Politico is reporting on the latest rock star climbing up the rope in the GOP primaries:
National Republicans — on the heels of the Roy Moore and Rick Saccone debacles — worry they’re staring down their latest potential midterm election fiasco: coal baron and recent federal prisoner Don Blankenship.
With Blankenship skyrocketing in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary and blanketing the airwaves with ads assailing his fractured field of rivals as career politicians, senior party officials are wrestling with how, or even whether, to intervene. Many of them are convinced that Blankenship, who served a one-year sentence after the deadly 2010 explosion at his Upper Big Branch Mine, would be a surefire loser against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — and potentially become a national stain for the party.
The discussions have intensified over the past few weeks. During separate meetings with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, aides to Blankenship’s two primary opponents, Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, pointed to Blankenship’s traction and questioned what could be done to stop him. The Senate GOP campaign arm, which heard out the appeals, recently commissioned a survey to gauge the coal king’s electoral strength and determine his staying power in the race.
It’s fascinating how discredited figures such as Blankenship – convicted of coal mine safety violations which impact the working man more than anyone – can achieve such popularity. Is it because they are emblematic of the hungry grasping for wealth and prestige, no matter the cost for his employees, which appeals to the darkest primitive urges from our primeval past? Is it his willingness to break the rules that appeals to many who feel over-regulated (see this post on our personal insensitivity to matters of scale)?
But this is within the West Virginia GOP. Does Blankenship have a similar popularity throughout West Virginia? I suspect there are enough sensible people there that will prefer current Senator Manchin (D), who is considered the most conservative of the Democratic Senators, that Blankenship’s bid for the seat will fall short, particularly if he has more extremist views to share.
But his increasing popularity is a measure of the extremism of the GOP these days – and another reason why the party really needs to be destroyed and reconstituted with reasonable adults.
