Newly-elected Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has big plans for his office. He recently announced a statewide “Jobs Summit” tour, which he hopes will improve the state’s business climate. But many people — including me — responded to Morrisey’s announcement with a question.
“Wait, can the Attorney General really do that?”
Apparently, yes. As WVU law professor Bob Bastress told me for a story in today’s Daily Mail, the state constitution is largely silent on the duties of the attorney general. Most of Morrisey’s job description is gleaned from state law and court decisions, although those also allow him quite a bit of open-ended authority. From the story:
The way Morrisey sees it, there are five basic jobs of the attorney general. Those include writing legal opinions on issues affecting West Virginia, representing the state and state agencies in lawsuits, investigating certain violations of state law, drafting legislation at the request of state agencies, and suggesting new bills to legislators.
“There’s a lot of focus on what the attorney general can do. The attorney general, by definition, is going to be involved in all legal issues within a state,” he said.
Morrisey said his Jobs Summit tour, intended to improve the state’s business climate and reduce unemployment, falls within several of those powers. He said if a state agency espouses a policy that hurts the state’s economy, it would be within the attorney general’s rights to give advice on the policy.
In other news:
- Lots of people get dressed up for the last night of the regular legislative session, but the state Capitol was looking extra swanky this year as dozens of high schoolers descended on the big gold dome for prom pictures. As general assignment reporter Candace Nelson reports in today’s paper, taking pictures at our fair Capitol has become a tradition for local prom-goers.
- Sen. Joe Manchin says he’s not finished with the gun control legislation that failed in the Senate two weeks ago. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Manchin said he’s “willing to go anywhere in this country, I’m going to debate anybody on this issue, read the bill and you tell me what you don’t like.”
- Mannix Porterfield of the Beckley Register-Herald reports the West Virginia Turnpike is in much better shape than it was four years ago, when tolls were increased. Consulting engineer Randy Epperly told the state Parkways Authority last week 80 percent of the turnpike will be in “good to very good” shape by 2019. So keep that in mind the next time you have to cough up a $8 in tolls for a round-trip drive to Beckley.
- There are only seven miles of fiber-optic cable left to go in the state’s broadband expansion project, the Sunday Gazette-Mail reports.
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