West Virginia Blue
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 8, 2010
Candidate Filing Period Begins Monday
Charleston, W.Va. - Candidates seeking office in 2010 can begin filing their paperwork with the Secretary of State's Office or their county clerk on Monday.
The filing period runs from January 11 to midnight on January 30. The Secretary of State's Office will be open until the deadline on the last day to assist any last second filers. Candidates should check with their county clerk's office to find out their hours for that day.
New this year is the requirement for all candidates in House of Delegates and State Senate races to register with the Secretary of State's Office. Previously, only candidates whose districts covered more than one county had to file with the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State's Office is prepared to assist candidates who wish to file their paperwork Monday morning at the State Capitol. The Elections Division staff will be available to answer any questions candidates may have.
Candidates can also fill out a certificate of announcement at their county clerk's office or download it and print it from the Secretary of State's website. Those must be postmarked by midnight on January 30.
More information about important dates for candidates to remember is available on the Secretary of State's website at http://www.wvsos.com. Candidates can find out when their campaign finance reports are due, when county clerks will do a random drawing for ballot position, and the deadline for a candidate to have their name removed from the ballot if they decide not to run.
"We have turned our conference room into a place completely dedicated to helping candidates file their paperwork," Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant said. "Our Elections Division will be there to answer questions and help candidates make sure they've dotted their I's and crossed their T's. We want to make this process as easy as possible, so the candidates can focus on the issues facing the citizens of West Virginia."
Starting Monday, voters can see a complete list of registered candidates on the Secretary of State's webpage by clicking on the banner at the top of the page. The list of candidates will be updated in real time.
"It's something I have an interest in," Tomblin said Tuesday in his state capitol office. "I take a great deal of pride in the changes we've made in this state and if the opportunity arises and the right people get behind me I would really consider running for governor."
The Logan County Democrat also has the title of the state's Lieutenant Governor and if Gov. Manchin would leave his office before his term is over, Tomblin would become governor. "When you sit in this seat here it's one that you never know from day to day that you may get the call," he said.
MetroNews mentions two other possible candidates, one unannounced but and one already announced.
House Speaker Rick Thompson is holding fund raisers across the state, but hasn't announced yet. He was in Martinsburg on Friday for what I was told was a good fundraiser. So far he's held fundraisers with two of Berkeley County's most prominent Democratic supporters, Butch Pennington and John Fink. I was invited to both events, but wasn't able to make them due to scheduling conflicts.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler is the only announced candidate and is a favorite of at least two West Virginia Blue regulars and has a lot of good qualities. If he makes it out to the Eastern Panhandle, someone drop me a line because I'd like to meet him. Same with any other of our gubernatorial candidates.
Other potential gubernatorial candidates whose names I've heard bandied about for governor in 2012 are State Auditor Glen B. Gainer III and State Treasurer John Perdue, both of whom would have to be considered strong contenders.
One person to watch is the popular Secretary of State Natalie Tennant. She's played it coy so far, but there is a long way to go until 2012.
While neither Alan Mollohan or Nick Rahall are going to want to give up their safe House of Representative seats where they have considerable seniority and clout, but the GOP's best shot at winning the governor's race would come from the House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. That's one of the big questions in West Virginia politics. The Republicans are going to want her to run so they have a viable, legitimate candidate this time. But the feckless Capito has ducked GOP recruitment efforts to run for U.S. Senate. Capito wants to be governor or senator, but fears losing her safe House seat.
All of them are invited to post here, the meeting ground for many in the netroots.
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Facing a handful of reporters in front and backed by representatives of a dozen area charities standing behind her, West Virginia's secretary of state on Thursday announced her office's role in a national campaign against fraudulent charities.
Natalie E. Tennant said her office is beefing up its Web site www.wvsos.com to support Operation False Charity 2009, a nationwide crackdown on a practice known as "badge fraud."
Operation False Charity 2009 is aimed at telemarketers who falsely solicit funds on behalf of legitimate charities, especially police, firefighters and veterans groups.
