On April 16th, three candidates for the Democratic nomination for Governor of West Virginia will meet in Charleston to debate. For two of these candidates, Minority Leader of the WV Senate Jeff Kessler and former US Attorney Booth Goodwin, this debate will likely be their rallying cry. Their last attempt to come out from behind the shadow of the third candidate, billionaire businessman Jim Justice. Justice enjoys a healthy lead in all the polls that have been conducted and, with little less than a month before the Primary election, he has an almost assured path to the nomination. Indeed, Justice has all but ignored his Democratic opponents, until recently when things have gotten heated between the Goodwin and Justice camps.

The Goodwin-Justice spat can be first traced back to March, when Booth Goodwin was the only candidate to mention another candidate by name at the West Virginia Manufacturer’s Association convention. Goodwin said wrong headed for the state to give Jim Justice $25 million to build a sports palace at The Greenbrier." Soon after this, an independent expenditure group called Americans for Integrity in Government Officials ran an ad, claiming Justice's business practices were unethical. The Justice camp fired back, blaming the Goodwin camp for this mudslinging, while the Goodwin camp maintained that they had nothing to do with the ad. Most recently, Justice slammed Goodwin for not getting a higher level conviction on Don Blankenship. Justice, himself, said "I think we spent an ungodly amount of money within our state to probably keep Booth Goodwin in the limelight and end up with a misdemeanor charge[...]" Goodwin responded saying: “That was the most serious count with which he was charged. It is not our fault that violating laws designed to protect workers is punished less harshly than violations of laws designed to protect Wall Street.” He then went on to imply, rather naively, that Justice's accusation surely meant that the Goodwin campaign had the Justice campaign "running scared."

I got to see this fight first hand myself at the Upshur County Democratic Convention, last Saturday. A representative for the Goodwin campaign was speaking, because Booth Goodwin could not make it himself. This representative read the prepared speech that was given to him by the Goodwin campaign and then opened the floor to questions. He was asked (I am paraphrasing this conversation, unless it is in quotations) 'What differentiates Booth Goodwin from Jeff Kessler and Jim Justice?' Responded with 'I can't really say what separates him from Kessler, I don't really know that.' He paused for a moment and then continued, as if he wasn't satisfied with his answer, "I can tell you how he's different than Jim Justice though... Goodwin's a Democrat!" This was met with scattered chuckles, while I, myself, felt a bit of an awkward twinge fill the room.

This kind of petty bickering is something the Democratic Party of West Virginia does not need right now. Both Houses of the Legislature were taken from them, for the first time in nearly 60 years, and the Governorship is the last embankment between them and total Republican control of the state. Bill Cole, the only Republican candidate for Governor, does not have to face a Primary and will enter the General election all but unscathed, while the Goodwin continues to heave mud at the man who is very likely to be the Democratic nominee. All the while, the Republican Governor’s Association has been reported at throwing upwards of $600,000 at the state, already preparing for a fight and perhaps hoping to influence the Democratic primary. It is time for Justice and Goodwin to bury the hatchet and come together to unify the Party. Goodwin doesn't have to stop running by any means. What he should do, however, is attempt to convince West Virginians that he is the best candidate for Governor, rather than attempting to convince them that Justice isn't good for the state. Most Democrats would agree that any of the very qualified Democratic candidates is a sight better than the car salesman.