decade ago, the federal government no longer required the race of the person stopped to be reported by departments. When that happened, the local department stopped providing or tracking the information. Board members appear to be on track to request the raw data from a random sampling of traffic stops to determine what information is collected.
“How many stops do they have that do not generate a citation?” Burks said. “There are fishing expeditions that go on with them issuing you anything, so how do you figure this stuff out?”
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — About 50 people attended a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest Saturday that started on the WVU campus and marched to the Monongalia County Courthouse.
WVU Muslim Student Association Vice President Omar Sabbagh said the top priority of the group is an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian relief for the people of Gaza.
“Our message is that right now in Gaza, there’s a genocide happening—Israel is dropping bombs like it’s raining,” Sabbagh said. “There are 35,000 civilians that have been killed and counting—this genocide has been going on for 75 years.”
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, Sabbagh said the atmosphere on campus has deteriorated to the point where members of the organization and supporters have felt threatened. The top demand from the event was for the university to take action against their religion.
“The first thing we are requesting is for them to condemn the Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate that’s been happening on this campus since October,” Sabbagh said. “We have been harassed, we have been made fun of, we have been ridiculed, and we have been humiliated—this is not okay, and the university has stayed silent.”
Sabbagh said counter-protesters have been disrupting their normal activities and have damaged areas they use on campus. Pro-Palestine events, he said, are disrupted regularly, adding to tensions.
“We had a person come to our events, even the ones not related to Palestine, and try to stop us from having the events and vacate our prayer room. This is not ok,” Sabbagh said.
Like other groups across the country, they also want assurances that the university does not hold investments that could somehow support the Israeli government.
“The second thing we want is to disclose and divest their investments,” Sabbagh said. “We want to make sure they are not investing in the state of Israel, a terrorist army that is killing innocent Palestinians, and we want to make sure they are not investing in genocide.”
WVU senior Olivia Dowler also said there are other organizations on campus that are calling for transparency from WVU officials.
“The Muslim Student Association, along with a few other organizations on campus, actually just sent a letter to the president of WVU and some of the deans about disclosing and divesting, so we definitely want to draw some attention to that,” Dowler said.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Final preparations are wrapping up across the City of Charleston just in time for the USA Cycling championship event to sprint into the Capital City.
Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said 90 city streets are getting a fresh layer of pavement just in time for the USA Cycling Pro Road Nationals, which is set to begin Tuesday, Election Day.
However, Goodwin said the city was pleased when USA Cycling representatives were already satisfied with the condition of the roads when they came to assess if Charleston was the right fit to host the re-occurring annual five-year event. She said it’s due to all of the work they’ve already put in on improving the city’s roads.
“It was last year when we got this, they said ‘your streets are great,’ I mean patching here and there, we’re doing Wertz Playground today, but infrastructure is always important, we’re keeping up with it,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin said it’s not just paving work being done to accommodate the projected 600 athletes and their entourages that will be coming into the Capital City for the event next week, May 14-19, but a host of other preparation work, too.
She said to watch out, as city workers will be out and about a lot this week.
“Be patient with us, our public rounds folks, you know, there’s a lot of planting, and mowing, and weeding,” she said.
Goodwin said she believes the event will be bigger than the five-day Sternwheel Regatta– which is also approaching for July 3-7– as the Pro Road Nationals covers one more day than the Regatta, and the projections of people are coming across a wider geographic range.
She said it’s too early to tell right now, but it may also leave a bigger economic impact on the city than the $37.2 million the Regatta brought in last year.
With various watch parties and festival-like events that will be taking place in conjunction with the cycling championships throughout the neighborhoods they will be riding through, Goodwin said the event will stretch throughout the entire scope of the city.
“It’s so fun because this will intertwine through our neighborhoods, this will be like little mini Regattas everywhere in the city, and that is just so cool,” she said. “Anytime a mayor gets to have their city on the national spotlight showcasing something as positive as this, it’s really cool.”
Goodwin said it took a lot of effort to bring the event to the city.