By checking the Web site before they give, West Virginia donors will be able to check the legitimacy of more than 2,500 registered charities in the state, Tennant said at a Thursday morning press conference in front of the Berkeley County Judicial Center.
Thank goodness for that. I'm tired of getting calls from groups that claim to represent police groups and when you ask them to send something to verify who they are, they never do. Often the callers will thank me for a contribution last year and give the same amount as before. Since I do the taxes and we keep all receipts, I know perfectly well I hadn't given to one of those fraudulent groups, but it's just part of their pitch. They also tend to talk extremely fast to get you to say 'Yes' before you think about it. Glad to see we have a secretary of state cracking down on it.
This part was also interesting in the story:
The event was part of a three-day swing through the Eastern Panhandle for Tennant. The swing included stops at the National Conservation Training Center outside Shepherdstown, W.Va.; handing out scholarships to Washington High School students in Charles Town, W.Va.; lunch with Rotarians in Berkeley Springs, W.Va.; guest appearances on two local radio talk shows; and today's commencement for Blue Ridge Community and Technical College graduates.
Always good to see our state officials out here and remembering we're West Virginians too in the Eastern Panhandle.
TENNANT TO MAKE ANNOUNCEMENT
REGARDING CHARITY FRAUD IN WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston, W.Va. - Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant will make a major announcement regarding charity fraud in West Virginia Thursday in Martinsburg. The announcement comes in conjunction with Operation False Charity 2009, a national effort lead by the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on charity fraud and increase public knowledge of the organizations people donate to.
Tennant will unveil new measures available to the public to protect against fraudulent charities and provide numbers detailing the practices of charities and how they disburse money donated by West Virginians.
Charleston, W.Va. - Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant marked her first legislative session in office with many successes. Her office initiated or supported several bills, including one that helps candidates by changing the timeline for recounts and others that will save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
The bills now need Governor Joe Manchin's signature to become law.
Senate Bill 764 changes the timeline for recounting ballots in races where the candidate runs in more than one county, such as statewide candidates, state legislators, or circuit court judges. Candidates will have 48 hours to call for a recount starting from the time the final county in the race completes the canvassing of its ballots. This will help the candidate make a more informed decision about whether or not to call for a recount, and potentially save resources for counties.
House Bill 2567 requires state agencies with rule making authority to file those rules electronically. This would save the Secretary of State's office and the state more than $100,000 a year in paper and work hours. The e-filing will begin with a pilot program with several state agencies and eventually require all state agencies e-file by July 1, 2011.
House Bill 3074 is another cost saving measure. It allows the secretary of state's office to notify taxpayers who have delinquent taxes by certified mail rather than registered mail.
House Bill 3194 increases penalties for a person who falsely signs and files a record regarding a limited liability corporation (LLC). The bill would make filing a false record a misdemeanor with a possible fine of $1,000 and a jail term of up to one year. This new law adds consistency to state code by providing identical penalties to those already in place for people who falsely file records regarding corporations.
Tennant supported House Bill 2464, a plan that allows county clerks or county commissions to designate a "satellite precinct" for early voting. In most counties, the county court house or the annex will remain the primary location for early voting. The law does not require counties designate satellite precincts, but does allow each county to make their own decision. The goal of the bill is to make early voting more accessible in counties that cover large areas or counties that have large population centers far from the county court house.
Tennant also supported House Bill 3134, the Vote By Mail Pilot Program. Phase one of the pilot program allows small municipalities to conduct a vote by mail program for their municipal elections beginning in 2010. The next phase of the program allows five municipalities that will be selected by the Secretary of State's office to conduct all their voting by mail beginning with the primary election of 2011.
Tennant has a major infrastructure improvement proposal that will be taken up during the special legislative session to finalize the state budget. The proposal includes enhanced security for the Secretary of State's website and other applications that will streamline the services the office provides.
West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant was criticized by some (shout out to our friend Gary Abernathy) for being too partisan because she met with the Progressive Democrats of West Virginia. Now that she's also met with the West Virginia Federation of Republican Women (a meeting planned before the faux controversy from the rightwingers), is she going to be criticized for being too bipartisan?
