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Following last week's launch of anti-Democratic attacks by the prostitute-loving Dick Morris (who admitted his commercials were full of factual errors), a new group of rightwingers is airing "issue ads" against Rahall and Mollohan.
This week, the West Virginia Republicans can count on help from the American Future Fund.
A quick look into the past of the future fund shows it's made up of the expected Lee Atwater disciples:
- Former spokesman for the House GOP in Iowa, Tim Albrecht, who also worked on Mitt Romney's failed presidential campaign.
- Ben Ginsburg, legal counsel for the group. You'll remember Ginsburg as chief outside counsel for the Bush Cheney campaign in 2004. He, of course, had to resign his position when it was revealed he was advising the Swift Boat smear effort and contradicting the Bush campaign's claim that they had nothing to do with "outside" attacks on Sen. John Kerry.
- and Larry McCarthy, media strategist for the group - best known for producing the racist-as-hell Willie Horton ad for Bush Sr.'s campaign against Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1988.
SB 614 would require more notice for land-owners in the corridor of planned high voltage transmission lines.
It would also require the Public Service Commission (PSC) to find that proposed transmission lines are in the best interest of West Virginia customers.
Call / e-mail Delegate to SUPPORT SB 614.
Find your Delegates now!
Delegate Miley - Chair
Delegate Hunt - Vice-Chair
Delegate Ellem - Minority Chair
Delegate Lane - Minority Vice-Chair
Delegate Barker
Delegate Brown
Delegate Caputo
Delegate Ferro
Delegate Fleischauer
Delegate Frazier
Delegate Hutchins
Delegate Longstreth
Delegate Michael
Delegate Moore
Delegate Ross
Delegate Shook
Delegate Skaff
Delegate Susman
Delegate Wells
Delegate Wooton
Delegate Hamilton
Delegate Overington
Delegate Schadler
Delegate Schoen
Delegate Sobonya
Check below the fold for other information from work in the Senate . . .
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your late afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
Help me out. Enjoy the Ogden silliness and flip-flop again. Add some news...
The West Virginia Democratic Party has a strong slate of candidates running for office, in some cases against each other. In most of the primary races I intend to remain neutral, but people can take their own stances.
Two notable exceptions I'll state upfront. I strongly support the re-election of Nick Rahall and Alan Mollohan to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated: with the ads he is running, coal baron Don Blankenship wants to split Democrats. He knows he has no chance of winning those two House races. (He's willing to throw his vacation buddy Spike Maynard out as the Republican sacrificial lamb to lose to Rahall. Some friend you got there Spike. You two deserve each other.)
Blankenship's real agenda is at least twofold: 1.) to push the Overton window his direction no matter who is running and 2.) weaken Mollohan and Rahall for any future senatorial races by attacking them now and making them spend campaign resources now.
I'm not playing Blankenship's game. We've got two fine representatives for West Virginia in Mollohan and Rahall - I've long wished Rahall in particular was my representative instead of Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito - and those two gentleman have my support.
As always, I speak for myself. The rest of the fine community members of this group blog are free to disagree or agree.
I listened to a Congressman from Alabama give the Republican's weekly statement (after the President's weekly statement) on NBC this morning and was told that despite what Pelosi and Reid want, despite the threat of using reconciliation to push the Health Care bill through, the American People don't want the Health Care bill as it has been debated and argued over the past year. He said the American People want Congress and The President to "start over on a new page."
Here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, about as American a location as you can find, I sit watching this knowing that I WANT a Health Care bill to be passed NOW. I know that if the government starts on a NEW PAGE it will be in the face of a rate-raising, highly profitable private insurance system and a 10-to-1 ratio of lobbyists who are NOT starting on a new page, who will work day and night to weaken any progress.
President Obama has finally started twisting some arms to get his health care reform bill passed.
Whether or not the public option will be included is still a big question. Apparently there are plenty of Democrats who still don't understand that Scott Brown won Massachusetts because voters don't like their universal health care without the public option.
Research 2000 poll(ed) voters immediately after the Election ended: Even Scott Brown voters want Democrats to be bolder and they want healthcare reform that includes a public option.
You read that right. By a margin of three-to-two, former Obama voters who voted for Republican Scott Brown yesterday said the Senate healthcare bill "doesn't go far enough." Six-to-one Obama voters who stayed home agreed. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want the choice of a public option in the bill.
The message is clear, there is only one way out of this mess if Democrats want to win in 2010. It's time to pass healthcare with 51 votes in the Senate using the budget reconciliation process. And it must include the most popular piece of bold reform: the choice of a public option.source (bold italics added)
Having said that, here's a graph that illustrates that there is hope for change without the public option.
The problem with the CBO figures, as as Republicans are quick to point out, is that the CBO numbers for Obamacare are accurate if the data provided to them is followed to the "T". I think we can all agree that health care providers will figure out ways to wangle around federal regs pretty quickly.
That's exactly why the competition of a public option matters so much. It's the real change America voted for.
