| Outrageous is a word that comes to mind when this is considered. In 6 days before the election the Chamber of Commerce decides to attack someone who on a regular basis regulates its members like Big Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals, and Wall Street.
McGraw has taken these guys on regularly and won. He has brought in close to $2 billion dollars from these businesses violating consumer protection laws and they have never gotten over it.
Now I have no doubt that this decision was aided by a recent poll by Orion Strategies/WV Wesleyan showing only two ponts separating McGraw from his opponent. It was decision also aided by the fact that Dan Grar, the Republican nominee, has only $48.47 on hand, while McGraw has almost $55,000. Not a lot left for election day. Perhaps getting the Chamber involved was apart of Vic Sprouse's master plan all along.....
Dan Grar is an insurance lawyer and as far as I can tell has no real specific policy issue that he wants to enforce besides receiving bids for outside counsel on major cases. And trinkets. He won't use them. That's really it. The bids part is debatable. Considering it is highly unlikely Grar will sue anyone for breaking consumer laws or at least pursue them with any type of energy to help WV, it is highly unlikely he will ever ask other retain outside counsel.
While it isn't verified I also hear that the Chamber is going to drop $400,000 on Menis Ketchum and Margaret Workman to get conservative robot Beth Walker on the WV Supreme Court. The Chamber probably doesn't feel this race is as urgent since Beth Walker hasn't spent every last dime on Sprouse Consulting and has over $220,000 left to work with. Plus, she is currently leading according to the Orion Strategies poll.
These two races are not talked about as much on here as the presidential and Anne Barth, but they have major importance to our state. The Attorney General and the Supreme Court (that is before the court took a shift to the right with Brent "Paid for By Massey Coal" Benjamin was added in 2004) have prevented this state from becoming like the rest of the country. The businesses practices that have led Wall Street to crash.
No regulation or oversight is what the US and WV Chamber of Commerce wants and it will stop at nothing to get it.
It wants to turn WV into Wall Street. |
