The 11th state senatorial race has been hotly contested, with democrat and republican PACs taking shots at candidates. Political Action Committees supporting Campbell have spent over $200,000 in negative advertisements attacking Karnes. According to the West Virginia Secretary of State‘s publicly listed financial reports, there have not been any reported independent expenditures filed in opposition to Campbell, indicating that the amount spent by PACs against Campbell could be significantly less than $5,000.
Nevertheless, one of the reoccurring accusations against Campbell reiterated by Karnes, the Republican Party, and the West Virginia Family Policy Council is her support of two amendments proposed for H.B. 4012 (2016). This claim was first publicized in 2016, during Campbell’s unsuccessful race against Sen. Greg Boso (R).
In a recent video titled, Enough is Enough, Campbell responded to the accusations attacking Karnes.
“[Robert Karnes] is actually saying that I would put men in women’s bathrooms come on. Are you kidding me? That is ridiculous,” Campbell stated.
False.
While Campbell has insisted on the purity of her record, this is a particular vote that needs further explanation, because simply dismissing these votes as being “fictitious lies” are merely attempts to deflect rather than to provide valid explanations.
H.B. 4012 (2016) was a bill designed to further secure first amendment protections, specifically emphasizing the protection of the free exercise of religion. The passage of this state law was to render local ordinances void that currently mandate draconian standards for perceived discrimination based upon an individual’s sexuality or gender identity.
Many local ordinances in West Virginia permit heterosexual cis-gendered males to identify as ‘female ‘simply by verbally identifying as women. Many state legislators were concerned about the mandated local leniency, which contributed to the inclusion of provisions within H.B. 4012 that voided such local ordinances. Their concern was that this would enable sexual predators, including heterosexual cis-gendered males, to falsely identify as the opposite sex to gain access to the opposite sex’s restroom facilities.
The Skinner – Pushkin Amendment
Fairness WV activist and Fmr. Del. Stephen Skinner (D) and Del. Mike Pushkin (D) proposed an amendment to H.B. 4012 to insert a new subsection “prohibiting any person providing services to the general public, to refuse to offer facilities or use of public accommodations to any member or members of the general public on the basis of sexual orientation.”
This inclusion of “facilities” would have turned H.B. 4012 into a bill that mandates men who verbally identify as women must be allowed access to females’ restroom facilities.
The amendment was ruled by the Speaker of the House Tim Armstead as being “not germane.”
Then, there was a motion for the House to appeal Armstead’s decision by taking a floor vote.
The vote resulted in Speaker Armstead’s original decision to be sustained; however, Del. Denise Campbell voted in favor of the amendment’s relevance to be adopted, joining a small minority of 24 democratic delegates.
Therefore, this firmly indicated that Campbell was in-favor of an amendment that allowed males to verbally identify as women for the purpose of gaining access to female restroom facilities.
The Sponaugle – Pushkin Amendment
Next, Del. Isaac Sponaugle (D) and Del. Mike Pushkin (D) proposed another amendment to strike out the words “and local” from the bill’s text. By removing these words, it would have entirely gutted the bill, defeating its original purpose to create state law that takes precedence over municipal ordinances.
Del. Denise Campbell voted in favor of the amendment to be adopted, joining a small minority of 22 democratic delegates. Therefore, this firmly established that Campbell was in-favor of an amendment that attempted to completely gut H.B. 4012, voiding its primary application to take precedence over municipal ordinances.
There is no question whatsoever that she voted for these two amendments; however, the question is, ‘Why?’ Campbell’s supporters have dismissed this vote as a lie. Such a dismissal is either made out of being genuinely uninformed, misinformed, or for the purpose of being outright deceptive.
These votes need an explanation, rather than a nonsensical denial attempting to deflect pretending like they do not exist.
Furthermore, Campbell also accused Karnes of lying about her in his commercials.
“He has lied in every one of his commercials that he has made about me.”
False
After carefully reviewing Karnes active video advertisements on social media and television commercials filed by the Federal Communications Commission, Karnes’ has not aired any negative commercials against Denise Campbell. However, Campbell does have one negative commercial accusing Karnes of supporting tax increases after his support of S.B. 335 (2017). However, as stated in a recent Mountaineer Journal investigation, S.B. 335 was a republican tax reform bill that sought to eliminate the state income tax. Therefore, it was the largest tax break in West Virginia history. Campbell’s claim that Karnes supported a tax hike is misleading.
“He is actually running ads telling people that all nurses want to hurt people. Are you kidding me?” Campbell stated.
False. Intentionally Deceptive.
Here, Campbell outright lies about Karnes, falsely accusing him of producing a commercial claiming that “all nurses want to hurt people.” According to Federal Communications Commission filings, this claim is completely false as Karnes’ campaign has not produced any commercials pertaining to the medical profession or nurse practitioners. This claim by Campbell was intentionally leveled to deceive voters.