Hey, it’s spring! Time to start thinking about the elections!
The battles for control of the House and Senate are already underway. Next week we’ve got several big Republican primaries to pick candidates who’ll run against Democratic senators in red states.
The most interesting are in Indiana and West Virginia – the state where coal is king and one of the three top Republican contenders spent a year in jail after a mine he owned exploded, killing 29 people.
That would be Don Blankenship, whose other problems include a history of dumping coal waste into West Virginia waters and the fact that he actually seems to reside in Las Vegas.
One of Blankenship’s Republican opponents, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, is running as a super-conservative. His wife is a lobbyist for large pharmaceutical companies, which makes things rather sticky when the subject turns to West Virginia’s massive opioid problem.