CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Democratic House Legislative Committee and the West Virginia Democratic Party have filed an elections complaint against a group that is spending money on attack ads but has not filed campaign finance disclosures.
Majority WV, Inc. has spent money to attack at least nine Democratic incumbents, The Register-Herald reported. The group got in trouble two years ago for electioneering without registering as a political action committee. At the time it was called 1863 PAC Ltd., In 2018, the Secretary of State’s Office filed a cease and desist letter against the group calling on it to either prove it was a registered PAC or terminate its electioneering work. The organization registered as a PAC the same day. On June 23, 2020, the organization filed a name change to Majority WV, Inc.
Democratic legislative committee chair Delegate Mick Bates called it “outrageous” that the same group was doing the same things two years later.
“The reason we have campaign finance laws at the state and federal levels is because voters deserve to know who is paying to support and attack the candidates they are deciding to vote for,” the Raleigh Democrat said. “Once 1863 PAC, Ltd. filed as a PAC, we saw that they were being bankrolled by business interests aligned with Jim Justice.”
