West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael has certainly been a controversial figure in the 2018 legislative session.

From pushing a tax cut for big business that would blow an almost $150 million hole in the state budget while simultaneously insisting that our our state just doesn’t have any money to spare, Carmichael has often contradicted both himself and other Republican leaders in the Capitol.

His decision at the beginning of the public employee labor dispute to gavel out session early while laughing down protesting workers in the gallery left many in the dispute feeling angry and disrespected.

More recently, he led Republicans in the Senate to vote away a bill that would have funded PEIA insurance by raising West Virginia’s gas severance tax to match other energy-producing states. A few days after that, Carmichael pushed Senate Republicans to keep a pay raise bill, negotiated by Republican Governor Jim Justice and passed by the House 98-1, from even reaching the floor; the bill would raise the pay for education employees and state troopers by 5%.

Many people have been wondering what has led Senator Carmichael to take such an adamant stance in the face of massive pressure from people across the state to fund employee insurance and compensation.

Some speculate that he is acting on the behalf of his campaign donors rather than the people of West Virginia.

We decided to investigate those donors, and here is what we found. Below are the top five traceable groups who have funded Mitch Carmichael’s time in office.

Is Mitch Carmichael working for you, or for the people shoveling money into keeping him in office? You be the judge.