West Virginia Blue
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As promised, I've started rolling out the 2008 state Senate election diaries. Use them as open diaries to comment on those races. If you have any additional information on the candidates, please post it.
I would especially like to know of candidate websites.
I'm skipping the uncontested districts. Here's what I've got so far:
With three more victories yesterday (resounding ones, at that), the Obama campaign is on a roll. If he keeps it up, his lead in pledged delegates will be large enough to effectively wrap up the nomination by March.
Hillary may yet rebound in Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio. That would set up Penn. as a major showdown. If it is still close after that, North Carolina and West Virginia in May will be closely watched primaries.
If you're involved with West Virginia activities for Hillary** or Obama, let us know how its going.
What kinds of national support are you getting? How do you think your candidate will do in W.Va.? Where does your candidate stand on issues important to West Virginia?
** I would link to a Hillary W.Va. page, too, but I can't find one. At HillaryClinton.com, there are just 40 states in the union and we ain't one of them.
In a year when the Republican brand is at an all time low and voters are embracing Democrats at all levels, you might think a popular incumbent Democrat would use their camapign website to reinforce the Democratic party brand.
Well, yes, there is well-buried reference of being "Chair for 2008 of the Democratic Governors Association." I only found that because I was looking for it. Come to think of it... it's even worse to think the Chair of the Dem. Gov. Association doesn't want to admit he's a Democrat on his campaign website!!
Come on, Gov. Manchin, you don't have to be an average Joe to be proud to be a Democrat.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller lays out a detailed critique of how bad the final budget of conservative Rep. Capito's favorite President is for West Virginia.
Pres. George Bush and Rep. Capito tell West Virginian's to suck it up in a bad economy (even as they call for making their tax cuts for the super-wealthy permanent).
PRESIDENT'S BUDGET SLASHES SERVICES FOR WEST VIRGINIANS OF ALL AGES ~Budget Cuts Funding to Health Care, Heating Assistance, Education, Veterans, Mine Safety, Firefighters and Aviation Service~
Washington, DC - Senator Jay Rockefeller today called the President's $3.1 trillion federal budget for 2009 - the largest in American history - indefensible because it slashes funding for vital programs aimed at helping West Virginia's coal miners, seniors, students and families.
"For many families in West Virginia, the conversation at the kitchen table is centered on how to afford health care, food and basic utility bills. The President's budget doesn't propose any relief to those worries; rather, it just makes them worse.
"We need to be expanding, not limiting, access to affordable health care offered through Medicare and Medicaid. We should be looking at ways to increase heating assistance for those on fixed incomes, and find ways to help hard-working West Virginians make ends meet.
Rockefeller's comments and budget cut details continue below the fold
(Bumped to top of page: we've got a really sharp set of commenters at this site, get that feedback to us sooner rather than later... once we create several dozen diaries it'll be too late!
- promoted by Clem Guttata)
My ambitious plan is to create an election diary for each of the 2008 major multi-county elections in West Virginia. In addition to the West Virginia cabinet offices, judiciary and Congressional seats that would also include all of the legislative seats up for election.
Before I create dozens (and dozens!) of these, I need your help: give me your feedback.
Any suggestions of (readily available) information to add for districts, candidates or incumbents? Are there any other links I should add in the resources section? Any other ideas?
Yesterday marked the halfway point for the 2008 legislative session. Only one bill has made it all the way through the legislative process to the governor’s desk. Everyone agrees that overall it’s been a slow session so far, but that’s about to change.
