CHARLESTON – Democratic challenger Sam Brown Petsonk says Patrick Morrisey has done little to help West Virginia in his eight years as Attorney General.
“We have very little to show for all of his effort,” Petsonk told The West Virginia Record. “He’s won his lawsuits regarding the Clean Power Plan and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. But we have no pipeline and no new coal-fired power plants.
“Listen, I believe in promoting industry and using the Attorney General’s office to do it, but we need to be smarter about promoting our coal-fired power sector and other parts of our energy sector. Let’s invest in new infrastructure to give us a toehold in the energy sector for the coming generations.
“For me, it’s not about grandstanding on national political disputes. It’s about creating jobs for West Virginia. The office of AG should not be a partisan platform or a political soapbox, which is what it’s felt like under Mr. Morrisey.”
Petsonk is an employment law attorney who previously worked for U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd During the campaign, Petsonk has criticized Morrisey for backing a challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on that case a week after the election.
Petsonk has argued that about 200,000 West Virginians with pre-existing conditions are at risk of losing insurance coverage if Morrisey’s push is successful. Morrisey disagrees, saying he only has issues with the individual mandate requiring the purchase of insurance and the “skyrocketing premiums.”
But Petsonk explained there’s more to it than that. He said there are three major problems with the ACA lawsuit. He said there are healthcare problems, economic problems and legal problems.
“The definite loss of healthcare for about 200,000 West Virginians is clearly huge,” Petsonk told The Record. “That’s just bad. So bad.
“But, if Mr. Morrisey succeeds in repealing the entire Affordable Care Act, West Virginia will lose 15 percent of its GDP as well as 15,000 to 20,000 high-paying high-quality healthcare jobs. That’s a degree of economic damage we can’t sustain. More than $9 billion.
“Over the past decade, our federal healthcare law has become an anchor for entire economy. We’ve already lost four major hospitals in the state in the last two years because of the state’s mismanagement of the issue. I want to give some good guidance to the state of West Virginia about protecting the backbone of our economy, which is the healthcare business.”
Petsonk also says the repeal of the ACA would cost the state $1 billion in federal funding for the state’s Medicaid expansion.
“By seeking to repeal the ACA, he has, in essence, filed a lawsuit against the state of West Virginia that includes an outright assault of a multi-billion dollar state program. It raises questions about the fidelity to his duty of representing the state.
“The bottom line is that we cannot afford four more years of Mr. Morrisey’s health care policy.”
Morrisey said his policy regarding competitive bidding to hire outside counsel has saved the state more than $10 million. He says Petsonk would return the AG’s office to the “friends and family plan” of hiring political donors, which was part of Morrisey’s success in unseating longtime AG Darrell McGraw in 2012.
Petsonk disagrees with that description.
“My position is that the Legislature has addressed this with the changes it made to require competitive bidding,” Petsonk said. “And, I’ll give credit. I think it’s a good policy.
“I’ll also note that Mr. Morrisey has refused to sign any kind of pledge regarding further changes to the outside counsel policy. He has some pretty thin ice to stand on.
“And, yeah, I understand the critiques of Mr. McGraw. But, I learned from him. And I worked for him under (Chief Deputy AG) Fran Hughes, I have a great amount of respect for the Consumer Protection Division, which I think has been woefully neglected by Mr. Morrisey.
“My approach to everything in public policy is to bring people together to solve problems. As for consumers, I have a kitchen table focus of helping families with little settlements that help them with debts. That builds growth economically. It’s not about just going out there and beating up on job creators.
“I think Mr. Morrisey has neglected that meaningful work of helping families like that.”
As with everything in 2020, campaigning has been quite different. And with it being Petsonk’s first run at a statewide campaign, he said he’s had to roll with the punches.
“It’s like anything,” he said. “There’s a flipside that you have to find ... the silver lining. There was much retail campaigning. I love being out with people, but people have been at home and consuming much more media than normal. So, there has been a higher volume and frequency of that. Maybe that partially accounts for the substantial and robust voter turnout we’re seeing in the early phases of this election.
But, I think we’ve made the best of a bad situation. I think we’ve done that pretty well with my campaign. We’ve created a presence across the various platforms. I feel good about what we’ve done.”
The general election is Tuesday, November 3.