Huntington businessman Chris Miller, right, talks with Secretary of State Mac Warner prior to a debate for Republican candidates for governor at The Resort at Glade Springs near Beckley in February. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON — Huntington businessman and Republican candidate for governor of West Virginia Chris Miller has allegedly made use of a private airplane to go to at least 40 campaign events inside and outside of the state, but none of those flights appear in his campaign finance reports.

According to an anonymous informal complaint filed on Feb. 9 with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office and the State Election Commission, it is alleged that the Miller campaign is in violation of several election and campaign finance laws for not reporting the flights on their quarterly reports for 2023.

“A number of very serious legal violations and improprieties have come to the attention of the authors of this letter concerning the activities of Chris Miller,” the letter stated. “Candidate Miller has been grossly and materially violating (the) law related to his use of a private airplane….”

In a statement Thursday afternoon, the Miller campaign disputed that they were willingly violating the law, but said they would consult with the secretary of state’s office to ensure they were in full compliance with campaign expenditure requirements.

“While we are confident we are following every rule, we will ensure all future reporting puts any questions to rest so this campaign can be about the issues that matter to West Virginia voters and not senseless political attacks of our opponents,” the campaign said.

Complainants allege that the Chris Miller campaign used this Beech Baron Model 58 airplane to campaign for governor of West Virginia without disclosing the costs of the flights on his campaign finance reports. (Photo courtesy of Airmart)

According to the complaint, the Miller campaign made use of a 2000 Raytheon/Beechcraft Beech Baron Model 58 airplane with tail number N732P registered to Airmart, a company based out of Lexington, Ky. A Beechcraft Model 58 can seat up to six people and has a cruising speed of 200 miles per hour. The aircraft in question is listed for sale on Airmart’s website for $749,000.

The Miller campaign flew to and from Tri-State/Milton J. Ferguson Field near Huntington. The complainants used FlightAware.com to track the flights and compared the flights to campaign events on behalf of Miller or attended by Miller between Feb. 11, 2023, and Dec. 11, 2023. The complainants tracked 40 different flights with nearly 32 hours of flight time.

According to Aircharteradvisors.com, the hourly rate for the same model of aircraft is anywhere between $800 per hour to $1,150 per hour. Based on the estimated hourly rate and the number of hours the plane was used by the Miller campaign, the cost could be anywhere between $25,600 and $36,800.

West Virginia Code 3-8-5 required political candidates and/or their campaign treasurers to file detailed quarterly campaign finance reports that show their donations, in-kind contributions, fundraisers, loans and debts and expenditures. According to a review of Miller’s 2023 quarterly campaign finance reports, there are no disbursements from the campaign to pay for private flights.

“Despite his prolific and frequent use of the Private Airplane for political and campaign purposes, Candidate Miller has materially, grossly, and substantively failed to disclose his expenditures for use of the Private Plane on every single one of his filed campaign finance reports,” the complainants wrote. “This material, gross, and substantive failure to disclose campaign expenditures, time after time and report after report, is a blatant, serious, and egregious violation of State Law….”

Miller’s campaign finance reports also show no direct or in-kind contributions from Airmart or the company’s owners, Grant and Kimberly Sutherlin. State Code 3-8-5C limits direct and in-kind donations to political candidates to $2,800 during the primary and $2,800 during the general election.

State Code 3-8-7 also makes it a criminal offense to willfully file an incomplete or inaccurate campaign finance report, including making false or misleading representations and blatant acts of omission.

“Candidate Miller has engaged in a pattern of repeated failures to list his political and campaign expenditures related to his use of the Private Plane on his campaign finance reports,” the complainants wrote. “The dollar amounts at issue are quite material and the lack of transparency appalling.”

While the complainants provided email correspondence between themselves and the secretary of state’s office, a representative of the secretary of state’s office was unable to confirm or deny whether an investigation has been initiated or referred to the State Election Commission. State Code 3-8-8(i) prohibits the office from disclosing information from active investigations, including the initiation of any investigation, to others except in the case of formal complainants.

In a statement released Thursday, the Miller campaign said his plane travel in 2023 was done to accomplish multiple things at once: to travel the state to visit his multiple business interests, to do charitable work and to campaign. According to Miller’s 2023 financial disclosure report with the West Virginia Ethics Commission, Miller owns 26 businesses, including the Dutch Miller auto dealership chain. Miller is also a member of the Marshall University Board of Governors.

“Chris Miller runs dealerships statewide and used a plane to visit his businesses and 600 employees,” the campaign said. “Chris also gives back generously to West Virginia communities and frequently travels to represent Dutch Miller at various charitable events he supports. He has done this for years including during this campaign.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.