By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Extensive ties between supporters of a political committee almost exclusively supporting Kris Warner’s West Virginia Secretary of State campaign and beneficiaries of a Warner-headed state agency loom large amid a new election law complaint filed with the office Warner seeks.
Of $290,823 spent by Conservative Policy Action, a Lexington, Kentucky-based “super political action committee” in April and May, $225,900 (78%) was spent to support Warner or raise opposition to fellow candidate Doug Skaff Jr. in a Republican primary contest won handily by Warner, per a Gazette-Mail analysis of figures the committee filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Another opponent defeated by Warner in the same contest, Ken Reed of Morgan County, wants the Secretary of State’s Office, the state’s chief election office, to probe those ties.
Reed filed an election law complaint July 25 with the Secretary of State’s Office urging it to investigate connections between Warner, the Economic Development Authority, the Conservative Policy Action PAC and Mark Scott, who made waves by resigning as secretary of the state Department of Administration effective July 31.
Scott resigned amid concern over him chairing the Conservative Policy Action PAC while serving as administration secretary, a post from which he oversaw state personnel, purchasing and facility management.
The current secretary of state is Warner’s brother, Mac, who spurned a shot at a third term in the role to mount an unsuccessful run for governor in the Republican primary.