Remember riding a rollercoaster where the first half of the journey was the slow plodding ascent to the top of the first tower then, all of a sudden, you’re whizzing down a steep slope into loop de loops and around hairpin turns? Well, we just crested the top and are looking down…
Actually, here at Citizen Action we have already hit the slippery slope. For the CAG team, this week was a whirlwind. On Tuesday and Wednesday we hosted John Ferrari, President of NexCycle, a big California recycling business who wowed the crowd at a joint Judiciary hearing set up especially to review our bottle bill. Meetings followed with Senate & House leadership and finally taking the message to the governor that NexCycle wants us to pass a bottle bill so they can come into WV and set up operations to provide 200-250 jobs! The governor, who was there with the head of his REAP program, took notice…
Wednesday our landowners’ rights group, working to protect surface owners from the ravages of oil and gas drillers, hosted its day at the legislature with a morning press conference attended by diverse media including WV Public Broadcasting and the State Journal. Then the 30-40 citizen activists who came in from a dozen different counties fanned out to track down their representatives to lobby them on the Surface Owners Bill of Rights. We extend a big thanks to all who traveled long distances to tell their tales of abuse by careless drilling outfits. Our efforts to “balance the scales” for surface owners were greatly enhanced by your presence this week. See SORO’s web page for recent press coverage: www.wvsoro.org
The Insurance Consumer Advocate bill I mentioned awhile back is now out. HB 4466 would create an independent advocate who would go to bat for consumers in rate hike cases and other matters involving insurance regulation. This office could do for insurance matters what the PSC Advocate has long done for us in utility affairs. It is a much needed change and the sponsoring delegates - Webster, Caputo, DeLong, Fragale, Mary Poling, White, Morgan, Miley, Hrutkay, Proudfoot, and Fleischauer should be commended for going up against the big insurance interests who never cease to find new ways to pick our pockets with their state-sanctioned protection racket. You can read the bill at: http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Text_HTML/2008_SESSIONS/RS/Bills/hb4466%20intr.htm
National issues tend to get pushed to the back burner during the session but we must take notice of several DC events. The big news in DC this morning is the passage of the economic stimulus package made necessary by the Bush recession. As I mentioned last week this needed shot-in-the-arm for the national economy may have an unintended backlash for our state budget. According to Ted Boettner, former CAG researcher and now Executive Director of the WV Center for Budget & Policy, West Virginia could see a loss of $74 million because the state’s laws are automatically tied to any change in the federal tax code. To prevent this, a law would have to be passed allowing West Virginia to “decouple” from the federal business tax breaks.
We’ll also be working with our national USAction coalition to oppose the cuts in federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, housing, education and you name it proposed in Bush’s budget which came out this week. The “elephant in the living room” continues to be the cost of the Iraq war WHICH ISN’T EVEN IN THE BUDGET! The red ink bleeding out of Bush’s budget is not harming the military slice of the pie that continues to expand even while essential domestic programs get the ax. Watch Ted’s new budget group for cutting-edge analysis on both federal and state economic policies that will affect us all: www.wvpolicy.org
As the session continues to pick up steam please consider taking off a day from your usual routine to give yourself a lesson in civics. Come on down to the Capitol and become a citizen lobbyist for a day. We’ll show you the ropes and can probably locate a place for you to stay over if it’s too far to make it a day trip.
Everyone should see how laws are made – it isn’t pretty but it’s your government and it needs your guidance from time to time. Contact us at 304-346-5891 or 1-866-WVB-FAIR or e-mail me for more info.
This weekend there are 182 more delegates at stake. Eric Kleefeld at TPM Election Central has a state-by-state breakdown:
Louisiana primary — Saturday, 56 delegates: Obama is considered the favorite here due largely to the large portion black voters among the state's Democrats, and his past performance in the Deep South primaries in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. (snip)
Nebraska caucus — Saturday, 24 delegates: Obama has done very well in Mountain/Prairie state caucuses, such as his 74% showing in neighboring Kansas on Super Tuesday, on account of the small Democratic establishments that do exist in this region giving him their support. (snip)
Washington State caucus — Saturday, 78 delegates: This is the single biggest contest of the weekend, and also the one taking place in the bluest state. Although Hillary built up the early support of establishment figures like former Gov. Gary Locke, Sen. Maria Cantwell and recently Sen. Patty Murray, Obama has caught up very quickly. This week he won the endorsement of the state SEIU, the largest union in the state, and today he got the support of current Gov. Christine Gregoire. Also bear in mind that caucuses are all about organization and intensity on the part of a candidate's followers. A SurveyUSA poll released Monday put Obama ahead 53%-40%.
Maine caucus — Sunday, 24 delegates: There hasn't been any major polling on this race, but on paper it looks like Hillary Clinton's best chance for a victory this weekend. She has the support of the state's Democratic establishment, led by Gov. John Baldacci and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, and the demographics don't help Obama very much.
