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Based on Twitter and Facebook comments from Sen. Mike Oliverio (D), Del. Jonathan Miller (R) and Del. Doug Skaff (D) the Special Election bill appears to be dead. House and Senate conferees were unable to reach agreement on issues of disagreement between the houses - notably whether a candidate could run in both the Special Election and the General Election at the same time.
Capitol observers now expect Gov. Manchin to call a special election by executive order sometime early this week, perhaps as early as Monday.
The Attorney General's opinion suggested that the Governor has the authority to call such an election, but there may still be a legal challenge. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, so any delays will likely jeopardize the feasibility of a primary and special election this fall.
The Daily Mail's Ry Rivard has more information here including comments from House Speaker Rick Thompson and Sec. of State Natalie Tennant.
West Virginia's African American community is in distress. According to a new report entitled Legacy of Inequality: Racial and Economic Disparities in West Virginia, black West Virginians are more likely to live in poverty and have lower incomes and higher unemployment rates than white West Virginians, despite having similar levels of educational attainment.
The report found that in West Virginia:
28.5% of black residents live in poverty, compared with 16.6% of whites;
nearly 60% of black children under five live in poverty, compared with 28.1% for whites;
annual per capita income for whites was $21,272, compared with $14,915 for black residents;
median family income was $48,479 for whites but only $31,175 for black residents.
Racial disparities also exist in employment status, health insurance coverage, home ownership and incarceration rates.
Unfortunately, there is currently no state level office or program charged with elevating the concerns of West Virginia's minority communities.
House Bill 4161, which would create the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs passed the West Virginia House of Delegates. Its companion bill, SB 329 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been sent to Finance.
This bill is intended to provide a forum for discussion of issues that affect minorities; identify and promote best practices for programs and services to minorities; review information and research and make recommendations that can inform state policies to ensure fair treatment of minorities.
Action is needed to make sure the Senate will pass legislation to address these long neglected issues. Despite being passed by the House of Delegates and Senate Judiciary, the Senate Finance Committee has not yet taken the bill up for consideration.
TAKE ACTION Click this link to send a personalized message to your State Senators and urge them to support passage of House Bill 4161 creating the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs. In particular, calls and messages need to reach Senate Finance Committee members including Finance Chairman Senator Walt Helmick.
BY PHONE: Call 1-877-565-3447 to leave a message or be transferred to your legislator's office. You can leave messages after hours that will be delivered to your legislators the next day.
Mannix Porterfield reports for the Register-Herald that "the door is closed" for efforts to place a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot.
As discussed earlier, Republicans in the House of Delegates tried to force a vote on the issue this week, but their procedural motion was defeated before the issue reached the floor. On Thursday, supporters of the amendment held a rally at the Capitol in an effort to urge State Senators to adopt the Joint Resolution.
However, after discussing the issue in Democrtic Caucuses, Sen. Jeffrey Kessler, Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, stated he does not plan to put the bill on his committee's busy agenda prior to the deadline next Wednesday for bills to pass from their House of origin.
Kessler noted that West Virginia already has a DOMA law defining marriage as between a man and a woman and questioned the urgency of the issue in light of more pressing issues such as unemployment and the economy.
"There doesn't seem to be any march to the courthouse by any gay couples to try to get married in this state," Kessler said afterward.
"It doesn't seem to be a problem. It appears to be more of a manufactured problem or crisis than it is to be one of actuality."
Kessler said he is yet to see anyone turned down at the courthouse seeking a marriage license, or even any homosexuals asking for one.
"I just don't see it being worthy of the limited time we have left to fight that battle,"
Kessler also commented, "I've always been very skeptical of making discriminatory behavior constitutional," Kessler said. "The Constitution, as I view it, protects the rights of the minority." (emphasis added)
Congratulations to Senator Kessler and other State Senators for having the courage to stand up against discrimination and focus the Legislature on more important issues affecting the lives of West Virginians.
