« The invitation is wide open, » West Virginia’s governor said of the idea.
On Thursday, many residents of Maryland and West Virginia were somewhere between shocked, bemused and angered to learn of a proposal by a group of Maryland Republican legislators for the state’s three westernmost counties to break off and join West Virginia, a plan that’s destined to fail but that some in those counties argue makes perfect sense. « Absolutely, without any question, the invitation is wide open, » West Virginia’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice said at a news conference on Friday, called solely to address the Maryland counties. “You sure as the dickens won’t ever regret it!” Many Maryland lawmakers slammed the proposal as a stunt, as did the state’s largest newspaper, The Baltimore Sun. « If you want to be irrelevant, you pull stunts like this, » the paper wrote in a Friday editorial, noting at least two of the counties listed for secession receive more than 40% of their annual budgets in state funds—well above the average of 26.8% in Maryland counties. The state’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, also blasted the idea, saying it was just a « publicity stunt. » The lawmakers behind the plan have already admitted it was just for attention.