She said it was a lot of selling from a team of people, so she said she knows it will be well worth it.
“This could have gone to three other cities and it didn’t, and it’s because a team of really good folks who know what they’re doing put a package together and they sold it and they were aggressive about it, that’s how you get good things to happen in your city,” said Goodwin.
There will be a couple of Fan Zones set up for fans to cheer the athletes on during the event and celebrate with other fans. Those include:
. City Center at Slack Plaza
Enjoy DJ EJ Thursday, May 16 & Friday, May 17.
Check out the expo vendors.
Hang out and listen to WV artists at the Slack Plaza Stage on Saturday, May 18
Enjoy Charley West BBQ Fest on Saturday.
Vinyl Village spins tunes Sunday.
. Bridge Road Shops, Sunday, May 19
Enjoy DJ EJ.
Indulge in diverse food options.
Sip on a cold drink at The Beverage Market Beer Garden.
Let the kids bounce away in inflatables.
The Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority will be adding complimentary shuttle services from Downtown to Bridge Road on May 18-19. The schedule is as follows:
Continuous loop runs 8am – 4pm, May 18-19
Pick up location – City Parking lot – Smith St./Morris St. (Near 1320 Smith St.)
Drop off location – Bridge Road Shops – Near the old Bridge Road Bistro (915 Bridge Rd.)
Parking for the event will be available at the following locations:
. Summers Street Parking Garage – 166 Summers St. – Open during Criterium Thursday – Friday and during the Road Race Saturday – Sunday. Cars will be routed to enter and exit the building via Capitol Street.
. Park Place Cinema – 612 Washington St. – Open daily
.Municipal Auditorium Lot – 244 Virginia St. E – Open daily
.Town Center Mall Garage – 3000 Charleston Town Center – Open daily
.City Service Center – 915 Quarrier St. – Open May 14 – 17
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Photo gallery from George Washington’s 9-3 win over Wheeling Park in the WVSLA state semifinals. GW will face the winner of Tuesday’s Morgantown/University semifinal in the championship game on May 18.
(Photo gallery by Teran Malone)
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Joe Manchin, West Virginia dealmaker and political lifer, once said of the U.S. Senate “this place sucks.” The most prominent candidate to replace him, Gov. Jim Justice, is already saying “There’s nothing that excites me about going to D.C. I’ll have to do it in my style.”
Manchin, a Democrat, decided not to run for reelection in increasingly Republican-leaning West Virginia this year. So the seat is open and most national pundits believe the seat is likely to swing to a Republican.
Polling favors Justice, a two-term governor, former Democrat, Trump buddy, businessman, one-time billionaire, girls basketball coach, dog lover, fast food enthusiast and homebody. West Virginia’s primary election day is Tuesday.
Manchin is leaving the Senate seat after first being elected in 2010. In recent years, the centrist Manchin has been a key swing vote. Manchin, who came up through West Virginia’s legislature, relished deal-making opportunities on policies, embracing conversations about compromise aboard his houseboat, “Almost Heaven,” or over Italian takeout.
As Manchin faced an earlier tough decision about whether to seek re-election in 2018, he told The New York Times that he repeatedly told colleagues including Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, “this place sucks,” a blunt assessment of dysfunction. Then, last November, over months of speculation over whether Manchin would defend the seat for another cycle, he announced that he would not.
He is leaving the seat that Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat, held for more than 50 years — from 1959 until his death in 2010. Byrd remains the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history.
Justice, 73, has regularly said he doesn’t look forward to spending a lot of time in Washington, D.C., but he has said he’s felt called to run, potentially tilting the balance of a very narrowly-divided Senate. His campaign has been supported by the Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and Senator Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Last week during a regular news briefing, MetroNews asked Justice if he intends to serve a full six-year term in the Senate.
“I sure hope so. And maybe another six and maybe another six,” Justice said. “I feel great, and you know I’ve got a lot of energy in what I do, and so I sure hope and pray the good lord gives me life and good health for a long time to come. But we sure do need a lot, a lot of things up there. We need new ideas.”