The bill we have been dreading has made its debut at the Capitol and we need your help to stop it. The 'ultrasound requirements' legislation, Senate Bill 597, is a veiled attempt to coerce a pregnant woman and intimidate her provider. This bill is an intrusion into medical care and a blatant attempt by the right-wing to use women as pawns in their effort to make it harder for women to access reproductive health care. We advocates for women's health know the difference between legislation that attempts to increase access to care and that which tries to restrict it. Tell legislators not to fall for this bill!
The bill is moving NOW. Please email members of the Senate Health and Judiciary Committees with this message (subject line: Please Reject SB 597):
Dear Senator,
Please oppose SB 597, 'the ultrasound bill.' This legislation is interference into a woman's personal decision-making and does not add anything positive to West Virginia's existing law-- except to place burdens on a pregnant woman and her provider. At a moment of profound economic crisis, I'd like you as a West Virginia legislator to tend to the people's business, not find ways to interfere in people's personal lives and women's health care.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
[your name]
Copy and paste the following Senators' email addresses to send your message NOW! It's fast and easy and will make a difference.
UPDATE: 4/9/09
As benjaminwalter correctly noted in the comments, a compromise on the bill has been negotiated between lawmakers, business leaders and labor reps. It appears to be a reasonable solution and is expected to pass.
The next step will be to enact the 2nd part of Unemployment "Modernization" to draw down an additional $22 million for unemployment benefits through the federal stimulus. Those reforms including expanding coverage for things like part-time workers (who already pay into the system, but don't benefit), and covering those who can't work due to domestic violence (which protects others in the workplace too).
The legendary El Cabrero and others are already working to help those workers too. Stay tuned...
About the Issue: Senate Bill 246, which was introduced at the request of Gov. Manchin, provides a funding mechanism to ensure the solvency of West Virginia's unemployment insurance trust fund. With growing unemployment and without a solution, the fund is heading towards insolvency by August 2010. WV cannot afford for this to happen.
In addition, SB 246 allows the state to begin modernizing its unemployment system by changing the base period used in calculating benefits. This will help around 500 jobless workers statewide who otherwise might not qualify for benefits. It will also allow the state to receive $11 million in federal stimulus money.
The bill is currently before the House Finance Committee, and some opposition appears to be growing against the bill. A public hearing about the bill has been scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Wednesday.
Action Needed: Time is running out, and the bill must be considered by the House Finance Committee no later than Thursday, April 9, to ensure passage during this final week of the legislative session.
Please contact Delegate Harry Keith White, Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, at 304-340-3230 or hkwhite@mail.wvnet.edu, as well as other members of the House Finance Committee and urge them to actively support SB 246.
Waiting to address the imminent insolvency of the unemployment insurance trust fund will only make the problem worse. Please act today and support passage of SB 246!
The campaign disclosure bill is the hot issue during this summer's Special Session. The legislation was drafted in response to a recent US District Court ruling throwing out part of the 2005 campaign finance law. The law required independent groups to disclose funding sources when campaigning with television, print and radio. In the lawsuit, the Virginia based and conservative leaning Center for Individual Freedom sued the state, claiming the law violated First Amendment rights. In response, US District Judge Faber issued a preliminary injunction allowing issue-only advertisements. The ruling also stated that donor names were not required for campaigning that involved telephone banks, fliers, faxes, mass mailings, and other print media.
Many policy makers felt it absolutely necessary that something be done to fill the hole in election law created by the ruling. The Governor's call for a special session to freeze the gas tax increase, transfer the teacher retirement fund and allocate supplemental budget funds to various programs offered the perfect opportunity to address this issue before the upcoming general election.
When drafting the campaign disclosure bill had to take into consideration the courts ruling which indicated that there was no legislative evidence as to why print speech should be disclosed during elections. To respond to this, House Democrats retooled this section of the code and inserted legislative findings about why such media is effective and why it should be made public.
The final draft of the bill basically stated that those publishing certain print media, including that advocating for or against a candidate or print media that ties a candidate to an issue in some capacity, must disclose both their name and the amount of money they spent with the Secretary of State's Office- the SOS will then make this information available to the public.
