Doug Reynolds

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<a href="https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/in-ag-race-reynolds-talks-plan-to-fight-drug-companies/article_dce2687c-71c0-577a-ace6-0e90648c55b4.html">https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/in-ag-race-reynolds-talks-plan-to-fight-drug-companies/article_dce2687c-71c0-577a-ace6-0e90648c55b4.html</a></p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;"><span> </span>he’s elected West Virginia’s attorney general next month, Doug Reynolds says fighting the state’s prescription drug addiction epidemic would be his top priority.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reynolds told Gazette-Mail editors on Friday that he would also be committed to restoring the consumer protection division of the attorney general’s office — to how it was under longtime attorney general Darrell McGraw.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reynolds, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, will face-off Nov. 8 against Republican incumbent Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who defeated McGraw in 2012.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">“We used to have a great Consumer Protection Division. It was aggressive at protecting people. Over the last four years, the number of cases is down by over a quarter; the staff is down by thirty or forty percent,” Reynolds said. “When I’m attorney general, we will hire people<span> </span><span class="BODellipsis" style=" box-sizing: border-box;">...</span><span> </span>to go to court to get justice for people.”</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Morrisey declined an invitation to meet with Gazette-Mail editors. Reynolds used the meeting to mostly highlight his differences with Morrisey.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reynolds did say, though, that he would continue the lawsuit Morrisey filed in federal court in an effort to fight the federal government’s new carbon regulations under the Clean Power Plan.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">“I believe coal will come back but I worry the amount of jobs won’t,” he said.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reynolds, of Huntington, believes his experience makes him qualified to serve as West Virginia’s next top attorney. Since graduating from law school at WVU, he’s spent time working as a public defender and an assistant prosecutor. He also had his own law firm for a time.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reynolds serves Wayne County in the West Virginia House of Delegates. He’s been a member of the state Legislature since 2006.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Both Cabell and Wayne counties, like all of southern West Virginia, and most all of the state, have been hit hard by opioid addiction.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">As attorney general, Reynolds believes he can make a real difference fighting the companies who manufacture and distribute addictive drugs.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">“We’ve got this terrible problem, why is it not being addressed?” he said Friday.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">As drug companies did four years ago, the companies are again funding the majority of Morrisey’s campaign, Reynolds said.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">“They’ve spent over $4 million in super PAC money. They’ve had somebody show up and track and harass me since March. They tell lies about me, tell lies about my family,” Reynolds said. “It’s clear, they need to make a return on that capital they’re spending. It’s clear they believe they are going to make more than that $4 million in profit by reelecting this attorney general that we currently have now.”</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">The Republican Attorneys General Association, which federal documents show is funded by drug companies, coal giant Murray Energy and prominent conservative donors, like Charles and David Koch. has given $3.4 million on Morrisey’s behalf.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Morrisey’s and Reynolds’ campaigns published their first general election finance reports with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office on Sept. 30.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reynolds has put down more than $1.8 million of his own money. He owns the Herald-Dispatch newspaper, in Huntington, and is the president of Energy Services of America, a publicly traded oil and gas service company.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Before he was elected attorney general, Morrisey lobbied for two drug trade groups that represented drug giant Cardinal Health. Morrisey inherited a lawsuit McGraw filed against Cardinal Health. Morrisey stepped aside from the case after the Gazette-Mail reported on his ties to the drug wholesaler. His wife, Denise Henry Morrisey, was a longtime lobbyist for Cardinal Health in Washington, D.C. before resigning from the account on May 31, according to federal lobbying disclosure forms.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">On Friday, Reynolds called out Morrisey for agreeing to allow drug companies to keep secret the number of prescription pills shipped to the state.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">“I don’t believe an attorney general should be agreeing to sign protective orders,” which keep the public in the dark,” Reynolds said.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">He also accused Morrisey of delaying and mishandling litigation against pharmaceutical companies.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">The attorney general’s office shouldn’t be settling lawsuits with drug companies without the company admitting some responsibility, Reynolds said.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">He also noted that Morrisey hasn’t joined a lawsuit being brought by 35 states against the maker of the opioid addiction drug, Suboxone, for allegedly keeping generic versions of the drug from being made.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Mountain Party candidate Michael Sharley and Karl Kolenich, of the Libertarian Party, are running in November’s general election for state attorney general.</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">Reach Kate White at</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;"><a href="mailto:kate.white@wvgazettemail.com" style=" box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(47, 83, 118) !important; text-decoration: underline;">kate.white@wvgazettemail.com</a>,</p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">304-348-1723 or follow</p>

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