Harless had undertaken a large fundraising effort to prevent Gore from winning, as he feared that his prominent environmentalist policies would destroy the coal industry and, in turn, West Virginia's coal-heavy economy.
[22] As part of the contract signed with Georgia-Pacific, Harless was barred from conducting lumber business in the area for a period of 10 years,[23][20][24] and instead chose to establish sawmills in South America at the advice of his son Larry.
[22][25] His sawmill operation in Brazil was located in the town of Abaetetuba,[12] and its lumber was shipped via a vessel owned by Harless to a division of his company Gilbert Imported Hardwoods in Mobile, Alabama.
[32] In 1986, Harless purchased Logan & Kanawha Coal Company, which was made a subsidiary of International Industries with sales agent and marketing roles.
[24] Guns imported by Harless from South Korea included the USAS-12, which was rejected by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on grounds of a "lack of a sporting purpose.
[87] He served on the board of the West Virginia Forest Council, to which he was reelected for a three-year term in 1959,[88] and was also elected chairman of the Extension Service Committee of Mingo County in that year.
[3] During his tenure, he oversaw the March 1963 flood that impacted the area, leading him to argue in favor of the Justice Reservoir before the House Committee on Appropriations of the United States Congress.
[1] Harless was the Republican nominee for court commissioner of Mingo County in 1968, and accused the state Democratic Party of engaging in vote buying in order to influence the upcoming elections, many victims of which were allegedly drunk, and called the situation "a plight upon all citizens of West Virginia, regardless of their political affiliation.
[101][102][103] He praised the governor for his plan to introduce a tax of 4 cents per hour worked that would be in place for a period of 5 years, in order to pay off the unemployment benefit debt owed by West Virginia to the federal government.
Harless considered this a relief on the burden placed on employers, and argued that payroll taxes prevented the economic development of West Virginia.
[23] During the 1996 gubernatorial election, he was an important backer of Republican candidate Cecil H. Underwood,[104][105][106] whose upset victory was largely attributed to Harless' early support for him.
[108][109][28] Ahead of the 2006 U.S. senate election, Harless made financial contributions to Republican primary candidate Hiram Lewis,[110][111] as well as Democratic incumbent Robert Byrd.
[117][118][119] Seeking to represent West Virginia's 5th congressional district, Harless positioned himself as a "real Eisenhower candidate," and as a supporter of Helen F. Holt and Chapman Revercomb,[118] as well as vice president Richard Nixon.
[4] Harless and his fellow West Virginia electors later stated that they believed that Bush's win in West Virginia had been more important than that of Florida, since Gore's expected win in what was then "the safest Democratic state for a presidential candidate in the union" would have made the controversy of the contested Florida results inconsequential to the final outcome of the race.
"[140] Ahead of the 2008 presidential election, Harless made financial contributions to Huck PAC, the political action committee of Mike Huckabee.
[145] Candidates for the United States House of Representatives who received contributions from Harless included John Boehner,[146] Shelley Moore Capito,[147] David McKinley,[148] and Nick Rahall (D).
[55] He expressed concern over efforts to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States, and questioned a decision by Concord University to replace the traditional prayer with meditation at its 2003 graduation ceremony.
[55] He claimed that welfare had "absolutely ruined the initiative of the people,"[12] and as chairman of Appalachian Regional Hospitals stated that while he believed in providing healthcare to patients "without regard to their ability to pay," the cost of providing free hospital care to those unable to pay had created an economic deficit for the firm that needed to be covered by new sources of revenue.
[158] In 1961, Harless started a woodworking and furniture firm under the name National Seating and Dimension for the purpose of creating jobs in the area, however after three years of having observed none or only slight profits in the company, the plants were closed down, and Harless stated that despite its losses, he was confident it would have succeeded if skilled labor had been imported from the beginning, instead having attempted to sell job opportunities in a distressed labor area.
[160] As part of his initiative, Harless contributed $21,000 to the yearly salary of West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee, first as an anonymous donor before later revealing his identity.
[161] Harless was a supporter of several major infrastructure initiatives in southern West Virginia, including the Justice Dam,[162] the Hatfield–McCoy Trails,[163] a 225-acre housing development and shopping centre complex on a mountaintop outside his hometown,[22] as well as the King Coal Highway.
He was a prominent critic of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, and argued that his environmentalist policies would destroy West Virginia's coal industries.
[172] Harless' plans to combat the housing shortage in the area of his hometown were again challenged by federal law in 1979, when he constructed a 54-acre fill in the Guyandotte River for the purpose of making room for building lots, without having first acquired a permit required by the Clean Water Act.
Following the court's decision to award the plaintiff and his wife a total of $4 million in damages, in what was described as "one of the largest settlements in Mingo County history," Harless criticized the compensation program for its inability to protect businesses from incautious employees, who he believed could wipe out small companies "overnight" at the fault of their own mistakes.
[5] In a 1964 incident however, Harless blamed recurring labor disputes for being the cause of the shutdown of a West Virginia woodworking factory of which he served as chairman.
[177] Harless attributed the frequent labor disputes to demands for higher wages made by trade unions, and argued that the plant would have been better off had it not invested in the retraining of unemployed coal miners.
[179] Shortly before the "inevitable" Bituminous coal strike of 1977–78, Harless took part in preventive talks to settle contract negotiations with the BCOA, and said of labor unions that "I have always been an independent cuss.
[198] Inside the community center would be a pool, movie theaters, a cafeteria, computer rooms, meeting areas, and courts for tennis, racquetball and basketball,[199] as well as several activities and classes.
"[197] After 60 years of marriage, June died on April 27, 1999, and was posthumously praised by West Virginia governor Cecil H. Underwood, as a "dear and special friend" of him and his wife Hovah.
[217] Representative Shelley Moore Capito,[218] secretary of state Natalie Tennant[219] and America's Got Talent winner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr.[220] spoke of Harless' death via the website Twitter.