CHARLESTON -- Secretary of State Natalie Tennant on Monday urged cooperation between the political parties during a meeting of the West Virginia Federation of Republican Women.
"You are all strong women," Tennant said. "That's what all of you bring to the table. And we all need to work together in the democratic process to move this state forward. We will be able to do that in the next four years during my time as secretary of state. We're all in this together. And we're going to move West Virginia forward together."
Many of us here at West Virginia Blue really like our secretary of state, and recognize she's going to represent all of West Virginia well in the office. It's too bad some Republican men would rather try to make political hay * by throwing mud bricks than appreciate the hard work and talents she brings for all West Virginians.
While I've defended West Virginia Republican Party's executive director Gary Abernathy recently against personal smears and back stabbing from people on his own side, that doesn't mean I don't have my differences with him.
In today's Republican Gazette post, Abernathy criticizes our former front pager PDAWV who now works as the elections division manager. Apparently in Abernathy's world, people who care about politics should never speak about politics or else they're ineligible for holding a political post.
Abernathy implies because PDAWV wrote on West Virginia Blue and was state coordinator of the Progressive Democrats of West Virginia, he is too highly partisan to hold a job in an office that is run by partisan politicians.
What Abernathy apparently doesn't know is the person directly under Dave Nichols, who like the vast majority of Americans did not like John McCain, is also a partisan political supporter. I'm sure if Abernathy had known that, he would have highlighted how it's additional proof that the Secretary of State's office is too partisan under Natalie Tennant. Because the person directly under Nichols was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2008...wait a minute? That man's a highly partisan Republican.
Reality once again undermines a Republican's argument. Even Abernathy is going to have a hard time claiming Tennant is running a highly partisan office when it includes Democrats and Republicans in key positions.
But Abernathy's real target is not Dave Nichols. It's Secretary of State Natalie Tennant and Abernathy's trying to play his "guilt-by-association" card even though Dave Nichols is guilty of no wrong doing except not liking John McCain for president, a view held by the vast majority of Americans. (Although I'm sure Abernathy would love to outlaw any desire for more progressive politicians in West Virginia).
It helps to understand the context of Abernathy's latest spiel to know he's a supporter of Betty Ireland (also much of the context of the Republicans stabbing Abernathy in the back who are Shelley Moore Capito's people) and as I highlighted earlier Tennant has a good size lead on Ireland already in a potentional gubernatorial matchup in 2012.
Abernathy takes issue with Tennant appearing as a speaker at the Progressive Democrats of West Virginia. I'm sure he'll be just as outraged when he reports on the next group Tennant is scheduled to speak before: the Republican Federation of Women.
If that's not a clear sign of how Tennant is willing to meet with anyone and everyone I don't know what is. Unless, you want to apply Abernathy's "reasoning" and say she should be judged harshly as a partisan Republican since she's meeting with a Republican group.
Still, it's amusing to see Abernathy accusing Tennant of running a highly partisan office when she has Democrats and Republicans serving in it and is meeting with Democratic and Republican groups.
Once again a Republican is left having to curse reality for having such a liberal bias.
Charleston Daily Mail's Jake Stump has a good story on West Virginia Blue's favorite elected official, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant:
Tennant, a Democrat and former co-host of "Good Morning West Virginia" on WCHS-TV, moved into a bare-walled office at the Capitol office Tuesday.
She admits she'll leave the decorating to her executive assistant.
Yet Tennant is already on a roll, tackling a handful of issues related to her office.
Tennant is responsible for overseeing elections, chartering businesses and keeping public records.
This week her office is sending out more than 30,000 letters requesting that limited liability companies renew their annual reports and file changes online at www.business4wv.com. For three years, companies have had the opportunity to conduct such matters online, but Tennant said she's making an aggressive effort to get more people involved through the Web.
"One priority is e-government and technology," Tennant said. "It wasn't just a campaign promise. It's time to do more things online. It's so much easier."
Tennant also talks briefly about the Mark Blankenship poll that showed her ahead of her predecessor, Republican Betty Ireland, if the two clash in the gubernatorial race:
A Mark Blankenship Enterprises poll showed Tennant defeating Ireland 43 percent to 28 percent.
