Charleston, WV - When Secretary of State Mac Warner took office in January 2017, he fired 16 employees, claiming that the firings were necessary to streamline the Secretary of State’s Office.
“Secretary Warner tried to claim that these firings were to make the office more efficient, but these firings were clearly partisan, as 15 of the 16 were registered Democrats,” House Minority Whip Mike Caputo (D-Marion) stated. “He replaced these 15 people with 22 new employees- and most of the new employees were partisan Republican hires or connected with right-wing groups,” he added. “That math doesn’t add up.” The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that four former employees who filed wrongful termination lawsuits against Secretary Warner have settled for a total of nearly $1 million. There are still eight wrongful termination lawsuits pending from former staff of the Secretary of State’s Office. Delegate Mick Bates (D-Raleigh) stated that Secretary Warner testified before the House Finance Committee during the 2018 Regular Session that he was staying within his office’s budget. However, according to the state’s transparency website, in just his first year in office, Secretary Warner has spent nearly three million dollars over the previous year’s budget- an 180% increase in spending in one year. “Republicans in the House of Delegates are pursuing impeachment of all Supreme Court justices for gross maladministration related to excessive spending yet turn a blind eye to one of their own,” Delegate Bates stated. “This is unacceptable. If Republicans are serious about impeaching elected officials for gross misconduct in office, they should be looking at Secretary of State Mac Warner,” Andrew Robinson (D-Kanawha) stated. “The illegal and unfair firings by Secretary Warner should come as no surprise, since the GOP continues to attack state employees, teachers and service personnel,” Delegate Caputo added. “Apparently, experience just doesn’t count as much as being on the right side of the political aisle.”
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