By ERIN BECK
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With a smile, Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, walked across Kanawha Boulevard and offered pastries and strawberries to protesters outside the forum his organization hosted in Charleston on Thursday morning.
(Gazette-Mail photo by Craig Hudson)
Most declined the pastries, which were prepared at the Four Points by Sheraton. That’s where the American Conservative Union, as well as the Cardinal Institute, were holding a conservative event, featuring U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey as keynote speakers.
“Who pays for that?” asked Ryan Frankenberry, state director of the recently formed West Virginia Working Families Party, extending his microphone toward Schlapp’s face. Schlapp is a former political director for President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign and ran the Washington, D.C. offices of Koch Industries.
“All kinds of people,” Schlapp responded.
“Bill Cole?” Frankenberry asked.
“Who’s Bill Cole?” Schlapp said.
“You don’t know who gives you money?” Frankenberry said. “Who bought those danishes?”
“I bought those danishes,” Schlapp said. “Who paid for that mic?”
“I did,” Frankenberry said.
“And I paid for the danishes.”
“Thanks for the danishes,” Frankenberry said, “but we’d rather have health care.”
The American Conservative Union is tax-exempt and does not have to disclose its donors. To keep its tax-exempt status, the IRS requires that it not participate in campaign activities.
About 30 people had gathered at Haddad Riverfront Park to protest the event.
Eddie Ingles, a Fayetteville resident and the recording secretary for AFL-CIO South Central Labor Council, said his father, who was a miner in the Minden area, had told him about once receiving a 1-cent paycheck from the coal company. He said he opposes Morrisey’s support for West Virginia’s right-to-work law, “which is actually the right-to-be-poor law,” he said.
“There wouldn’t be a middle class without unions,” said Ingles, who said he belonged to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees when he worked for the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
“When I came here, this was a different state,” said Gail Michelson, who moved to West Virginia from New York in 1990. “People were more worried about taking care of others.
“I don’t think [Sessions] has anybody’s best interest in mind, and I don’t think you can incarcerate your way out of the opioid crisis,” she said, referring to Sessions’ hard line on incarcerating drug addicts. She is a retired public defender.
They carried signs that said “Don’t Take Away Our Care” and “Deport Carpetbagger Politicians.”
Frankenberry led a “Where are you, Mooney?” chant.
“Who here has actually spoken to him?” he asked. No one responded.
“I’m here because we need to bring the town hall to Mooney, because Mooney has not had one town hall,” said Sally Roberts Wilson. Decades ago, she said, she was the director of research and planning for the West Virginia Hospital Association.
“We will lose small and rural hospitals” if the GOP’s latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act — “Graham-Cassidy” — passes, according to Wilson. “We may lose our large hospitals.”
“What kinda sick person isn’t even for CHIP?” asked Mary Ann Claytor, a Democrat who ran for state auditor in 2016.
Mooney was the only member of Congress representing West Virginia who didn’t respond to an inquiry on the upcoming reauthorization deadline for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program.
As for who paid for the mic and pastries, Frankenberry later sent a receipt, with the first name, which he said was his wife’s, blacked out. He said that he “was there to be supportive and let them use my PA system.” His organization, the West Virginia Working Families Party, has not yet officially formed as a political organization.
Ian Walters, a spokesman for the American Conservative Union, sent a photo of Schlapp holding a receipt that listed the American Conservative Union, although he said that was because of the hotel system and vouched for his boss. He said that the American Conservative Union doesn’t disclose donors because it “would not be appropriate.”
Reach Erin Beck at [email protected], 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.
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