As Senator Joe Manchin increasingly occupies the spotlight, some of his political allies are cashing in. This article by Theodoric Meyer and Jeff Stein is published by The Washington Post. Here is an excerpt:
During a heated 2015 meeting at a law firm in Clarksburg, W.Va., Larry Puccio insisted that the West Virginia Democratic Party should unify behind billionaire Jim Justice in the race for governor.
When some of the Democratic officials in the room objected — Justice until recently had been a registered Republican — Puccio offered to call the man who for the past three decades has been his friend, business partner, boss, political ally and patron: Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).
“Larry’s position was, ‘Justice and I will run the party, and everything else, as we desire.’ I was pushing back on that,’ ” said Chris Regan, then the vice chairman of West Virginia’s Democratic Party, who attended the meeting. Puccio was a senior adviser at the time for Justice’s campaign. “I remember Larry just yelling back: ‘We can get Manchin on the phone, if you need to hear it from him.’ ”
Read the full story here.
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