"That's just the political world," said Tennant, laughing off the insinuation she might run for governor in three years. "I'm certainly flattered by those numbers. Ultimately, my focus right now is the secretary of state's office.
"If the people of West Virginia think I've done a good job by then, it's up to them if they see fit I run for something else. It really does make good political fodder. If I were a reporter, I'd be talking about it all the time."
This win of the Secretary of State office by Natalie Tennant was important for many reasons. From an email:
What a great night we all witnessed last night. History was made and the course of this country will be put back on track.
Our state and the nation will continue to experience growth and strengthen under the leadership of Senator Rockefeller and Governor Joe Manchin. We elected two new Justices to the Supreme Court, Margaret Workman & Menis Ketchum, who will look protect the PEOPLE of West Virginia. Gus Douglas was re-elected decisively to continue his work as Ag. Commissioner.
There were defiantly some nail bitters but West Virginia again proved that we cannot be bought and fought the well funded challenge of Dan Greear. Attorney General McGraw will continue to look after the citizens of our state from scams.
Last but defiantly not least. Natalie Tennant is will our next Secretary of State. She'll instill confidence in our voting process, better the foundations of technology and streamline the business registration process. The office of Secretary of State will be open, available and transparent because it belongs to the people of West Virginia.
I just wanted to let you know that Natalie sends her deepest and most heartfelt appreciation to all of you that have helped her along the way. It was a long journey that ended with victory!
Let's keep on working to move West Virginia forward together!
The following diary is photo intensive. The West Virginia Democrats and union leaders took two buses and several vans from Charleston, West Virginia throughout southern West Virginia on a Tour for Change. I drove 6 hours from the Eastern Panhandle on Friday night to join them at 8 a.m. Saturday.
8 a.m. Charleston, opening press conference
Among those there were Governor Joe Manchin, Auditor Glen Gainer, Treasurer John Perdue, Attorney General Darrell McGraw, Sec. of State Nominee Natalie Tennant, Supreme Court Nominee Menis Ketchum, UMWA President Cecil Roberts, WV AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue, State Party Chairman Nick Casey. Ben Smith from Politico hopped on the bus to cover the tour. He spoke to a lot of people, including Tom Vogel at length who explained the national pundits took the primary results here to be anti-Barack Obama when it really was pro-Hillary Clinton. Since then the state has run a coordinated Campaign for Change to encourage people to vote a straight Democratic ticket, from Barack Obama on down.
10:15 a.m., Boone County Democratic Rally, Danville
It was a crisp autumn day. Mark, one of our Democrats from Danville, said he played football on the field when they were blasting through the rock not far away to build a cut through the hill for the road. It shook the field as they practiced. This was long ago, but out of kindness to him I won't say how long.
At each stop Kenny Perdue handled the introductions and the opening and passed it off to Glen Gainer, who really fired it up for Obama. In West Virginia, even the state auditor and the state treasurer do stemwinder speeches. (Joe Manchin headed from Charleston to Bridge Day to speak to the tens of thousands there.) They'd pass the mike through the ranks. Natalie Tennant, the first and so far only woman selected to be West Virginia University Mountaineer mascot, fired her musket at the close of her speeches when we were outdoors. Talk about Fired up and ready to go. You'd think the musket was rousing, but thenCecil Roberts brought it home. Rousing doesn't quite describe it (Video soon) as he'd talk about how awful the policies of George Bush have been on working people and how Dick Cheney mocked West Virginians as inbreds at a black tie dinner for his millionaire and billionaire friends and how Cheney joked could say that now that he doesn't need the votes of West Virginians for re-election. "That's what Republicans think of you," he said. West Virginians can't punish Dick Cheney, but they can punish John McCain and the other Republicans.
Then he led the crowd through a rousing "George Bush, John McCain, one and the same."
Nick Casey, the state Democratic chairman, would close with how West Virginians were told they were too racist to vote for a black candidate, but he heard the same thing as an Irish Catholic boy growing up that West Virginia was too bigoted to vote for the Catholic John F. Kennedy and West Virginians proved the nation wrong and put Kennedy in the White House.
