There’s writing on the wall, and then there’s West Virginia politics.
The state Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission had 12 people apply for the open circuit court seat left by the retirement of longtime Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom.
The 12 applicants, in alphabetical order, are: Stephanie Abraham, Kevin Baker, Harry Clair Bruner Jr., Anne Charnock, Nicole Cofer, Jim Douglas, Jennier Dowdy Gordon, Ashlee Hunter, Matthew Minney, Adam Petry, Zoe Shavers and Brittany Ranson Stonestreet.
Feel free to research each of the dozen applicants. There are two current Kanawha County family court judges (Douglas and Stonestreet), two current Kanawha County assistant prosecutors (Gordon and Petry), Charleston’s city attorney (Baker), a former Charleston Municipal Judge (Charnock), the director of Magistrate Courts Division with the state Supreme Court (Cofer) and an administrative law judge for the state Public Service Commission (Minney).
Read all you can about them. Learn their qualifications. Clearly, there are some solid candidates who want the job. The JVAC will interview all of them August 22 and submit a list of finalist recommendations to the governor’s office.
But, here’s all you really need to know: Abraham, who is general counsel for the West Virginia Department of Education, is married to Brian Abraham.
Why does that matter?
Brian Abraham is chief of staff (and former general counsel) to Gov. Jim Justice.
Case closed.
Sure, the JVAC will interview all of the candidates, and it will send a list of final recommendations to the governor. He can choose one from that list, or he can go off the board and pick any of the candidates.
Given Justice’s track record for cronyism, who do you think he’s going to choose?
Unless Big Jim is really good friends with one of the other applicants, our money is on Stephanie Abraham.
It isn’t like Justice hasn’t done this before. Two of the five current state Supreme Court justices appointed by Justice have such ties. And several other state government appointments have gone to friends of the governor in the last seven years, such as former state Transportation Secretary Byrd White, former Lottery Director Alan Larrick and his wife Renee Larrick, who was appointed to the state Public Service Commission. That's just to name a few.
That isn’t to say those people weren’t qualified for the jobs. Maybe they were. And maybe Stephanie Abraham, who also is a former attorney for the Logan County Board of Education, is the most qualified for this job.
But anyone who has a remote interest in this process already has seen the writing on the wall. Or, in this case, big red letters painted on the side of a water tower that spell Abraham.
