Beth Walker… Mrs. Walker is married to Mike Walker, brother of Steve Walker.

The top three names on their (friends of coal) slate will be John McCain, Shelley Moore Capito, and Beth Walker and the election of Walker would give them three Friends Of Coal and the majority on the WV Supreme Court.West Virginia Blue: Sludgeroots

—

Mike Walker is Executive Vice President for Cecil I. Walker Machinery Co. in Belle, West Virginia.

—

Steve Walker, president and chief operating officer of Cecil I. Walker Machinery Co., launched a Friends of Coal membership drive at the company’s Belle headquarters by telling workers that their jobs depend on convincing others that coal is an essential energy source.

www.wvcoal.com

—

Steve Walker, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said in October that eight employees had been laid off and more could be let go if a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers isn’t overturned. Chambers ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal law by issuing valley fill permits for mountaintop removal mines without conducting extensive environmental reviews.

Also in October, Walker criticized the state’s Democratic leadership for not being more supportive of the coal industry.

Friends of Coal drive starts this week

—

Steve Walker of Walker machinery says the locals opposing the mines “range from uninformed citizens to eco-terrorists.” He continues:

“I don’t know what these people want. There’s a religion now of global warming, that man (?) has caused everything. It’s hard to understand where all of this has come from in the last several years. The water coming off these mines today, going into rivers, is cleaner, almost completely cleaner than the water that’s already there.”

So he has funded “Friends of Coal” to deliver the message through ads like the one above.

Friends of Coal Put Out the Word

—

Walker has 775 employees and a $40 million annual payroll. The company was in the national spotlight in 2002, when President George W. Bush spoke at the company’s Belle plant. Bush told employees, “We have to make sure this nation has an energy policy,” and, “We need to use coal because we have a lot of it.” The workers responded with deafening cheers and standing ovations.

www.walker-cat.com

—

Despite the controversy with the Maynard situation, two candidates running for the WV Supreme Court have also met with Don Blankenship.

Republican Beth Walker and Democrat Menis Ketchum both met with the Massey chief prior to filing for the race.

Beth Walker, who has announced that she will be trying to become a judge on the WV Supreme Court, says that she has been in talks with controversial political donor and CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship.Walker would not say whether Mr. Blankenship has committed to supporting her campaign. She also would not discuss her values or which issues are important to her. “The Supreme Court should interpret the law, nothing more than that,” she said.

Blankenship meets the candidates

—

“I think that probably suggesting that my campaign is limited to talking to one person is not accurate,” she said.

Walker said Thursday that she did meet once with Blankenship at his Kentucky office several weeks before she officially announced her candidacy.

Walker said she doesn’t recall who initiated the meeting. She said she spent most of the meeting talking about her views on the role of the court.

“I don’t remember discussing support one way or another,” Walker said.

Beth Walker tries to explain ties to Don Blankenship in Supreme Court race

—

Bugging the WV Supreme Court?

—

Walker said she has met and talked with many different voters and business representatives in the state about her interest in becoming a justice.

“I welcome support from any voter,” Walker said. “Any person who has a stake in West Virginia’s future.”

Blankenship sparked controversy in 2004 when he waged an estimated $3 million campaign to unseat McGraw. Most observers say Blankenship’s support helped Justice Brent Benjamin win victory that year over McGraw.

Justice Larry Starcher later said Blankenship’s involvement in the race made him want to “puke” and he alluded to Benjamin’s seat on the court being bought and paid for by Massey.

The recent surfacing of photos showing Blankenship and Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard together while vacationing in the Mediterranean has sparked more criticism of the court’s independence.

Beth Walker tries to explain ties to Don Blankenship in Supreme Court race

—

—

I noticed that Walker/Cat is no longer displaying the interview with the bug commercials on their website. That really kind of makes me wonder if it was Beth interviewing the cartoon talking bug. It wouldn’t look good for her new image. But I’m pretty confident it wasn’t because Walker said so. You can Google walker cat interview with bug and on the search results, top two choices, click on Google’s cache of the page. They have removed those particular videos although you can see where they used to be.