Letters to the Editor and State Lawmakers - Political misfires from legislators

by: wvblueguy

Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 21:03:55 PM EST

 UPDATE: The link to the commentary has been fixed. 

Here in Mercer County we have an active group of folks who consistently write letters to the editor of our local paper the Bluefield Daiiy Telegraph.  Fortunately a number of these folks are progressive and have been active in local politics for a number of years.  We also are lucky to have a local group of progressives that have become the real foot soldiers in the field for the Democratic Party in Mercer County.  Recently we formed a state pac called Democrats United for America and are quasi afilliated with DFA.

This last week one of our members had a letter published in the paper as a Commentary which in the Daily Telegraph is the equivalent of an Op-Ed in other papers. Before writing this diary I chatted with the writer and asked his permission to put some of his thoughts on WVaBlue and was pleased that he had no objections. 

The Commentary can be read by clicking here.  I was impressed with his thoughts because they detail items of local interest as well as thoughts about statewide issues being addressed by our legislature.  His comments were the result of an article on ideas expressed by local legislators at a recent local Chamber of Commerce breakfast.  

It is amazing to me that the forum always seems to be a relatively closed session involving local newspaper people or Chamber of Commerce folks that really don't represent local citizens, and for the most part are very receptive to the more conservative views expressed in these meetings. Our local group has already had a number of primary candidates for local office come by to talk to us, and will continue to invite all of tghem to our meetings. I just don't understand why more of these folks don't try the "town hall" approach.  Maybe they would if more of us were to demand it.

Please take some time to read Bill Morefield's Commentary... I think it applies to a lot of us in the state.   I hope to get him on board as a regular contributor to WVaBlue... he certainly stirs up some good thoughts.  Some of the "political misfires by legislators" can be read after the jump.

Referencing Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth... 

I am a little surprised that after the release of recent research on the status of our judicial system relative to “tort reform,” Senator Caruth is still using terms like “frivolous and fraudulent.” Surely he is not buying into Steve Robert's hypocritical and mythological claims that West Virginia courts are bogged down with “frivolous lawsuits.” Senator Caruth is better than this. I am wondering if perhaps he was misquoted?

 Hitting on the subject of "Clean Coal" with Delegate Eustice Frederick...

Contrary to his stated positions I feel Delegate Frederick is fully aware that there is no such thing as “clean” coal. I am also sure Mr. Frederick is aware that regardless of the process used long-range projections do not support the investment of billions of dollars of public money into coal conversion plants.

Commenting on Delegate Marshall Longs thoughts on teacher's pay...

Most of us would agree with Delegate Long that an infusion of cash in the form of teacher salaries is needed. What I am wondering is how teachers are rationalizing the fact that they got little last year and the state finished the year with over $90 million in surplus funds. Could it be the powers that be are familiar with the law of recency. Most of us know the shorter the interval between a reward and an expected behavior, the greater the probability the behavior will occur. Get your money; go vote for Joe Manchin. I have never figured out how this differs from just directly paying for votes. 

There is no doubt that we need more input to the legislature and the Governor from local folks like Bill.