Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito is expected to cruise to an easy victory in 2010. Despite an occasional rumbling over the past year, the DCCC has been unable to recruit a high profile candidate. So far, two Democratic challengers have filed pre-candidacy papers to run for West Virginia's second congressional district.
Over the last nine years, I became drawn to politics because I saw a downward pull in the way government was operating. Deregulation of the financial markets, allowing corporate lobbyists to write political policy and politicians angling over power impelled me to become a better-educated citizen.
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Why run for Congress in 2010? My passion for turning the government again toward its course of representing people motivates me. Although in our history we have never achieved a perfect democratic republic, we have consistently strived for it.
Why now? In West Virginia, and across America, there is a lack of credibility from those we elect to act for the common good. Devotion to protecting people has been replaced by devotion to political parties.
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My opponent, Shelley Moore Capito, is one of those obstructionists. She sends out materials about health-care reform filled with simple platitudes and misinformation.
Health-care reform is just one issue in a pattern of choosing corporate interests over citizens' concerns. Corporations who seek tax shelters and government subsidies despite locating overseas and exporting American jobs are a blatant affront to our citizens.
My opponent, and other like-minded politicians, take our people to the laundry with their opposition to corporate controls. Rep. Capito voted against the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act aimed at overhauling financial services regulations and placing new controls on institutions deemed to pose a risk to the entire financial system. She voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay for Equal Work, against Helping Families Save Their Homes, and against Pay for Performance Act, which highlights corporate accountability and executive compensation. She voted against veterans' care, clean energy and security, student aid, fiscal responsibility and against a stimulus package aimed at putting people to work.
To constantly favor wealth diminishes opportunities for ordinary citizens to earn decent wages, to receive quality education, and to take care of the health and well-being of their families.
Critical thinking in America is becoming a lost art. TV ads, talk-show hosts and politicians take advantage of the time constraints most Americans have as they work and raise their families. A bombardment of lies, half truths and fear-mongering has replaced honesty. Those engaged in preying on trusting Americans in this manner have become extraordinarily wealthy.
While America is still ranked No. 1 in innovation and entrepreneurship, we see lending institutions strangle that gleaming light offered by small business as they withhold needed funding. Job opportunities are being exported to countries with low labor costs. Just like with the steel industry, manufacturing jobs are almost gone. Political office is fast becoming the domain of the wealthy, who turn their offices into financial feeding grounds.
Graf is hitting many of the same themes we've been "critiquing" Rep. Capito on for years. Here's hoping that Graf has the energy, persistence and resources to get this message out to enough voters to gain traction in the voting booth.
One of them, Virginia Lynch Graf, introduced herself to voters this week with an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette, 