After successfully passing the House Judiciary Committee, the bill was delayed on the floor by Republicans who felt they needed more time to flesh out the issue. In order to delay the vote, GOPers voted down the Democrats attempt to suspend House Rules, which is the usual course of action on Special Session legislation. This move required the bill to be read on three separate days as opposed to just the one day.
The Charleston Gazette and others criticized the GOP for this move but I felt it was fair given the level of debate surrounding the legislation. Too often the legislative branch pushes through bills without scrutinizing the content, ie the USA PATRIOT Act at the Federal level. Once all was said and done, everyone had a chance to look at the bill, draft amendments and craft their argument for or against.
However, the Republican desire to kill the legislation was a poorly masked attempt to make it a viable campaign tactic to assassinate the characters of those running for office from the murky shadows with undeclared amounts of money. The Republican claim that this legislation infringes upon free speech and is therefore unconstitutional is absurd. The Bill of Rights protects our speech but does not protect corporations spending millions of dollars to alter the outcomes of elections. Truth be told, when corporate special interests and millionaire robber barons flood the election with their gobs of money they drown out the speech of average folks. It is absolutely essential that a democracy allow the voices of all to be heard and not just those with the money to overwhelm the media market.
In fact, many of those same House Republicans claiming that this legislation was about protecting the sanctity of the constitution supported an amendment by Delegate Cowles that would have exempted three specific groups (the NRA, Right to Life, and WV Farmers) from confines of the bill- a move that would have flew blatantly in the face of the equal protection clause of the US Constitution. Hypocrisy compounded by poor arguments and questionable motives are the true reason why the Republican Party is a joke in the state of West Virginia.
So if you are against your elections being bought by unnamed corporate stooges with out of state dollars then let the GOP know with your vote this fall. Vote Blue!
(Bumped again: see updates from Wed. 3/5. Thank you WV26003 for keeping us informed on this important piece of legislature. - promoted by Clem Guttata)
UPDATE #3 --- Must keep this one very brief, but I received an email this morning informing me that some of SB 600's opponents are trying to get the bill killed in the Rules Committee. The writer assured me that he and others are working to get the bill to the floor as soon as possible. But as I said in my comments, the opposition fight is just beginning. Delegate Sobonya was only one person to defeat; now there will be others. CONTACT SPEAKER THOMPSON AND MAJORITY LEADER DeLONG!
UPDATE #2 --- SB 600 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee 14-7 today recommending the full House PASS the bill! Here is a Metro News story on the Committee's action.
UPDATE --- It appears that some people are joining the bandwagon because the House Judiciary scheduled mark-up of the bill for this afternoon's meeting. It started at 1:30, and I will update as needed. Thanks to all of those who joined and contacted the House of Delegates on this most important matter. But, this could be the time when the real fight begins --- if the bill makes it to the floor. Read below in the comments certain words from the West Virginia Family Foundation. Also, a brief audio recording of yesterday's public hearing is available at WV Metro.
The next two people to get on board would be the Majority Leader and Speaker of the House. Here is their information:
Speaker Richard Thompson; (304) 340-3210; Speaker.Thompson@verizon.net
Majority Leader Joe DeLong; (304) 340-3220; jdelong@mail.wvnet.edu
WV students, if you could ask your state lawmaker about any issue, what would you ask?
Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008
9:00 am - 10:30 am
State Cultural Center Theatre
Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia (PCA-WV) and West Virginia's legislators want to hear from youth on You Tube!
PCA-WV is the West Virginia chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America, a national leader in building awareness, providing education, and inspiring hope in everyone involved in the effort to prevent child abuse and neglect.
On February 13th, during the opening session of the 2008 Children's Day at the Legislature, WV lawmakers will be invited to respond to video submissions from youth across the state. PCA-WV and You Tube want you to let your voice be heard!
You ask about the issues that are important to you!
UPDATE: The link to the commentary has been fixed.
