West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
Good for Carte, this is a plum set of assignments.
SENATOR GOODWIN ANNOUNCES HIS SENATE COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
**GOODWIN TO SERVE WEST VIRGINIA ON ARMED SERVICES, BUDGET, HELP AND RULES COMMITTEES**
Washington, D.C.-Senator Carte Goodwin today announced that he will serve West Virginia on four Senate Committees: Senate Budget Committee, Senate Armed Services Committee; Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP); and, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.
"Serving West Virginia as your Senator for the coming months is my greatest honor, and my new Committee assignments will mean a strong voice at the table for the families of our great state. Having the opportunity to work for West Virginia on the issues that really matter to our state - from economic security and balancing the federal budget, to protecting the brave soldiers who put their lives on the line for our security, to strengthening our education and health care systems - is a responsibility I take very seriously. We need to put people back to work and improve the economy in West Virginia and that is my number one priority. I will work as hard as I can to fight for you in my time in the U.S. Senate."
Why should the Dem. and GOP primary have all the fun? The WV-SEN general election now promises to be at least a three-way contest, too.
Mountain Party Candidate to File for Senate
Charleston, WV - Former WV Mountain Party gubernatorial candidate, Jesse Johnson will be filing to run for the unexpired term of US Senator Robert C. Byrd in the special primary election set for August 28th.
Johnson ran as the party's gubernatorial candidate in 2004 and 2008 and as a candidate for US Senate in 2006.
Johnson is running to give WV voters an alternative to politics as usual and protect their constitutional rights as well as the protection of our precious Air, Water, and Mountains here in the Mountain State.
The WV Mountain Party affiliated with the national US Green Party in 2007
Ken Hechler may be 95 years old - 96 by Election Day in November - but you sure can't tell by listening to him speak.
He's interviewed today by Salon (link at the end of this diary), and here's an excerpt:
I'm not really running for the Senate, I'm running to enable the people of West Virginia to register at the polls their opposition to this devastating practice [of mountaintop removal], which hurts so many people in the valleys when they dump the rocks in the soil and all the things that they're blasting out of the mountains into people's front yards. Ruining the aquifers so that if they have water wells they run dry and also drying up the streams where people are fishing and using for recreation. And it's a practice that is so vicious that it outta be abolished. Every time a poll is taken in West Virginia it's two to one in favor of abolishing it but there's never been an opportunity for people to put it on the ballot and so I'm saying every vote for Ken Hechler is a vote tantamount to opposition to mountaintop removal. That's the only reason I'm in the campaign.
Personally, I think that's a pretty damn good reason.
The National Press Club got a whiff of sulfur on Thursday, when the Massey CEO and check writer for the West Virginia GOP made his appearance before the group.
Blankenship's event comes a week after we learned that Massey's electrician disabled a methane detector alarm in order to speed up production, and a day after Massey foremen pled guilty in the Aracoma fire case.
According to Huffington Post's front page story, the Coalfield Don had "no regrets" over the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 workers at his mine on April 5.
In hindsight, is there nothing Blankenship would have done differently before the worst mine disaster in 40 years? No.
Well, maybe one thing.
"What I could have done is be more like I normally am, and sued MSHA [the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration] the first time they turned off a scrubber, instead of waiting until they turned off 43," Blankenship said.
Rep. Shelley Moore-Capito broke ranks with most of her Republican colleagues in voting for the extension of unemployment benefits earlier today. Giving credit where credit is due, I applaud her for doing the right thing.
To West Virginia's credit, our entire delegation, including Rep. Mollohan, and Rep. Rahall, voted for this important legislation.
Conceding they can't find enough votes for the measure, Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned efforts to put together a comprehensive energy bill that would seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions, delivering a potentially fatal blow to a proposal Democrats have long touted and President Obama campaigned on.
Does this mean the never-existed-in-the-first-place "War on Coal"TM is off?
So far there have been three Democrats file for WV-SEN: the heavily favored, Gov. Joe Manchin; mountain-top removal activist Ken Hechler; and former Mon County delegate Sheirl Fletcher.
