Adding to Anne Laurie’s post a bit ago, here is this piece from downstate, which honest to goodness is a different country from the northern panhandle where I live:
The West Virginia Senate candidate who was attacked at a cookout over the weekend said Monday that he’s known his alleged assailant since they were kids.
Jonathan Porter, 41, faces charges of malicious assault, attempt to commit a felony and destruction of property in the beating of Richard Ojeda, who’s running against state Sen. Art Kirkendoll, D-Logan, in today’s Democratic primary.
Ojeda said he was at a cookout in the Whitman area of Logan County at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday when Porter, whom he hadn’t seen in years, attacked him.
Porter, who lives in the Whitman Creek area, turned himself in around 6 p.m. Sunday, according to State Police Trooper Z.S. Holden.
In an interview from his hospital room at Charleston Area Medical Center’s General Hospital on Monday, Ojeda said Porter showed up at the cookout and told the candidate he wanted a bumper sticker.
“I’ve known him since I was like around 7,” Ojeda said. “We grew up in the same hollow.”
Ojeda, who spent 24 years in the U.S. Army, said he stuck a bumper sticker on the back of Porter’s truck, then Porter said he wanted a bumper sticker on the front of his truck, too.
“I didn’t realize, what he was doing was luring me around to the other side of the truck, where he could be blocked [from] everyone at the picnic,” Ojeda said.
Ojeda said that when he knelt over to place the bumper sticker on the truck, Porter repeatedly kicked him in the head, then got something out of the truck. Other people at the cookout told him they saw Porter hit him in the head with brass knuckles. Another person thought Porter used a hammer.
“All I know is, I woke up with my head on a tree stump covered in blood and I just kept going in and out of consciousness until I got to the hospital,” Ojeda said.
People at the picnic also told Ojeda that Porter tried to run him over with his truck. They said Porter fled after striking two side-by-side vehicles.
Ojeda said he believes the attack was politically motivated. Since he hadn’t spoken to Porter in years, he believes someone else put Porter up to it.
“I can’t accuse anybody directly; I don’t have the facts,” Ojeda said, “but I will tell you I don’t see any other reason why this would happen, other than it being political.”
He said he has been very vocal about the sentences for those involved in the Mountain Laurel Mining Complex kickback scheme, including that of Alvis Porter, Jonathan Porter’s uncle.
In May 2014, prosecutors charged 10 people in what they described as a widespread scheme that forced companies to pay kickbacks to obtain contracts at the mine.
David Runyon, the general manager, was charged with one count each of extortion and tax evasion. Alvis Porter, of Holden, a former Logan County circuit clerk and the owner and operator of Southern Construction, was charged with failing to pay trust-fund taxes of his employees. He also admitted to paying about $400,000 in kickbacks to Runyon.
In February 2015, Porter was sentenced to three years probation for failing to pay employment taxes. He also agreed to forfeit $350,000 and pay the IRS nearly $27,000.
“It shows that we have a double standard,” Ojeda said. “These people who are rich and powerful and politically connected are able to get away with anything.”
Alvis Porter’s wife, Nikki, recently donated $1,000 to Kirkendoll’s re-election campaign, according to financial disclosures. Jonathan Porter’s brother, Harold, is running as a Democrat for Logan County assessor.
Ojeda said he is known for being vocal about corruption in Logan County.
Logan County is south of Boone County (infamous for Jesco White) and north of Mingo, nw of McDowell County.
Here are some visual aids that will speak a thousand words.
A map of WV:
Child poverty:
And on and on. Basically every statistic is bad.
This is Trump Country. This is Coal country. This is gods, guns and hating on the gays country. Most who are Democrats here would be considered frothing right wingers anywhere outside of Appalachia. Here’s a scandal from the Bush years:
During the 2004 election season in the town of Logan, West Virginia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in a controversial move, had four-term mayor Thomas Esposito run for the West Virginia House of Delegates in order to ferret out corruption in Logan County politics. Officials in neighboring Lincoln County, West Virginia were also charged
Esposito was a prominent criminal defense attorney and four-term Mayor of Logan who was directed to buy votes by the FBI and implicate as many local politicians as possible in a Federal probe directed by Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Booth Goodwin II. In the end, Esposito was directed to pull out of the race before the general election and pleaded guilty to a single charge of misprision of a felony, putatively for bribing Logan County, West Virginia magistrate, Danny Wells, who himself received a nearly eight-year Federal sentence for his own bribery and extortion charges. Esposito himself was merely disbarred and served two years of probation. He is considered to have bribed Wells by paying off his $6500 bar tab.[2] Others charged with crimes as a result of the sting
Other public figures were charged with federal crimes and forced to resign. The following men were implicated in the sting:
Logan County Clerk Glen Dale “Houn’ Dog” Adkins admitted he sold his vote for $500 in 1996.
