CHARLESTON– Gov. Jim Justice announced the appointment Monday of longtime lobbyist and former state senator Paul Hardesty to a recently vacated seat on the West Virginia Board of Education.
Hardesty, who served for a time as an elected member of the Logan County Board of Education, replaces Arthur “Stan” Maynard who resigned last week.
Hardesty will serve the remainder of Maynard’s term, which began last year and ends in Nov. 5, 2029.
“I’ve known Paul and respected his tremendous abilities for a long, long time and I’m sure he will do a great job for the people of West Virginia in this important role,” Justice said in a statement Monday morning.
Hardesty most recently served as an appointed Democratic member of the West Virginia Senate, though Justice’s appointment letter stated that Hardesty is an independent. Hardesty served the 7th Senatorial District, which includes Logan, Boone, and Lincoln counties and parts of Wayne and Mingo counties.
Hardesty replaced former Logan County Sen. Richard Ojeda in 2019, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 3rd Congressional District in 2018 and made a short-lived attempt at a run for U.S. president in the 2020 Democratic primary shortly after his resignation, only to drop out. Ojeda also had a failed run for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2020, losing to Paula Jean Swearengin.
Instead of running for a full four-year term for the seat, Hardesty decided not to seek election. Logan and Boone County voters elected Rupie Phillips, a former Democratic House of Delegates member who switched to independent while still in the House, then switched to Republican.
Before his appointment to the Senate, Hardesty served for 25 years as a member of the Logan County Board of Education. He was president of the board from 2016 until his appointment to the Senate in 2019. With Hardesty’s appointment to the Board of Education, eight out of nine members have been appointed by Justice since the governor took office in 2017.
Hardesty was a lobbyist, including lobbying for companies owned by Justice. According to Hardesty’s most recent lobbyist report for Nov. 30, 2018, Hardesty represented the James C. Justice Companies, the Greenbrier Resort and Southern Coal Corp. Hardesty stopped lobbying after his appointment to the Senate and was prohibited from returning to lobbying for a year after his term ended by state law.
Past clients included Alliance Coal LLC; Alpha Natural Resources Services; Altria Client Services LLC; American Electric Power; Appalachian Power; Blackhawk Mining LLC; Brickstreet Mutual Insurance Co.; Coal River Energy LLC; the West Virginia Contractors Association; Contura Energy; Coronado Coal LLC; CVS/Caremark; Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority; Lexington Coal; LKQ Corp.; Markwest Energy Partners; MedExpress Urgent Care Inc.-West Virginia; Mission Coal Co.; Morpho Trust; National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants; Natural Resource Partners LP; Northwood Health Systems; Peerless Block Co.; Pepsico; Petroplus Properties; Republic Services Inc.; West Virginia Retailers Association; West Virginia Sheriffs Association; Thrasher Engineering; Tyler Mountain Water Co.; and W.W. Grainger Inc.
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December 14, 2021 at 12:12PM
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