The following statement was released by Gov. Joe Manchin about his mother Mary Manchin, 87, who suffered a stroke around 11 a.m. today and is currently hospitalized:
"I am with my mother and my family as we wait for further news about my mother's condition. I am truly thankful for the excellent care that my mother is receiving from all the doctors, nurses and hospital staff at Ruby Memorial. Gayle and I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers."
All of us here at WVaBlue extend our thoughts, prayers and best wishes to the Governor's mother and their entire family. We join with all West Virginians in hoping she has a quick recovery.
West Virginia's African American community is in distress. According to a new report entitled Legacy of Inequality: Racial and Economic Disparities in West Virginia, black West Virginians are more likely to live in poverty and have lower incomes and higher unemployment rates than white West Virginians, despite having similar levels of educational attainment.
The report found that in West Virginia:
28.5% of black residents live in poverty, compared with 16.6% of whites;
nearly 60% of black children under five live in poverty, compared with 28.1% for whites;
annual per capita income for whites was $21,272, compared with $14,915 for black residents;
median family income was $48,479 for whites but only $31,175 for black residents.
Racial disparities also exist in employment status, health insurance coverage, home ownership and incarceration rates.
Unfortunately, there is currently no state level office or program charged with elevating the concerns of West Virginia's minority communities.
House Bill 4161, which would create the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs passed the West Virginia House of Delegates. Its companion bill, SB 329 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been sent to Finance.
This bill is intended to provide a forum for discussion of issues that affect minorities; identify and promote best practices for programs and services to minorities; review information and research and make recommendations that can inform state policies to ensure fair treatment of minorities.
Action is needed to make sure the Senate will pass legislation to address these long neglected issues. Despite being passed by the House of Delegates and Senate Judiciary, the Senate Finance Committee has not yet taken the bill up for consideration.
TAKE ACTION Click this link to send a personalized message to your State Senators and urge them to support passage of House Bill 4161 creating the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs. In particular, calls and messages need to reach Senate Finance Committee members including Finance Chairman Senator Walt Helmick.
BY PHONE: Call 1-877-565-3447 to leave a message or be transferred to your legislator's office. You can leave messages after hours that will be delivered to your legislators the next day.
It has been a very busy legislative session on the civil liberties front. As of the 50th day of the session (when bills must make it out of their chamber of origin) ACLU of WV can announce that a few good bills are still alive while other bad pieces of legislation have perished. We will have a more conclusive update on the whole legislature at a later date.
However, what is un-arguably one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation I have ever seen during my tenure is still breathing and the progressive community must help to defeat it.
House Bill 4188, also known as the "Anti-Criminal Street Gang Act" will undoubtedly increase an already serious racial profiling problem we know exists in West Virginia. And let's be clear, when I say "we know racial profiling exists," it is because a study of over 300,000 traffic stops conducted over 18 months showed that minority drivers were one-and-a-half more times likely to be stopped on West Virginia roads and, once stopped, two-and-a-half times more likely to have their vehicles searched. The real kicker is ultimately, minority drivers were less likely to have any illegal contraband on them then their white counterparts.
And that is just the statewide average. On a local level, depending on which departments you isolate, the problem gets much worse and that is why this bill must be stopped. The legislation gives very broad powers to law enforcement to stop or question individuals hanging out in groups of three or more for nothing more that the clothes they are wearing or anything else law enforcement deems to be "gang related."
This is the legislative equivalent of throwing gasoline on a brush fire.
What you can do:
First, call Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler at 304.357.7880 and urge him NOT to run HB 4188. You can be specific by asking that he "Keep it off of the agenda."
Second, because I know this blog has a substantial Eastern Panhandle readership, call Senator Herb Snyder (D-Jefferson) and politely request he NOT support HB 4188.His Capitol Phone # is 304.357.7957
Good evening, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
A release from the West Virginia Democrats points out interesting numbers:
What Republican Surge?
WV GOP Fails to Field Candidates in 31 Seats; Surrenders One Seat to Dems
Charleston, W.Va. - The day after the deadline for political parties to make appointments for vacancies on the ballot, the West Virginia Republican Party failed to find any candidates for thirty-one (31) of the state's 117 legislative races on the ballot this year. By contrast, Democrats only left eleven seats uncontested. Only a few years ago the GOP filled the entire ballot. In one House District, state Republicans were not even able to field a candidate to defend one of their own seats.
"Nationally there has been a great deal of chatter about a Republican tidal wave coming in 2010, but clearly that is not the case in West Virginia," Democratic Party Chairman Nick Casey said. "When you do not have quality candidates stepping forward to challenge incumbents that speaks volumes."
Statewide the GOP failed to find candidates in four State Senate seats and twenty-seven House of Delegates seats. Democrats left just one Senator unopposed and only ten Delegates. In Hancock County (House District 1), the GOP failed to field a candidate for one of their currently held seats which guarantees another Democratic Delegate there.
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