Perry French Harvey, Jr., former UMWA official pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe voters.
Ernie Ray Mangus was granted immunity against the charge of receiving $1,000 to buy votes in exchange for his cooperation.
“Big” John Mendez, Sheriff of Logan County, was compelled to resign and is never allowed to run for public office again.
Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers entered a guilty plea to a federal vote-buying charge in a probe directed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen George.
Logan police chief Alvin “Chipper” Porter Jr. and Logan VFW president Ernest Stapleton both entered related guilty pleas.
Booth Goodwin is now running for the Democratic nomination for Governor, running in a three way race against Jeff Kessler and Jim Justice, a coal baron. He’ll probably split the vote with Kessler (who I voted for) and Justice will be the nominee, which will be a fucking shame, but he’ll still be better than Bill Cole.
Also notice Alvin Porter again. But white people in WV will act all shocked when black people vote for Marion Berry.
shomi
This sort of helps explain why wrong way Cole is so wrong so often. Part of that whole nature vs nurture debate. How can you not be wrong all the time when you live in a state that will actually vote for a completely unqualified world class idiot like Drumpf over Hillary.
jayjaybear
A $6500 bar tab? I don’t think I’ve drunk $6500 worth of alcohol in my entire life.
dnfree
I was in Buckhannon, WV, in March for the first time in almost 60 years. It’s where my mom grew up. Beautiful country but so much poverty.
Mike J
@jayjaybear: You don’t get bar tabs like that from drinking yourself. Bizdev.
max
here is this piece from downstate, which honest to goodness is a different country from the northern panhandle where I live:
Dude. Tell me about it. They really ought to work a territorial deal with Ohio to swap the panhandle to Ohio in exchange for stuff on the other side of the river further. (And the same on the other side with the other panhandle and Maryland’s panhandle.)
This is Trump Country. This is Coal country. This is gods, guns and hating on the gays country. Most who are Democrats here would be considered frothing right wingers anywhere outside of Appalachia.
Yup. That’s right where my evil step-father came from. He so totally would have been all in for Trump, just like he was all in on Reagan (to stick it to Carter). Well, he would be if he wasn’t in Hell.
max
[‘He probably dials in to Rush Limbaugh from down there.’]
? Martin
And we wonder why they vote for the bomb thrower rather than the establishment candidates. Sounds like the establishment has fucked them over pretty hard.
jl
I’m sure Cole will be glad to know that I have had very interesting conversations with some of my back East relatives, the ones from just north over the state line from Mineral County, came out to visit California.
But all in all, they were very generous. They said California was a great place to visit, but I could keep it. That was very considerate of them, I think.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Speak (hic) for yourshelf.
mdblanche
OT (or maybe not): Meet the Philippines’ new president.
Davebo
@jayjaybear: Generally, a $6,500 bar tab occurs in what we might call “special bars”. If you know what I mean.
J R in WV
Poor in so many ways, poor, beautiful West Virginia.
We live in Lincoln county, which is a big county with lots of people and no jobs. No mining, a little bit of oil and gas, the school system is the biggest employer.
One detail you left out John, is that when a corrupt politician gets busted, if he pleads out, and they mostly do, they sign away their right to ever run for elective office or take a government job, ever again. This is because otherwise they would be re-elected in the next election after they got out of jail.
I once had a boss while working for the state government, who worked in tax enforcement for a while. He told amazing stories about bootlegged cigarettes, with no tax stamp, or with fraudulent tax stamps. People killed and buried in corn fields in Ohio to keep them from testifying. Plowed up years later.
That was back in the 1950s, when Governor Barron used to take his bribes by winning at illegal establishments where chance and odds were used to exchange money. He too went to jail. I think he and Arch Moore are the most famous governors for serving time.
But I love the rolling green hills of West Virginia. And most of the people are good. I’ll get a chance tomorrow to vote for that poor guy who got beat up yesterday. Hope it does some good, but I doubt it.
Amaranthine RBG
I guess everybody needs somebody to look down on.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Even out with the bizdev guys + clients I never topped £1000 for a night (for the group), but I can imagine it being done. And that was without our œnophile vp.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Piker.
@Davebo: “Bottle service?”
patroclus
This is right in the area of the famous miner’s strike about which there was a really good PBS American Experience episode a few months back. I hope Ojeda wins big-time but I’m doubtful.
Hmmmm. Bill “Cole.” I wonder where I’ve seen that last name before.
? Martin
@J R in WV:
21,000 people in your county. My HOA covers 50% more people than live in your county. In that corner of WV, though, that probably is a lot of people.
It’s a big, diverse country.
Davebo
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah! That’s the ticket!
Prescott Cactus
@max:
Only the Democratic side of Hell gets Rush. Republicans get MSNBC. Life is funny sometimes.
trollhattan
@jl:
Don’t you live in the Central Valley? Too liberal for them?!?
trollhattan
@Davebo:
If it’s the waitress with teeth, bottles cost double.
