West Virginia Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael sent a "cease and desist" letter to area radio stations Monday, demanding that they stop airing political attack ads that accuse Carmichael of defending a Jackson County man convicted of sexually abusing children.
A union-backed political group called West Virginia Family Values is spending $77,000 on mailers and radio ads in an attempt to oust Carmichael.
The radio ads, which aim to link Carmichael, R-Jackson, to a convicted "pedophile," started airing in Charleston, Ripley and Ravenswood late last week.
"It's just so despicable," Carmichael said Monday.
West Virginia Family Values defended its political ads targeting Carmichael. The group released a transcript Monday of Carmichael's testimony on behalf of the sex offender.
"... Mitch Carmichael has been a political insider for so long that he thinks it's OK to call a convicted sex criminal 'trustworthy' and 'dependable,' " said Lou Ann Johnson, who heads the union-funded group. "Any politician who defends sexual predators can't be trusted to do what's right for the children of West Virginia."
In July 2013, Carmichael testified at a sentencing hearing for Cecil Hinzman, a Sandyville man who was indicted a year earlier on 21 counts of sexually assaulting pre-teen boys. Hinzman pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual abuse in April 2013 --three months before Carmichael testified. Hinzman was sentenced to prison for three to 15 years.
On Monday, Carmichael said Hinzman's lawyer asked him to tell a judge "how I knew [Hinzman]" - nothing more.
"I said, 'I'll testify as to how I know him, but that's all,' " Carmichael recalled Monday. "I didn't know if he was guilty, innocent or anything."
According to the hearing transcript, Carmichael called Hinzman "extremely ... trustworthy, reliable and dependable."
"I've had a good experience with him, from a character standpoint," Carmichael testified at the time.
Over the years, Hinzman had worked odd jobs for Carmichael and his mother, Carmichael said Monday.
"Any time I asked him to do something, he showed up on time and did the job," Carmichael said. "That's all I know. The guy has been around Jackson County forever."
The radio ads refer to Hinzman as Carmichael's "political friend" and "criminal friend."
According to the transcript, Carmichael told the judge he knew Hinzman through Republican political circles in Jackson County.
"Primarily through political activities," Carmichael testified in 2013. "Republican issues primarily, but at various ox roasts, Lincoln Day dinner events, those type of events."
Carmichael said Monday Hinzman "always showed up" to volunteer at the events - "to hang signs, cook food, that kind of thing."
The radio ads also state that law enforcement officers condemned Carmichael for "defending" Hinzman.
Former Jackson County Sheriff Mike Bright criticized Carmichael for testifying on Hinzman's behalf in 2013, but Bright wasn't sheriff or a law enforcement officer at the time, according to Carmichael's letter to the radio stations.
Bright, a Democrat, lost to Carmichael in the 2012 election for the 4th District Senate seat.
West Virginia GOP Chairman Conrad Lucas wrote and sent Carmichael's "cease and desist" letter to broadcasters, Carmichael told the Gazette-Mail Monday.
Carmichael alleges that the radio spots are false, libelous and "made with actual malice."
"We urge you to recognize West Virginia Family Values' blatant disregard for the facts, and we respectfully demand your member stations refuse to air this false advertisement," the letter states.
A lawyer for the broadcast stations hadn't responded to Carmichael's letter by late Monday.
"I don't know if it will stop it, but it is clearly wrong," Carmichael said. "I bet I haven't talked to that guy [Hinzman] maybe 20 times in my entire life."
The ad includes background noise of children playing at a playground. "We can't trust [Carmichael] with our children's future," the narrator concludes.
Carmichael said the political group has targeted him because he supported anti-union bills during this year's legislative session.
Carmichael spearheaded the state's first "right-to-work" law, which allows workers at unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues even though they continue to reap union benefits. The state senator also shepherded legislation that repealed the state's prevailing wage law, which mandated a minimum wage for workers on state-funded construction projects.
"This [attack] is about right-to-work and prevailing wage," Carmichael said. "That's the reason labor is spending so much money against me. It's all Washington, D.C., union money."
So far this year, West Virginia Family Values has raised $529,000 for political advertising - mostly through donations from unions for teachers, building and construction trades, steelworkers and engineers, according to campaign finance disclosures. Honest West Virginians, another union-backed political group, gave $293,000 to West Virginia Family Values.
In the May 10 Republican primary, Carmichael faces Dustin Lewis, a pipeline worker from Cottageville. The conservative Family Policy Council of West Virginia is backing Lewis.
On the campaign trail, Lewis has railed against Carmichael for speaking out in support of an anti-discrimination amendment to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The amendment effectively killed the legislation.
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.