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Law Prof's E-mail is Campaign Issue

Robert M. Bastress, a professor at West Virginia University College of Law, is campaigning for a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court. In March, he denied accusations that he was using university resources in his campaign, which state law forbids him from doing. So the West Virginia Record filed an FOIA request and obtained his law school e-mail. The newspaper found that, in fact, Bastress had used his e-mail account to conduct campaign business and to solicit support for his campaign, but only to a limited degree.

In his defense, Bastress told the Charleston Daily Mail that he did not initiate any of the messages and was only responding to messages he received. "I hit 'reply.' It was an unthinking response." If anything, he says, the e-mails show he is not using his law school office as a campaign headquarters. And if turnabout is fair play, Bastress is now calling on his opponent, incumbent Justice Spike Maynard, to release his own e-mails to the media. The Associated Press has filed a lawsuit seeking to obtain Maynard's e-mails.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on May 7, 2008 at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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