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WHEELING -- The campaign manager for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship said the U.S. Senate candidate's financial records are complicated.
"As you can expect, it is a longer process for Don than most," said campaign manager Greg Thomas. "We're doing it. We just didn't realize what it was going to take."
Thomas made the comments Tuesday, which was two days after the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate was supposed to file the personal financial forms. Financial disclosure reports from candidates for Senate were due to the Senate Office of Public Records on April 8, or 30 days prior to the May 8 primary election.
Thomas said he expects the office could fine Blankenship about $250 for missing the deadline. The chief counsel for the Senate Ethics Committee did not return calls Tuesday seeking more specific comments as to what the punishment could be for being late with a financial disclosure report.
Blankenship's campaign manager said completion of the report "is in the process," but he wasn't certain when it would be submitted.
Meanwhile, full campaign finance reports for the first quarter of 2018 are due April 15, and that form will be submitted on time, said Thomas. Those reports show who has contributed to the candidate's campaign and how the money has been spent.
"That one is easy," said Thomas. "We have had no contributions -- only expenditures."
The last campaign finance report submitted by Blankenship in December showed him loaning his campaign $400,000. He also showed that the campaign had $146,490 on hand to spend.
Blankenship's name will be on the GOP ticket for Senate in the primary election along with U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, Bo Copley of Delbarton W.Va., Jack Newbrough of Weirton and Tom Willis of Martinsburg.
Blankenship announced his candidacy for Senate in November, just six months after serving 12 months in federal prison.
He was acquitted of felony charges in late 2015 for lying about safety procedures at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine in 2010 that resulted in the deaths of 29 miners. His charges were reduced to a misdemeanor count of conspiring to willfully violate mine safety and health standards, and he served a one-year sentence at FCI Taft in California.
(King can be contacted at jking@theintelligencer.net)