Evan Jenkins “backs a Washington plan that would repeal black lung benefits. He received thousands of dollars from those working to deny care to miners suffering from black lung.”

— voiceover of new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad, attacking the Republican candidate for West Virginia’s third congressional district

We recently gave Four Pinocchios to Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) for an ad that literally put words in the mouth of his GOP challenger, Evan Jenkins. The ad depicted a coal miner claiming that he had heard Jenkins say he wanted to take away black lung benefits. Not so. Jenkins had never said that.

This new DCCC ad tries to raise the same claim, in another ad featuring a miner, but in a more subtle way to avoid being fact checker bait. It also adds a new claim about Jenkins.

How does it stack up? The answer is below, and in the TruthTeller video above.

The Facts

Black lung disease is the popular term for coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, which comes from lengthy exposure to coal dust. Since 1969, the federal government has provided benefits for workers totally disabled by the disease, as well as survivors and dependents.

In 1981, the United Mine Workers struck a deal with the Reagan administration to tighten eligibility requirements, as part of an effort to improve the solvency of the disability benefits fund and reduce potential fraud. News reports at the time indicated that the UMW was not enthusiastic about the changes, but feared Reagan’s power after he had busted the air traffic controller union. Coal companies also were not happy, as a tax to fund the benefits program was doubled.

Nearly 30 years later, during the debate over the Affordable Care Act, the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) slipped language in the law that restored the provisions that been cut in 1981. Essentially, the ACA made it easier for miners who had worked at least 15 years in the mines to qualify for black lung benefits by shifting the burden on the mining company to prove the miner did not have the disease; previously miners had to prove they had it. The law also made it easier for survivors to retain the benefits if the miner dies.

So when the ad says Jenkins “backs a Washington plan that would repeal black lung benefits,” it is referring to Jenkins’ pledge to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. Yet Jenkins, on his Web site, says he is “firmly opposed to any cuts to the Federal Black Lung Benefit Program.”

This slippery language is designed to get around fact checkers’ objections to the Rahall ads. On one level, one could claim it is technically true; there is a “Washington plan” that in theory would repeal the Byrd provisions. But there’s no way the law can be repealed at this point without being replaced with something else—and Jenkins says he would seek to retain the Byrd Amendments in the new law.

The second claim struck us as fairly odd. Normally these ads speak of “millions” or “billions,” but thousands? Yet, that’s what the ad claims: “He received thousands of dollars from those working to deny care to miners suffering from black lung.”

The reference is to donations made by attorneys at Jackson Kelly PLLC, West Virginia’s largest law firm, which says on its Web site that it has represented coal companies since the mid-1880s. The firm was featured in a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, which documented how lawyers at the firm, working on behalf of coal companies, withheld critical evidence in cases involving sick miners. The articles are damning and rather persuasive.

But Jenkins has raised more than $1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The amount contributed by Jackson Kelly lawyers? A mere $4,100, according to CRP’s data. The donations come from just seven attorneys, some of whom are not involved in coal litigation, according to their biographies. Just in the Charleston office—one of 12 offices around the country–the firm has nearly 90 attorneys.

Moreover, the Democratic Senate candidate, Natalie Tennant, has received nearly $10,000 from Jackson Kelly employees in the same election cycle, according to CRP. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) has received $3,750—and more than $50,000 while in Congress. Manchin has also defended the law firm in the wake of the Center’s report.

So add it up. The donations amount to 4/10th of 1 percent of the money raised by Jenkins—and they come from merely 8 percent of the attorneys in Charleston. And no matter what one thinks of this law firm, lawyers at the firm support Democrats as well. So it’s a pretty flimsy attack.

“It took the legendary Robert C. Byrd decades to get these benefits enshrined into law, and Evan Jenkins would not only repeal that law, he has no plan whatsoever to restore these vital benefits to our miners,” DCCC national press secretary Emily Bittner said. “The simple truth is that Evan Jenkins’ approach would hurt miners suffering from black lung, as the miners themselves point out time and again.”

The Pinocchio Test

While not as terrible as the Rahall approach, this DCCC ad suffers from excessive wordsmithing as it tries to double down on the same claim. The enhanced black lung benefits, which Jenkins says he supports, are only a small part of the Affordable Care Act. The claim about the donations suffers from the same problem, as the lawyers at Jackson Kelly have contributed only a few drops of the buckets of cash pouring into this race—which includes more than $900,000 from the DCCC itself.

Three Pinocchios





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