CHARLESTON – State Senate President Craig Blair criticized the state Supreme Court for its decision regarding the eligibility of a Senate candidate to be on the May 10 Republican primary ballot.
“The core issue of this matter is the preservation of election integrity and conducting free and fair elections,” Blair (R-Berkeley) said in a May 6 press release issued shortly after the Justices refused a motion for stay from Andrea Garrett Kiessling, who had been ruled ineligible to be on the May 10 primary ballot for a seat in the 8th District earlier this week by Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom. “The Supreme Court in its decision today provided no direction to achieve this monumental goal. It’s vitally important that the judicial branch provide clarity in its interpretations of the law and constitution, and sadly, we did not receive that.
“This is not an issue of power. This is an issue of fairness. Nobody would dispute that we have processes in place to challenge issues related to candidates and elections, but we must respect those processes to prevent the disenfranchisement of any voter.”
Thomas
Blair said technology and other factors have changed voting.
“Our elections have changed substantially throughout the last 20 years with early voting and easier access to absentee voting,” he said. “People no longer vote just on Election Day. While it may only be a small portion of votes already cast in the 8th Senatorial District, those people have now had their ballots effectively canceled and their votes thrown out.
“That is unacceptable to me, and should be unacceptable to every voter.”
As president of the state Senate, Blair said it is his duty to fix issues that affect “all West Virginians as we discover them.”
“From the events of this week, it is clear we must do better to clearly outline in West Virginia Code the responsibility that candidates and our Secretary of State have when seeking or certifying a candidate to run for any office,” Blair said. “Outlining these responsibilities and requirements clearly in code to ensure they match our Constitution will eliminate any ambiguity or confusion that could arise, and would certainly prevent a situation where any sort of court intervention would stop the casting of lawful ballots in an election.
“The right to vote is a sacred process and we should do everything possible to prevent confusion and lost confidence in the process. While we may not be able to repair the confidence of voters during the 2022 election, we intend, to make it right for the future.”
Earlier Friday before the 5-0 Supreme Court ruling, Blair had issued another statement about the matter.
“This week’s outrageous decision by Judge Bloom is insulting to the very institution of free and fair elections,” Blair said. “For an activist judge to issue an order that directly subverts the will of hundreds of voters is a terrifying precedent, and one that no West Virginian should tolerate.
“West Virginia’s election law clearly provides a process for challenging the certification of a candidate, and that deadline for challenge passed nearly three months ago. It is unconscionable that this judge ignored that established process already in code and choose to put his thumb on the scale to affect an election’s outcome.
“Like all people who hold their right to vote sacred, I am deeply troubled by the precedent set by this activist judge. A judge has no right to unilaterally decide whether a candidate is fit for office. That is a job for the voters and the voters alone. The place for our courts to offer remedy in a dispute such as this is after a lawfully held election takes place, not in the middle of it. Every person who believes that we, the people, hold the final say over our elected representatives should share my disappointment and my outrage.
“The actions of Judge Bloom will not be forgotten, and I am committed to placing into code clear, statutory provisions to prevent an affront to democracy like this from happening again in the State of West Virginia. Our citizens deserve the freedom of fair elections, and the freedom to choose their representatives, and we will not allow anybody to interfere with that freedom.
“The widely recognized Purcell principle, which would prevent last-minute judicial intervention in elections, will be a top agenda item for the West Virginia Senate during next year’s regular session. Stolen elections are too common in this country, and we are not going to tolerate them in West Virginia.”
That first release triggered a response by Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, who called Blair’s statement “as outrageous as it is dangerous.”
“No person, party, or brand of government holds a monopoly on power,” Baldwin (D-Greenbrier) said in his own press release. “Power is shared in our democratic republic. Every West Virginian is taught the importance of our government’s separation of powers. It creates a system of checks of balances between the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary.
“In West Virginia, we have great respect for the law and following the rules. As we all learned in civics class, it is our court’s job to apply the West Virginia Constitution. The courts are doing their job, hearing the evidence, applying the law, and making the best decision it can – even when presented with a difficult issue and in a hyper-partisan political environment.
“Instead of permitting this issue to work its way through the courts and even the West Virginia Supreme Court, Senate President Blair resorts to the name-calling and personal attacks begun by Senator Eric Tarr and Greg Thomas earlier this week. That is not how democracy works. It is our duty as elected leaders to respect checks and balance, separation of powers, and treat each other with respect. There is no place for intimidation and bullying of one branch by another.”
Baldwin said Blair is being partisan.
“President Blair argues that this is unprecedented,” he said. “The truth is that this has happened before and even recently. A very similar situation occurred in 2018 when President Blair and I were both in the Senate and a Mountain Party candidate was ruled ineligible with the court ordering similar procedures put into place to advise voters of this ineligibility determination.
“If this situation is an affront to voters, why was that not? It seems Senate President Blair just wants to score political points by incorrectly stating that this issue is an ‘unprecedented’ action by a ‘liberal activist’ judge. ...
“West Virginians are tired of the hyper-partisan nature of our politics. Especially when politicians seek to win elections above all else. First and foremost, we have a responsibility to follow the law and abide by the West Virginia Constitution. It is a dangerous and unacceptable precedent for the Lieutenant Governor of West Virginia to seek to bully and intimate the judicial branch of government into rendering a judgment which he wants.”
Tarr (R-Putnam) and Thomas, a conservative political consultant, have been critical of Bloom and Democrats this week on social media.
“Rooting out liberal corruption doesn’t happen overnight,” Thomas tweeted Friday. “We will stay after it until we clean up this mess at the Kanawha County Courthouse.”
“This is the last election liberal CORRUPT Democrat Judges will steal from us,” he also tweeted Friday, mentioning circuit court redistricting.
“It doesn’t matter how many laws you change at the state level, if you have a CORRUPT court at the circuit level. The liberals know this and now rely exclusively on their activist judges. They have tried to hold up labor reforms, education reforms, and now even an election.
“The true start of the conservative movement and getting West Virginia turned in the right direction was the removal of Warren McGraw from the State Supreme Court. Getting rid of the activist judges left at the circuit court level will be our next step. Long overdue.”
Tarr made similar statements on Facebook, saying he will “do my part to make sure a Democrat lawyer and judge can never legally steal a West Virginia election again.”
“Kanawha County Judge Bloom has ordered that anyone who voted for the conservative in that race will not have their vote counted,” Tarr posted Friday. “The Supreme Court has ruled this is perfectly fine.
“The ruling is precedent for trial lawyers to circumvent future elections when there are liberals registered as republican who would otherwise lose to a conservative on the ballot.
“The decision by both Judge Bloom and the West Virginia Supreme Court reeks of the Pennsylvania election interference in 2020 by the Democrats.
“The judges’ nullification of your vote does not mean you have to vote for one of the liberals on the ballot. You can still vote for Andrea Garrett Kiessling, the court just says if you vote conservative, your vote does not matter.”
Wes Toney, counsel for the Senate Minority leadership, said Baldwin didn’t plan to respond to Blair’s second statement after the order was issued.