West Virginia Democrats Sued

Add the Mountain State's Democratic Party to the list of those sued by Massey Energy Co. and/or Don Blankenship, its president, chairman and CEO.

The Charleston Gazette reports that "Blankenship maintains that the “Not for Sale” television commercial created by the state Democratic Party in 2006 misrepresented statements attributed to him in a Hagerstown Herald-Mail article in the wake of the Sago and Aracoma mine deaths."

The Kanawha Circuit Court lawsuit, filed Friday, also names party Chairman Nick Casey as a defendant.

"Blankenship’s business and professional reputation were damaged by Casey’s statements, the suit maintains," the article said. "The suit seeks a public apology from the defendants, and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages."

The Democrats join the Gazette, Gov. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the United Mine Workers Union, a labor-trial lawyer political action group, various coal industry vendors and a Boone County court stenographer to face a lawsuit from Massey and/or Blankenship.