Then we'd load up and head for the next stop. Someone said we traveled 300 miles, much of it on winding, mountainous roads with numerous switchbacks that made me wonder if large buses should travel on them.
12 p.m. Logan Democratic Rally, Logan Mall
The Logan Mall - a shopping center - is the flattest area of the community because it's a reclaimed stripmine where they've built retail and restaurants.
Logan surprised our people. The longer the people spoke, the more people showed up. And several of our volunteers passed out Obama Biden bumperstickers on the main thoroughfare to cars that would stop and roll down their windows. So then they began passing them lawn signs too. It seemed like more cars took them than didn't.
1:30 p.m., Williamson Democratic Rally, Williamson Fire Hall
There were more than 100 people in the fire hall before we arrived. Ryan was there during the primary and these were strong Hillary Clinton supporters. They've coming home.
You heard of "Yellow Dog Democrats" - I called these "Broken Glass Democrats." They'd crawl across broken glass to vote for the Democrat. This county is very important because they generally vote a straight Democratic ticket.
As Nick Casey and I talked about later on the bus, the McCain campaign (and unfortunately some of our own people here) assumed these folks wouldn't vote for a black candidate. Many of us believe they will. We have faith they're better than that and they don't deserve being taken for granted by anyone, Democrat or Republican. These are good people. These are good Democrats.
The Democratic cheerleaders gave a rousing cheer spelling out "democracy." I don't remember all of it. O was Obama.
3:45 p.m. Welch Democratic Rally, outside the Welch Library
We pulled into Welch and the people were fired up and ready to go before we even got there. Three young teenagers were banging on drums and had a good beat going. McDowell County is about 25 percent African American in a state that has an overall African American population of about 3.5 percent.
People were holding up letters spelling out "We heart Cecil" for Cecil Roberts.
Throughout the trip big, burly men would come up and hug him. They love Cecil Roberts here. Unions for steelworkers, painters, and miners, teachers, government workers, service industry, all represented. But Cecil Roberts has to be one of the most popular figures in the labor movement today.
Our next secretary of state Natalie Tennant.
You don't think Appalachian Americans are ready to vote for a black candidate? I beg to differ.
5:30 p.m. Princeton Democratic Rally, Mercer County Courthouse
People with preconceived notions about West Virginia have made a lot of presumptions based off the most negative stereotypes, based off the way people here look. As Tom Vogel explained to Ben Smith, you could find people in any part of the nation to make ignorant comments. I think the videos from northeast Ohio and elsewhere from the Sarah Palin rallies have demonstrated that quite clearly.
John McCain has taken this state for granted. He has one field director here and after stating they were sending Sarah Palin here, she went on a a Blow Off West Virginia Tour to Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Joe Biden is coming here and soon Barack Obama will too.
Eight County Southern West Virginia Democratic Bus Tour
Saturday, October 18
With:
Governor Joe Manchin
Auditor Glen Gainer
Treasurer John Perdue
Attorney General Darrell McGraw
Sec. of State Nominee Natalie Tennant
Supreme Court Nominee Menis Ketchum
UMWA President Cecil Roberts
WV AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue
State Party Chairman Nick Casey
Schedule for Press Conferences and Rallies:
8am Charleston; AFL-CIO HQ; 501 Leon Sullivan Way
9:15am Lincoln County Veterans Memorial; Intersection of US 119S and WV Rt. 214
10:15am Boone County; Lick Creek Park; 726 Lick Creek Drive; Danville
12pm Logan Mall; 77 Norman Morgan Blvd.; Logan
1:30pm Williamson Fire Hall; 104 E. 4th Ave.
3:45pm Welch Library; 90 Howard St.
5:30pm Mercer County Courthouse; Princeton
7:30pm Beckley Moose Lodge; 410 New River Drive
I'd meant to continue this daily, but too much other news intervened. Here's the next in the series highlighting our Democratic slate of candidates. This is Secretary of State candidate Natalie Tennant filing for the office with her daughter Delaney by her side. I would guess husband State Sen. Erik Wells took the photo.
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