Further into his response, Justice said, “There’s nothing that excites me about going to D.C. I’ll have to do it in my style. It’ll be different. It’ll be really different. But with all that being said, I’ll stand by my deeds. I absolutely will stand exactly by my deeds. And D.C. needs something really different.
“It’ll be different for me. It’ll be a challenge, and everything, but it was really different when I walked in the door here.”
Going on eight years in the Governor’s Office, Justice faced controversy over maintaining his home two hours from the capital in Lewisburg, winding up in a court battle over the state constitution’s residency requirements. He continued to coach the Greenbrier East girls basketball team and wanted to take on the boys team too.
He typically responded to criticisms by saying he wanted to be out among the people and not behind a desk. “You want me to sit over there at the mansion and get gold stars for just sitting there? You want me to do what’s been done in the past?” he said in 2019.
Last April, right after announcing his Senate run, Justice said on statewide radio that he’ll find ways to adjust to life in and out of the nation’s capital.
“From the standpoint of being in Washington, going back and forth and everything, I do have the means to be able to do that, do that very quickly,” he said. “You know, I can fly on my plane, go back and forth a whole lot. Surely I’ll have to live there a whole lot and everything. But we’ll make all that work.”
Last November, as another season of basketball was about to tip off, MetroNews asked Justice if he was considering whether it would be his last as coach. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we,” he said.
“I think we’ll win going away,” he said then of the Senate race. “We’ll step back and see what time requirements and everything. I do have the ability to come and go very quickly, from that standpoint.”
The Senate does take breaks so that members can go home, but calendars that have already come out for 2024 show the chamber in session most days in the months that make up basketball season.
A few weeks ago, on March 20, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reporter Randy Yohe asked Justice about how his frequent habit of being late might apply to the duties and traditions of the Senate. “A U.S. Senator needs to show up on time. You’ll have debates. You’ll have votes. You’ll have committee meetings. Governor, you’re often late,” Yohe said. “What do you tell voters who have concern about your time management?”
Justice responded, “I can tell you that if there’s a vote that has to be made and it has to be made at a specific time or someway, somehow I always make it.”
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., endorsed Justice’s campaign for Senate more than a year ago. Last week, Capito acknowledged Justice might approach the job of U.S. Senator differently than she does.
“I’ve had several conversations with Governor Justice throughout this whole process. Obviously, I encouraged him to run. We had a long conversation about what life is like in the United States Senate,” said Capito, who was first elected to Congress in 2000 and to the Senate in 2015.
“And he is so passionate about serving and wanting to be a part of making this country stronger and more powerful. And so I fully believe that he will be a very effective member. He may do it his own way. He may go back and forth more than, say, I do. But I don’t know anything Governor Justice does that he’s not on board 150 percent. So I expect him to serve the same way in the United States Senate and I look forward to having him up here.”
Justice’s main Republican challenger is Alex Mooney, a 52-year-old Charles Town resident who has served in Congress since 2015. Before winning the congressional seat, Mooney was a Maryland state senator from 1999 to 2010 and then chairman of Maryland’s Republican Party from 2010 to 2013.
Mooney has been subject of a congressional ethics probe that included allegations about whether a company providing services to his campaign committee provided his family with a free or below-market-value trip to Aruba. Questions also arose about the use of a Washington, D.C. residence, tasks assigned to staff, the use of campaign funds, and possible document tampering.
In the House of Representatives, Mooney is a member of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus. As right-leaning members of the U.S. Senate have been trying to tilt the balance in their favor, senators like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas have pushed for Mooney. “He will keep his word that he will faithfully fight to defend the constitution, to defend our nation, to defend freedom,” Cruz said of Mooney at a campaign appearance this month.
Mooney’s campaign, asked by MetroNews if he would commit to serving a full six-year term in the Senate, responded with a straightforward answer.
“I will serve the full six-year term,” Mooney said, “and I will spend every day energetically fighting for West Virginia’s conservative values.”
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