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CHARLESTON -- In a down payment on its pledge to spend up to $10 million on behalf of U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, the Club for Growth recently spent more than $300,000 going after Gov. Jim Justice in the 2024 Republican U.S. Senate primary.
According to a 24/48 hour independent expenditure report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission, Club for Growth Action - the political arm of Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth - spent $300,000 with Nexum Group LLC for internet communications and consulting on Thursday.
The Nexum expenditure brings Club for Growth's total independent expenditures for the month to $301,904 and their calendar year-to-date expenditures in West Virginia's Republican primary for U.S. Senate seat to $325,911.
Club for Growth Action spent $1,404 reimbursing the Club for Growth for digital ad production, press release distribution, email costs, and internet communications. The group also spent $500 for digital ad placement.
The Club for Growth, founded in 1999, is a fiscal conservative group focused on limited government, reducing federal spending, reforming Social Security and other government programs, and cutting taxes.
In April, the Club for Growth pledged to spend up to $10 million on behalf of 2nd District Congressman Mooney, R-W.Va., who announced his intentions last November to run for U.S. Senate in 2024, days after his victory for the newly redistricted 2nd District seat covering the northern half of West Virginia. The Club for Growth endorsed Mooney in the 2nd District Republican primary in 2022 against former 1st District Congressman David McKinley.
Two-term Democrat-turned-Republican Gov. Justice announced his campaign for U.S. Senate at the end of April after being recruited by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. On May 24, Justice's U.S. Senate campaign committee formed a joint fundraising committee.
Justice, a millionaire businessman, has said he doesn't intend on relying on self-funding for his campaign. According to his most recent campaign finance filing with the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office, Justice has more than $2.6 million in outstanding loans from self-funding his 2020 re-election campaign for governor after raising more than $1.8 million.
At the beginning of May, the Club for Growth released a TV ad attacking Justice, called "Deadbeat." The ad focuses on recent reporting on Justice's many financial issues involving his companies and his downgrade from billionaire to millionaire by Forbes Magazine.
The ad specifically focuses on a report last month by the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found Justice's coal mines liable for six years of unpaid health care premiums owed to retired coal miners through a United Mine Workers of America health plan.
"They did backbreaking work mining coal for Jim Justice. How did he repay them? That's the thing: he didn't," the narrator said. "Justice's companies cut off healthcare coverage for retired coal miners and their families, gutting the medical and prescription benefits he promised. No warning. Just cruel."
Speaking during a briefing with reporters at the end of May, Justice pushed back on allegations about his companies not paying its obligations.
"Everybody loves to just pile on," Justice said. "I'll promise you that many of the things you may be seeing that are reported are skewed one way or another. You may be really surprised by the final outcomes. I promise you just this: that any obligation, responsibility or whatever it may be that these companies have they'll take care of."
Both Justice and Mooney will face Chris Rose and Zane Lawthorn in the May 2024 Republican primary. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has not decided whether to seek re-election for a third six-year term, saying he will announce his intentions at the end of the year.
(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)