Anne Barth (WV-02) candidacy announcement

kudos to Barth campaign (0.00 / 0)

This is a good sign.

I haven't seen pictures of any other candidates from their stop at Secretary of State's office. That shows some saavy thinking ahead.

---

by: Clem Guttata @ Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 22:17:32 PM UTC

As Shock Wears off Barth looks like a Shelley-beater to me! (4.00 / 2)

I'm still in shock over Johnny U's decision to drop out by not even filing on the last day but as the ink dries on tommorrow's lead story I'm starting to feel like Anne Barth will bring us back to the promise land.  This kind of reminds me of Coach Rod backing out of the head coaching job before his BCS game with Oklahoma, just a month ago.  Remember WVU won the game with a new coach in a short time period, WV02 can be won much the same way if we put our minds and spirit behind it.  Anne will prove to be just the right tonic to cure what is now hurt feelings and betrayal felt by second district progressives. We can't sit here and waste time attacking Unger when there is work to be done getting Anne and her staff up and running to defeat Shelley Moore and her monied democratic friends.(Manchin and the forces of the coal elite that rule WV).  I can't wait to hear what Anne's views are on the controversial subjects like MTR, cronyism at the supreme court, global warming, and the big one criminal behavior by our executive branch during the Iraq invasion.

---

by: JBdem4usa @ Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 02:53:11 AM UTC

When I google Anne Barth I'm (4.00 / 2)

directed to an older post here about R's wanting her to run.   Is there any basis for that or is she a legit candidate?  I don't know anything about her.

---

by: MadAnne @ Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 19:54:16 PM UTC

both are true (0.00 / 0)

As far as I can tell here is how it all happened.

She had a chance to jump into the race even before Unger did. Had Barth run, Unger would have stayed out. He would have deferred to her--as seen this week, he had no desire to engage in a contested primary. She didn't provide any positive signs of interest, the DCCC was wanting a decision, so Unger went ahead and announced.

After Unger announced, there was a lot of interest in the press from right-wing columnists saying what a great candidate she would be and that she should also run. [Tellingly, no one mentioned her name as a replacement for Byrd in their perennial ghoulish follow-on stories about his age.] From what I could see, the Draft Barth "movement" was limited to the joint Capito-Byrd donors wanting to undermine Unger in the primary.

Now that Unger is out and Barth has been courted to join the race by the DCCC, she is a legit candidate.

Of course, none of us know the first thing about her stance on the issues. [IIRC] She's served as Byrd's state director for 10 years and twice as his campaign manager. She's never held elected office and has never had to take an independent public stance on any issue.

We might assume that her views will be fairly close to Byrd's. Where she differs is the most important part.

For example, Byrd's been great on the war (along with Feingold, perhaps the best in the Senate). On the other hand, his pro-Alito stance was a real negative to the Netroots. (He basically told MoveOn, etc., to stick it.) Byrd is also a big advocate of coal-to-liquids and has done nothing to slow or stop mountain top removal.

It'll be fascinating to see which Byrd positions she agrees and disagrees with. There's plenty of controversial issues she's now got to navigate. All of them are potential landmines in creating a coalition to defeat Capito.

---

by: Clem Guttata @ Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 22:27:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Clem and MadAnne (4.00 / 1)

That's as I recall too. It was pushed a lot by Gary Abernathy, Queen _ B of Back Porch Politics and highlighted by Chris Stirewalt at the State Journal. My sense was it was to create a contested primary so both would have spent their money before the general election. For all his flaws as a candidate, I think Callaghan could have pulled out an upset if he had any funds to respond to Capito's attack ads in the last two weeks. His campaign was so financially broke that I heard from a very reliable friend on the trip that Callaghan ran out of gas and they had to pass the hat to buy gas to get to the next stop.

Callaghan shouldn't have spent so much in the primary, but he did and he had nothing left to respond to Capito. I've never seen the numbers, but I've long heard from those close to his campaign that polling showed the race much, much tighter than the final outcome.

That makes perfect sense because if you recall she was still fundraising on the very last weekend before the election and campaigning hard until the last day.

If true about the polling data, that also helps explain why the DCCC is so interested in this race.

Regarding Barth on the issues, we have no idea where she stands on anything. If there's a lesson to be learned for me, I'm only going to throw my whole hearted support behind people I agree with totally on the issues and don't have to try to convince them of my view. They'll have to already be on the same side on the issues.

That said, I recall being so pissed at Byrd about his Alito vote. It wasn't just his vote, it was the big "fuck you" press release he sent out immediately after it where he essentially told Move On and others who had strongly supported him that their views weren't as relevant as the two or three people who wrote him letters from his Sunday school class.

So what is Barth's view on choice? What's her view too on the horrific abomination of the 2005 bankruptcy act that Byrd also supported. That is a highly relevant question in this period of high foreclosures. Does she differ from Byrd on that?

When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it. Sherlock Holmes.

---

by: Carnacki @ Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 22:44:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I still can't find anything about her. (4.00 / 1)

I would assume she's against the war.  Byrd is anti choice.  Lots of questions will be answered in the next few days.

Callaghan had more problems than no money.  Let's not even go there.

On the plus side this is the LAST State of the Union ever for Bush.

On the negative side today was deadly in Iraq and we are nearing 4,000 casualities.  Homeless vets still fill our streets.    

---

by: MadAnne @ Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 02:41:17 AM UTC

MadAnne (4.00 / 1)

I can't find anything on her positions either. Plus Callaghan was not a good campaigner and then there was the whole -- well, you know, that issue we don't want to go there with. And yet Capito still had to run hard. She didn't give money to the other Republican congressional campaigns, which is why she won't get good committee assignments.

When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it. Sherlock Holmes.

---

by: Carnacki @ Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 04:00:19 AM UTC

[ Parent ]