In his prediction thread, Jerome Armstrong at MyDD reprints the actual spreadsheet projections from the Obama campaign:
A while back we posted an inspired (and inspirational) video of Sen. Barack Obama's words put to music. Here's a video response for Sen. Hillary Clinton fans:
In a year when the Republicans have struggled to determine who their least worst old white guy is, the remaining Democratic party candidates are an embodiment of change.
Having two excellent choices in Hillary and Obama is rather inspiring to this Democratic party activist. Having the odds look very good for the next President of the United States to make history in their gender or ethnicity is quite inspiring to this progressive liberal.
``In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,'' Romney said in a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. ``I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and our country.''
So it looks like once again the earliest insider party-annoited Republican candidate--despite all indications along the way to the contrary--will get the nomination. John McCain now faces an incredibly difficult task of rallying a Republican base that has a visceral dislike for him.
Have you seen any campaign news we should know about? Are you affiliated with a campaign? Do you have a favorite candidate you want to get the word out about?
Send us an email at wvablue (at) gmail.com or, better yet, go ahead and post the news directly as a diary. There's lots of great Democratic candidates out there this year, we want to do what we can to highlight their races.
First off, congratulations to the West Virginia Republican party. They rolled the dice with their new convention caucus process this year. From what I can see it will be a smashing success at achieving their primary goal--getting the party out of debt.
It'll also have a positive effect of giving West Virginia some Super Tuesday election day coverage. We may not be a completely forgotten state this primary cycle after all!
It's far less clear if this not-so-democratic exercise creates enthusiasm for the Republican party, brings in any new members to stay, or does anything other than confuse voters when the Republican primary happens for the other half of the delegates.
Also, they've still got to put their best foot forward at the convention itself--let's see what kind of press narrative comes out the event.
Who will win?
Could Ron Paul win the W.Va. Republican caucus? Now that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are slated to make personal appearances in addition to Ron Paul, no. Rep. Paul appears to have the most dedicated band of genuine grassroots support in West Virginia, but the Republican party insiders will never let him win.
The multi-round, winner-take-all voting at the convention will keep Ron Paul (or Mike Huckabee, for that matter) from forging a winning coalition.
To me, the big question is if Mitt Romney can sway enough people with his personal appearance. Romney clearly has the edge on economic issues over McCain--this year's big issue for W.Va. Republicans. Will that be enough?
WV-02 Democratic Party challenger Anne Barth with husband Nick Barth
I've got some more photos to share from the Shepardstown and Berkeley Springs Anne Barth campaign kick-off events on Friday (Feb 1) and Saturday (Feb 2).
Shepardstown campaign kick-off event
The Shepardstown event was very well attended. I heard about 200 were there. That fits with my rough count of the overflow crowd.
The crowd gathers.
The crowd listens intently to Anne Barth's kickoff speech.
Yes, I know Mike Huckabee will not be the next President of the United States. He won't even be the Republican nominee. (Saint McCain is on his way of riding the winner-take-all Republican primary system to that dubious honor on Tuesday.)
Still, there will be many people who view Mike Huckabee more favorably after this run for President. tristero at Hullabaloo reminds Nick Kristof there are many reasons why Mike Huckabee is unfit for public office.
Huckabee ignored court testimony in favor of right wing operatives and worked to release a serial rapist. Upon his Huckabee-engineered release, the rapist graduated to murder, possibly twice, before he was caught. Because of this incident, I have spoken with blistering contempt about Huckabee's character.
Huckabee blamed everyone but himself for the release of this rapist/murderer, especially Bill Clinton and lied repeatedly about substantiated facts. Because of his failure to tell the truth about his mistakes, I have denounced Huckabee's integrity numerous times.
During Huckabee's reign as governor, Arkansas' public schools regressed to a pre-modern attitude towards science, especially biology. This neglect was willful, and done with Huckabee's knowledge and consent. Because of his ignorance, I have denounced Huckabee's actions at every opportunity.
A must read for any political junkie. Poblano delivers another ultimate primary preview: Super Tuesday Preview, 1/31/08.
Two items stand out. One, Obama has all the recent momentum. If things keep going his way over the next several days, Super Tuesday will be much closer than pundits are currently saying.
Two, Poblano notes tonight's Democratic debate could well decide who our next President is.
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