“Do not think of winning. Think, rather, of not losing.” Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan karate
Background: the WV legislature flipped to Republican in 2014 for the first time since 1932 and began pushing through anti-labor measures. But after a few years, a bipartisan consensus emerged on the need to reform the criminal legal system and even expand the safety net (ending the SNAP ban for drug felonies, expanding Medicaid to cover dental benefits, and insulin payment caps).
That changed in 2020 with massive turnover and loss of champions from both parties. Republicans control the governor’s office and have supermajorities in the House (almost 5-1) and Senate (over 3-1). Many new legislators were pretty…rough and many people agreed that this was the most toxic legislative climate in living memory.
Despite all that, with wonderful coalition partners and comrades there were several victories, although most involved preventing bad things from happening or making them less bad. Maybe our finest hours aren’t where we win everything but when we hold the line against the odds. Lots of bad bills passed and good ones died, but I’ll think about that later.
Major shoutout to the AFSC team. Lida Shepherd has been called one of the most effective lobbyists in WV. When you consider we offer no money or votes, that’s quite an accomplishment. Recovery Fellow JoAnna Vance jumped immediately from AFSC rookie to international media goddess in the fight for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and tore things up in the legislature. Rev. Ron English and Sister Rose Hefner not only kept restorative practices going but also showed up strong and spoke out when needed. Liz Brunello from the AFSC ACE program helped set up some pretty major food justice victories and fought hard for the CTC.
Economic justice defensive victories:
*Defeating a bill to reduce unemployment insurance from 26 to 12 weeks in most cases. Key partners labor, our main man Seth DiStefano from the WV Center on Budget and Policy, and an unofficial Republican labor caucus open on economic issues anyway. More here. Bill history here.
*Defeating a bill to limit the ability of workers or families to gain compensation from employers if injured or killed, even if the employer knew conditions were unsafe and took no action. Annals of sleaze: a WV supreme court “justice” even resigned his post to lobby for this on behalf of a timber company. More here and bill history here.
*Defeating a bull to gut the state coal mine safety agency. This was personal to me. I joined miners in testifying at a public hearing and distributed information from that agency describing all WV mine disasters between 1884 and 2010 which was widely distributed in the House. Read more here.
*Holding back efforts to repeal the state income tax. Some measures would have replaced some lost revenue with regressive taxes, while other would have just cut. This fight will resume in a few months. Read more here.
*Killing a preemption “death star” bill that would have ended the ability of local governments to pass progressive ordinances, ranging from economic to anti-discrimination. Bill history here.
*Defeating a mean-spirited bill that would have made it illegal for churches and other groups to feed or provide services to homeless people within 1500 feet of schools or day care centers. More here.
Positive economic justice wins:
*After years of work, the Emergency School Food Act finally passed. It’s designed to make local school boards assess hunger needs of students and provide information on out of school food access. It was weakened out of spite at the last minute, but I think we can make it work. Background here and bill history here.
*Again, after years of work with the WV Food for All Coalition, the WV House last year appointed a Food Insecurity Workgroup to study the issues and make recommendations. In Dec. 2021, prior to the session, the group announced the release of $7.25 million for food insecurity partners across the state, with $3 million of that going to food pantries and $2 million to Facing Hunger Foodbank and Mountaineer Food Bank.
Additional dollars will go into upgrades at the West Virginia National Guard Rock Branch regional food distribution center, which will include a large-scale, combination cooler and freezer to allow for proper cold storage at the site. Other organizations each will receive $250,000. More here. Obviously, we’d prefer for nobody to need this but we’re not there yet.
Major bogus culture war victory:
*Opposing “critical race theory” bills with Orwellian names like “Anti-Stereotype” and “Anti-Racism” Acts. After much opposition, a House bill was turned into a study resolution. A weakened senate bill passed the house with further weakening amendments, but the bill miraculously died at the last minute. Read more here and here. Lida is quoted here. People fought hard on this.
Criminal law reform/recovery or reentry defensive victories:
For the last several years we’ve been part of a criminal law reform coalition that includes organizations like the ACLU, WV Center on Budget and Policy, WV Reentry Councils and Council of Churches as well the WV Family of Convicted People, which showed up in large numbers several times at the capitol.
*A bill to reintroduce the death penalty never moved.
*A really mean-spirited antitransgender bill died that read: “When housed in a gender-specific facility, all inmates in the State of West Virginia shall be placed based upon their biological gender at birth. No inmates shall choose to be housed with another gender based upon legal or medical gender reassignment.”
*A massive and draconian rewrite of the state criminal code died, although it came close in the House. More here.
*An extended supervision bill for people with certain drug offenses for up to 10 years AFTER they completed sentences and parole was defeated. Again. Read more here. Lida is quoted on jail overcrowding here. That was a huge fight. It was weakened in the House and fortunately wasn’t taken up in the Senate, thanks to powerful advocacy from impacted people.
Positive criminal law reform victories (and near victories):
*JoAnna took the lead in pushing across a potentially lifesaving bill that declassified fentanyl strips as drug paraphernalia. Read background here and legislative history here.
*A bill passed both the House and Senate that allowed for automatic expungement of criminal records for people acquitted of charges. Unfortunately the bill ended up getting lost in the scramble of the final hours of session, with the House not concurring in time. Read more here.
Federal advocacy
For most of the last year, AFSC staff in WV and allies fought hard to enact Build Back Better measures, including the CTC, climate and all as well as voting rights, involving a senator who shall remain nameless. Work took place in the streets, national media, congressional offices, etc. While results have been disappointing, efforts will continue to salvage as much of this as possible. It would take too long to gather media links.
It was great to work closely with longtime friend, AFSC South EC member and Community Change Deputy Director of Black-Led Organizing Jennifer Wells. It so happened that we actually have contacts in the White House, which has been kinda fun. We like to joke that Biden loves us, but we just want to be friends (actually, we’re sure he doesn’t know we exist).
Also nice to work closely with AFSC’s DC Office of Public Policy Advocacy on all this. They recently helped set up a listening session with senior staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services where I pitched a Medicaid buy-in policy idea, something we’ve been working on here, but which CMS could make easier for states to implement.
Re Build Back Better, we joke that the operation was a success, although the patient died. Mini-rant: some outsider groups think the height of good strategy is to come here and insult the person who can do what they want. Machiavelli called it: "I hold it to be proof of great prudence for men [sic] to abstain from threats and insulting words towards anyone, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you."
We also welcomed the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the American Recovery Plan and support the Black-led Tuesday Morning Group’s economic justice proposals.
Along the way
We participated in or convened several legislative gatherings, including Black Policy Day, the WV Council of Churches “Compassion Calls Us” event (Lida here), and Smart Justice Advocacy Days. It was fun to hang out with union friends at a street action that featured a giant inflatable fat cat. We had weekly information sharing calls with West Virginians United and the Legislative Action Team for Children and Families and tons of informal meetings and gossip sessions.
Lessons
The best advice this time around came from Sun Tzu. As in it’s best to win without a fight. And rather than directly attacking the opponent, attack their strategies and alliances. And how knowing yourself and knowing your opponent increases chances of winning, while knowing neither can guarantee defeat. I’d list partners but fear I’d forget some of the best. Anyway, thanks and better luck next time. Inshallah.