Blankenship takes ballot fight to West Virginia Supreme Court

Don Blankenship is taking his battle to run for the U.S. Senate to the West Virginia Supreme Court.

According to a petition for a writ of mandamus filed with the state’s high court Thursday, Blankenship and the Constitution Party are challenging West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner’s decision to deny Blankenship’s candidacy papers to run with the party.

Warner denied Blankenship’s filing, citing West Virginia’s “sore loser” law, which he maintains prohibits candidates who lose in a primary election from running again with a non-ballot-qualified party (i.e., the Constitution Party) in the general.

However, Blankenship is challenging the denial with two central arguments: His attorney, Robert Bastress, argues in the filing that state law, as of the time Blankenship filed as a Republican in January, did not contain any “sore loser” provision as the secretary of state’s 2018 election guidebook states; and Bastress says changes to the code passed by the Legislature this year and enacted into law in June cannot be retroactively applied to the campaign, which was already underway.

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/blankenship-takes-ballot-fight-to-wv-supreme-court/article_fda972c3-51d0-5d43-bfc1-5ba72f7a4ec8.html