I feel like I haven’t written about West Virginia politics in years, but it has only been a few weeks.

I’m almost away in May, between my annual Florida vacation that takes up much of the middle of the month and an annual Memorial Day weekend trip to my friend’s Kentucky cabin to help clean grave sites.

I feel like during that time away, however, just about anyone who has a debt owed by Gov. Jim Justice and his family-owned businesses have come collecting, including now the federal government.

Last week, the Justice Department filed a civil case on behalf of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, seeking $7.6 million in civil penalties and unpaid abandoned mine lands fees from Jay Justice — the governor’s son — and 13 companies owned by Gov. Justice.

Gov. Justice, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2024, didn’t say directly last week when asked on his weekly virtual briefing with reporters that the civil filing was a political hit job on behalf of President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but heavily hinted at such shenanigans.

“I’ve announced as a Republican I’m running for the U.S. Senate, and the Biden administration is aware of the fact that with a win for the U.S. Senate, we could flip the Senate,” Justice said. “Government agencies sometimes can surely react, and this could be something in regard to that.”

In a press release that same day, Justice Campaign Manager Roman Stauffer was far more direct, accusing national Democrats of playing politics.

“Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have seen the polls that show Jim Justice winning this race, and they’re panicking,” Stauffer said. “So now the Biden Justice Department has decided to play politics. We will see a lot more of this as the Democrats work to help Alex Mooney because they know they can easily beat him.”

Is the Biden White House playing politics? Perhaps, but not in the way Justice or his people think. The timing of the civil filing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia might be suspect, but I’ve yet to hear from Justice that his companies don’t owe the money.

According to the Justice Department, the civil case covers more than 130 violations of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act between 2018 and 2022, including more than 50 cessation orders issued to Justice-owned coal companies. Part of the time frame covers violations when former Republican President (and Justice friend) Donald Trump was in office.

Justice also faced a similar federal civil suit in 2019 filed on behalf of the Mine Safety and Health Administration by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia seeking $4.8 million in unpaid mine safety penalties from 23 Justice-owned companies. The suit was settled in 2020 for $5.1 million, paying $212,909 up front and agreeing to pay $102,442 per month until the $5.1 million was paid off.

Who was president then? Donald Trump. And Justice’s companies are four months behind in their monthly payments in that settlement, owing more than $409,000.

No doubt the Biden Justice Department might be using the opportunity to put pressure on Justice to pay what he owes in order to get bad headlines out of the press as he campaigns for U.S. Senate. But if he owes, he owes.

••••••

I was looking through some of the federal lawsuit filings against Justice by businesses he owes money to, with a representative of Justice’s companies admitting to their financial woes.

“Would it be accurate to say in terms of just the family businesses generally, that the businesses are thriving?” asked an attorney question of Stephen Ball, general counsel for many of Justice’s companies during a deposition.

“No. Certainly not the ones I’m involved in,” Ball answered.

You’d think after the last several years, considering that coal and natural gas severance tax revenue is largely what is driving West Virginia’s tax collection surpluses, that Justice coal businesses would be in the black enough to knock out some of the business debts and federal fines.

Justice has said he doesn’t plan to rely on self-funding for his campaign, which means he will have to rely on donations from others and fundraising by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. With third party political action committees committing $10 million on behalf of U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney — one of two Republican competitors to Justice — it’s going to take more than just popularity for Justice to win.

It also doesn’t help that Justice still owes money from self-funding his 2020 reelection campaign for governor.

(Adams is the state government reporter for Ogden Newspapers. He can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)