Stone-Manning Gains Key Support Despite Tree-Spiking Claim

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) says he will vote for embattled Bureau of Land Management director-nominee Tracy Stone-Manning during a Senate committee hearing on her nomination this week.

But Stone-Manning still faces a tough path to being the first Senate-confirmed land bureau director since the Obama administration. Republicans have accused her of being an eco-terrorist following a decades-old tree-spiking incident in Idaho.

Manchin’s office confirmed that he’ll vote for Stone-Manning on Thursday, when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to vote on her nomination. But the committee is expected to be deadlocked along party lines.

If a deadlock ...