Few Kentucky officials have endorsed candidates to head MSHA

Despite its vital importance to Kentucky and keen interest among labor, industry and other advocates nationwide, just one of the state's top Democratic elected officials has weighed in on President Barack Obama's impending choice to head the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Only U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, has endorsed any of the three leading candidates, who are:

Joe Main, the former longtime head of the United Mine Workers of America's Department of Occupational Health and Safety, who now is a consultant in the Washington, D.C., area.

J. Davitt McAteer, who led MSHA during President Bill Clinton's administration and who is a career mine-safety activist. He currently practices law in West Virginia.

Tony Mayville, director of the Illinois Office of Land Management and a former union miner and state mine-safety official.

In February, Chandler wrote a letter to Obama expressing his "strong endorsement" of Main. But Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, and state House Speaker Greg Stumbo haven't lobbied for any of the potential nominees.

"I think it is as simple as we (haven't) been asked to make a recommendation," said Jay Blanton, a spokesman for Beshear. And "given that there isn't a Kentucky candidate, we normally don't recommend in a case like that."

After consulting with Stumbo, who hails from Floyd County in the heart of the Eastern Kentucky coalfields, his communications director, Brian Wilkerson, said Stumbo "was unaware there was an opening" at MSHA.

"It's a federal thing," Wilkerson said.

Richard Stickler, the former interim head of MSHA, left the agency Jan. 20, the day Obama was sworn in.

Created in 1978, MSHA is headed by an assistant secretary of labor who administers a broad regulatory program designed to reduce fatalities, injuries and illnesses in mining. It has 11 coal mine safety and health divisions nationwide, three of which are in Kentucky.

The agency is widely considered by mine-safety authorities to be a key component in efforts to minimize harm to workers underground.

"Half of our electricity comes from coal, and to the extent that we're going to rely on coal, we need to ensure that the people who work in that core industry come out other than in a casket or with respiratory disease," said Celeste Monforton, a researcher in the George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.

"The (federal) Mine Act is a really powerful statute. What we need is someone at MSHA who realizes the potential of the statute and takes full advantage of it."

Not surprisingly, Main has been endorsed by the mine workers' union, where he worked for 30 years. And he has support from several top UMWA officials in Kentucky, as well as from Tony Oppegard, a Lexington attorney and former federal and state mine-safety official who has long been an advocate for strict enforcement of safety laws and miners' rights.

Also favoring Main's candidacy are Joe Lamonica, a former top official at MSHA who now works as a consultant to the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, and U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W. Va., who, according to a statement issued by his office, considers Main "a leader that miners can believe in."

The National Mining Association, which describes itself as "the voice of the American mining industry in Washington," is not publicly endorsing any of the candidates, according to Bruce Watzman, the organization's vice president of safety and health.

Because of his credentials, as well as his support from organized labor and some segments of the mining industry, Main is regarded by many as the front-runner to lead MSHA. But his top competitors have strong resumes of their own.

Like Main, McAteer has devoted his career to miners' safety and health, dating back to his work 40 years ago to help implement landmark federal mine-safety legislation.

Monforton, who was a special assistant to McAteer at MSHA in the 1990s, said his "credentials and experience, as well as familiarity with the agency, make him a great candidate" to lead it again.

Main and McAteer, both of whom have been interviewed for the job, declined to discuss their candidacies.

Mayville, who has not yet been granted an interview, said he thinks his broad experience makes him well qualified to run MSHA. Mayville said that while he knew Obama when he was a state senator in Illinois, he did not think that association or his ties to that state would be factors in the selection process.

MSHA and White House officials declined to discuss the nomination.

Reporter R.G. Dunlop can be reached at (502) 582-4227.

Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...