Jim Justice: West Virginia’s next....

While excitedly racing to The Greenbrier Friday afternoon for the weekend, my mind could only focus on two subjects: shoe shopping at Yarid’s and the possible political aspirations of the four star resort’s owner, Jim Justice. For the last six months or so, we’ve seen his name mentioned in print as a possible political power player and whenever the name of his resort comes up, inevitably someone asks me what I see in my bedazzled, Swarovski Crystal ball regarding his political future.

My findings were not what I expected. While I was predicting the outcome of my investigations to lead in a legislative or possibly more executive direction, I didn’t think cattle would be involved. I made up my mind to discuss anything and everything but politics on Friday evening, yet as our waiter was telling our table the specials, he mentioned a salad featuring “a collection of today’s gatherings all grown exclusively from Greenbrier farms.” Did anyone know the Greenbrier has something like a 40,000 sq. ft. farm?

The next morning, I was able to get some inside information on Jim Justice. Professionally, he shares quite a few of my only-child qualities; he likes to take control of projects, is quite the perfectionist and pays close attention to detail, is a visionary, the word “no” is not in his vocabulary, and strives to be the best (achieving five stars for him is the same thing as straight As for me). While I have a passion for fashion, Justice’s eye is on agriculture. He’s developed a farm at the Greenbrier, and is currently looking into the cattle and dairy industries.

My overall conclusion is that Jim Justice likes taking on projects where he can make an immediate difference, delivering almost instant, tangible results, (someone even told me that Jim Justice is to West Virginia as Danny Jones is to Charleston.) Certain elected positions require more collaboration, negotiation, and compromise than others. In other words, I’d say the legislature is not an option for this man. Given Justice’s love for the agriculture industry, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran for Commissioner of Agriculture.

So while he has visions of sows and tractors dancing in his head at night, I’ll be nestled all snug in my bed with visions of Stuart Weitzmans from Yarid’s dancing in my head.