Redshift
@? Martin:
So have the bomb throwers.
Mike in NC
Went on our honeymoon in ’94 to see the Antietam battlefield, Harper’s Ferry, Shepardstown, and stayed at the Bavarian Inn. Fantastic trip.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Were yodeling and Lederhosen involved? Extra credit if it’s the Wurst place you ever stayed.
Tripod
The population, and the poverty, came with the coal industry.
Eric U.
it’s sad that the coal miners never figured out that it was the republicans that screwed them.
Mike in NC
@trollhattan: Nope, a five star resort. Maybe we’ll get back there sometime. Last month we stayed at the Zephyr Cove resort at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Awesome.
Frankensteinbeck
@? Martin:
They voted enthusiastically for the establishment to fuck them over. There’s an important difference. They knew precisely what they were going to get. They believed the result would be that the blacks, browns, queers, and weirdos would be put back in their place, from which would naturally follow their own economic comfort. The quintessential example is the unemployed Kentucky woman who was alive because of Obamacare’s medicaid expansion. Asked why she was voting for Bevin, she said that when government assistance was taken away from all the people who didn’t deserve it, she wouldn’t need it because there would be a good job for her.
EDIT – She was clear: The good job would be the result of how great the job market would be once the moochers were denied.
Brachiator
OT:. The Punisher is winning in the Philippines
The whole world is going nuts, not just the US.
And there are reports in USA Today and elsewhere that the Court will hear fewer cases next term, to avoid ties on major cases. GOP obstructionist action hurts the task of governance. Here’s hoping the Democrats crush the Republicans come election day.
Frankensteinbeck
…you know what? Forget that. I would delete it if I still had the button. Let’s pay more attention to this amazing document Ammon Bundy submitted to try to get his case dismissed. It is fascinating and bizarre, and this man has his head so far up his ass he was able to stick it in AGAIN. The latest bit I read has him stating that the courts have never ruled on whether the US government is allowed to continue to own land they already own if there’s a lot of it (‘whether Congress can forever retain the majority of the land within a state’). I would not be surprised if the courts had never ruled on that. They probably haven’t ruled on whether federal employees still own their own hands after washing them. Some questions never arise because you have to be a lunatic to think of them.
NotMax
What’s all this about Cole minors?
Is John truly the pharaoh of fecundity? Inquiring minds want to kn- -
What? Oh.
Never mind.
/Emily Litella
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Ha! Good one.
mdblanche
@Brachiator: Meanwhile in Austria…
CONGRATULATIONS!
I saw this story earlier today on some MSM news puke funnel and was hoping Mr. Cole would weigh in. Boy did you ever! When I first read the story I was thinking “this is some real Mafia-style shit here” but it goes WAY deeper and nastier than that. The crime bosses are the people who’re supposed to be stopping crime, not committing them!
I’m not a religious man but I’d pray for West Virginia if I was. You guys got a mountain of fucked-up shit going on in that state, and need more help than humans may be able to provide.
Brachiator
@mdblanche: And this from a related story sounds familiar
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Frankensteinbeck:
Were I the judge, I’d issue an order calling a conference sua sponte and invite Arnold (the idiot lawyer) the lawyer to withdraw the frivolous shit or face a sanction of $5000 and a bar on practice in my courtroom.
Burn the stupid motherfucker like he’s never been burnt before.
seaboogie
@shomi: “L”
piratedan
My dad got out of Wyoming county (some of the family is still there in the Beckley area) by going Military. There are only (seemingly) three ways out, work for the county, work for the mines or go military, the bonus was that you could leave the state for elsewhere. It’s a beautiful state and if you’re family, most of the folks are nice, but christ they’re like native american reservations for rednecks, fuck all for opportunity.
Eric
So basically “Justified” was a documentary.
csloz29
I spent a fair bit of time in Logan and Boone Counties when I was in college. Serious culture shock for a kid from the Pacific NW. People talked about corruption like it was no big deal.
On the plus side, I got to spend some time with Ken Hechler, too.
Booger
I assume you mean Marion Barry. Marion Berry was a congressman from Arkansas. I suppose black people voting for him could be noteworthy.
Tripod
The writing on the wall was there for all to see when eastern utilities started buying Powder River basin (Wyoming) coal. If your production costs can’t compete with a thousand mile pull, you are well and truly fucked.
Clearly this was all Obama’s fault.
Trump and Sanders going in there and making unicorn promises doesn’t help. The railroads are shutting down – there was never any traffic other than coal. Most of the economic utility of these communities was coal, and some (not insignificant) portion of the population will leave with coal.
Trump’s a fucking jackass, but for Bernie Sanders to sell stupid, pandering, multi-billion dollar bullshit to communities under duress is not right.