No one has filed yet from the Republican party, but I fully expect that John Raese will. I think he's going to wait until the last minute with the hopes of luring at least one other Republican into the primary.
Why?
Because it is in John Rease's personal interest to have both a contested Republican primary and to have as heavily contested as possible general election. He'll invest a modest amount of his own wealth to keep both races as competitive as possible.
After all, what is one of the biggest differences between a lightly contested and a heavily contested election? The amount of media spending.
And, what would be a nice unexpected windfall for John Raese's West Virginia media empire? Heavy media spending for a contested special Senate election.
Update from Carnacki: Raese makes it official he's in.
Tomorrow (July 22), Don Blankenship, the notorious chairman and CEO of Massey Energy, speaks at the National Press Club. We'll be live blogging to make sure you all get the play-by-play -- which promises to be interesting at the very least if Blankenship's previous speaking engagements are any indicator (we live-blogged at his public debate with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in January in Charleston, WV -- check it out here).
WASHINGTON -- By a party-line vote, a House of Representatives committee today moved sweeping mine safety legislation crafted in response to the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster.
The Education and Labor Committee voted 30-17 to send the bill, named for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, to the House floor, with all Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no.
It's pretty darn exciting to see Jefferson County native Rod Snyder elected president of YDA. Congratulations, Rod, on your hard-earned and well-deserved honor. Keep making us proud!
West Virginian Elected President of the Young Democrats of America
WASHINGTON, DC - July 19, 2010 - Jefferson County native Rod Snyder was elected the 39th President of the Young Democrats (YDA) of America yesterday at the organization's national conference in Washington, DC. Snyder is only the second West Virginian to lead YDA in the organization's 78 year history.
Snyder graduated in 2002 with a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Eastern University near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he served as president of the student body. He currently works as Director of Public Policy with the National Corn Growers Association in Washington, DC and resides on his family's farm in Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia.
Snyder previously served as President of the West Virginia Young Democrats from 2007 - 2009, YDA Mid-Atlantic Region Director from 2007 - 2009 and YDA Executive Vice President from 2009 - 2010 .
In 2004, Snyder was a candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates and was named the state's Outstanding Young Democrat of the Year in 2005. He is the son of West Virginia State Senator Herb Snyder.
During the 2008 election cycle, Snyder managed three successful campaigns in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, including the election of the youngest ever female legislator in the history of the state, Delegate Tiffany Lawrence. He also served on the Agriculture and Rural Policy Advisory Committee for the 2008 Barack Obama for President Campaign.
Snyder is an accomplished singer/songwriter and was a semifinalist on season four of the television show American Idol. In 2006, he released his debut full-length album entitled "Leaving Hollywood Behind."
At this weekend's national conference, YDA also adopted resolutions expressing condolences to the families of the fallen miners at the Upper Big Branch disaster, as well as honoring the life and service of Senator Robert C. Byrd.
The Young Democrats of America is the largest youth-led, national, partisan political organization. YDA mobilizes young people under the age of 36 to participate in the electoral process, influences the ideals of the Democratic Party, and develops the skills of the youth generation to serve as leaders at the local and national level. YDA has been the official youth arm of the Democratic Party since 1932. Since 2002, YDA has operated independently of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as a nonfederal 527 political organization.
In a surprise to the Daily Mail, but not to long-time observers of Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, she chose not to run and is already making excuses:
Capito gave several reasons for staying out of the race, including a possible legal challenge that could confuse an already confused process.
"There has been enough unnecessary chaos and controversy surrounding the vacancy in the U.S. Senate," she said in a statement released this morning. "My candidacy would create more uncertainty, invite a legal challenge, and misrepresent my priorities as a public servant."
So considering the whole Republican pushed Capito Amendment squandered the state legislature's time and money so she could run for the House and Senate at the same time to clear the way just for her to run, is she going to reimburse the state back?
How often will she play West Virginia Republicans as suckers? Every opportunity, apparently.
Here's the video of Capito making her announcement.
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No one has filed yet from the Republican party, but I fully expect that John Raese will. I think he's going to wait until the last minute with the hopes of luring at least one other Republican into the primary.
