If there was a honeymoon for new state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey it appears to be over. A group of Democrats introduced a bill Friday at the statehouse that Morrisey, a Republican, sees as a direct shot at his decision to hire Washington, D.C.-based attorney Elbert Lin as his solicitor general.
Lin, the highest paid member of Morrisey’s staff, is in the process of getting a law license to practice law in West Virginia. The House of Delegates bill would amend state code to say any lawyer hired by the state to make more than $100,000 has to have a license to practice in West Virginia before he or she is hired.
Morrisey sent out a release responding to the bill late Friday. He called it a “childish bill.”
“Shame on Delegate Doug Reynolds and his 10 co-sponsors who introduced House Bill 2788 today. This is petty partisan politics at its worst and shows what certain delegates’ priorities are,” Morrisey said in the release.
Attorney General Morrisey went on to say West Virginia scored a major victory when Lin was hired, citing his credentials that include clerking for a U.S. Supreme Court justice and working for a top law firm. Morrisey is paying him $132,000 a year, which Morrisey says is a pay cut.
Morrisey didn’t hold back in his criticism of some of those who sponsored the bill. He called Del. Reynolds “a desperate politician.” He said Jefferson County Del. Tiffany Lawrence was one who “preaches bipartisanship in Jefferson County yet acts like a liberal Democrat in Charleston” and Morrisey described Kanawha County Del. Doug Skaff as a “so-called bi-partisan leader.”
Morrisey defeated longtime state Attorney General Darrell McGraw in the Nov. General Election.
The introduced bill was sent to the House Judiciary Committee.