(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

When writing about lobbyists in my column last summer, I wrote about Caiden Cowger, a Republican political operative and the president of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia.

While Cowger’s predecessor at the Family Policy Council, Allen Whitt, was a registered lobbyist with the West Virginia Ethics Commission, Cowger has never registered as a lobbyist. As such, he also provides no expenditure reports to the Ethics Commission.

Yet, Cowger actively lobbies on specific issues directly to lawmakers during legislative sessions and has acted almost as an unpaid staffer for several Republican state senators, including during the 2024 session.

Cowger has been walking a fine line for a long time between wanting to be a staffer, a lobbyist, and even a news reporter. But now, Cowger is at the center of a poorly executed hit job against a Republican candidate for governor using a recently bought website domain, a story with no byline and no quotes, and connections to at least two other Republican candidates for governor.

The following is based on excellent reporting by Kyle Vass (@WilliamKyleVass on the website formerly known as Twitter), an investigative reporter for Dragline and a staffer for the West Virginia ACLU, and The Real WV (therealwv.com), a news website ran by former Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin. Those of us who spent nearly all 60 days under the golden dome for the session are still suffering from post-session jet lag, so I appreciate the reporters who started tracking this.

In short, a news outlet called the Pittsburgh Observer published a story last month making a false and unsubstantiated claim about Republican candidate for governor Moore Capito, a claim I refuse to repeat here. The story included no byline from a reporter, no sources, no quotes, and none of the who, what, when, where, and how — the basics that any journalist needs for all stories.

According to Vass, the Pittsburgh Observer was a real news publication, but it went out of business in 2011. The domain name was purchased in February by — you guessed it — Caiden Cowger. In fact, Vass discovered that Cowger owns at least 13 domain names for websites.

According to State Code 3-8-11, “Any person who shall, knowingly, make or publish, or cause to be made or published, any false statement in regard to any candidate, which statement is intended or tends to affect any voting at any election whatever … is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or confined in jail for not more than one year, or, in the discretion of the court, shall be subject to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Both Vass and Baldwin said the first group to begin pushing the deep fake Pittsburgh Observer article was Vets4Coal through its Facebook page (which is now conveniently shut down), run by James McCormick, a supporter of Secretary of State and Republican candidate for governor Mac Warner. The Warner campaign quickly released a statement denying involvement with the deep fake article.

Vass also discovered possible links between Cowger and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey through the Upshur County Republican Executive Committee, which is part of the Team Morrisey joint fundraising committee. But the committee said that any link to the committee and Cowger was a mistake and the Morrisey campaign claims no links to Cowger, who didn’t provide comment to either Vass or Baldwin.

On the lobbyist front, Baldwin and The Real WV report that Cowger has keycard access to the State Capitol Building. As far as I know, only Capitol employees, contractors, and news organizations with office space in the Capitol Press Room have keycard access, though I can confirm that some registered lobbyists have keycard access.

Cowger isn’t a registered lobbyist, he’s not credentialed media with office space, and he’s not paid staff. Why and how does he have a keycard? The Division of Protective Services won’t comment to Baldwin.

The Ethics Commission and the State Election Commission should consider further investigation into these matters.

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Now that the session is over, focus now turns to the many contested Republican primaries for higher office, though now that President Joe Biden has enough delegates for his Democratic Party nomination and former President Donald Trump has enough delegates for the Republican Party nomination, I see interest waning in our state elections until closer to the primaries now.

One race Republican and independent voters are sleeping on is the GOP primary for the 2nd Congressional District. There are five in that race: State Treasurer Riley Moore, retired West Virginia National Guard general Chris “Mookie” Walker, Joe Earley, Nate Cain, and Alexander Gaaserud.

Moore — a scion of the political dynasty began by the late Gov. Arch Moore (grandfather) and carried on by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (aunt) and former lawmaker and GOP candidate for governor Moore Capito (cousin) — was the first to jump in the race in November 2022. Walker, a newcomer to politics, didn’t jump into the race until January and had only been known in National Guard circles previously.

The Walker campaign released an internal poll last week they think looks good for them, though I see it differently. The poll, conducted by 1892 Polling between March 4-6 with a mix of live calls and texts, included 400 likely primary voters. According to that poll, Moore has 20%, followed by Earley with 6%. Walker, Cain, and Gaaserud all received 5%, and 60% were undecided.

Now, when told about Walker’s political platform, his numbers rise to 61%, with Moore dropping to 9%, the other three candidates each receiving 1%, and 27% undecided. But that kind of poll is virtually meaningless. Moore and Walker’s platform is not dissimilar, but Moore has been in the race longer, he defeated a long-time Democratic incumbent for state treasurer, and he has a statewide platform as state treasurer.

What the numbers really show is that voters are simply not engaged with that race. It’s going to come down to name recognition. Walker is certainly the closest competition to Moore, with the other three candidates split up part of fringe right vote. But it would be a mistake to believe the bulk of those 60% of undecideds break for Walker.

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