Here in Mercer County we have an active group of folks who consistently write letters to the editor of our local paper the Bluefield Daiiy Telegraph. Fortunately a number of these folks are progressive and have been active in local politics for a number of years. We also are lucky to have a local group of progressives that have become the real foot soldiers in the field for the Democratic Party in Mercer County. Recently we formed a state pac called Democrats United for America and are quasi afilliated with DFA.
This last week one of our members had a letter published in the paper as a Commentary which in the Daily Telegraph is the equivalent of an Op-Ed in other papers. Before writing this diary I chatted with the writer and asked his permission to put some of his thoughts on WVaBlue and was pleased that he had no objections.
The Commentary can be read by clicking here. I was impressed with his thoughts because they detail items of local interest as well as thoughts about statewide issues being addressed by our legislature. His comments were the result of an article on ideas expressed by local legislators at a recent local Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
It is amazing to me that the forum always seems to be a relatively closed session involving local newspaper people or Chamber of Commerce folks that really don't represent local citizens, and for the most part are very receptive to the more conservative views expressed in these meetings. Our local group has already had a number of primary candidates for local office come by to talk to us, and will continue to invite all of tghem to our meetings. I just don't understand why more of these folks don't try the "town hall" approach. Maybe they would if more of us were to demand it.
Please take some time to read Bill Morefield's Commentary... I think it applies to a lot of us in the state. I hope to get him on board as a regular contributor to WVaBlue... he certainly stirs up some good thoughts. Some of the "political misfires by legislators" can be read after the jump.
(This is a topic worth debating--just how long should the WV legislature meet for each year? - promoted by Clem Guttata)
Has anyone noticed just how ineffectual the West Virginia State Legislature is? For nearly nine months of each year an entire branch of our state government is in recess. Over those nine months, pressing issues arise that usually warrant the return of the legislature in special session. Unfortunately, in those special sessions, only one topic is ever covered and hurriedly passed in a brief three day session. Maybe it is time for a change.
According to the 1872West Virginia State Constitution, a 1973 amendment fixes the legislative session to sixty complete calendar days. But, this is 2007. We are a world of the internet, streaming video, and 70MPH interstates. Wouldn't it make sense to add an additional session in each two-year seating? At least our legislature would convene every eight months.
Things progress far too slowly in our state. Could it partially be because of a nine month absence by the Legislature? Should Governor Manchin or any future governor be solely in power for nine months of the year? Shouldn't state legislators be able to help their constituents for more than sixty days in a year? Two months is not enough!
I don't know how they do it, but in just the first few days of being in session the House of Delegates and the Senate have introduced 883 Bills that are already assigned to committee and ready to be evaluated. Of the 883 Bills 94 Bills in the House and Senate are similar or are considered the same. Hard to imagine these will all be addressed when there are only 60 days in the session, plus I'm sure there will be a lot more bills introduced before it is over. Our state legislature has an excellent web site that offers a myriad of ways to look at the pending legislation that allows anyone using the tools provided to follow a bill as it is making its way through the process. There are easy to use links that allow you to read the bill as it is written and to see who sponsored it and put it in the hopper. The West Virginia Legislative Bill status site can be viewed by clicking here.
As I was perusing the list I was really surprised to find that there are 34 bills that deal specifically with the subject of abortion. Virtually every topic concerning a woman's right not to choose is covered in these potential laws. There are a couple of them that are not anti-choice, and there are a few that are bi-partisan. It is interesting to note that with few exceptions the same names keep coming up as sponsors particularly Republicans on the more draconian and absurd bills. I have pulled all of the abortion related bills out from the other proposed bills and have listed them after the jump. Abortion has always been a hot topic in our state legislature, and it is possible to do an historical search to see how hot it is as the search came up with 476 items that have been debated since 1993, and that may include some of the bills proposed this session that have been carried over from last year. You can see the search which does not cover this years bills by clicking here. I took the time to see who the sponsors are so that you can take the time to let your Delegate or Senator know how you feel about a particular bill. It is very easy to look up a bill and read it by clicking here and putting the number in the appropriate space. The session is just getting started... we all need to pay attention to what bills are moving along, and let our representatives know how we feel. I'm not too sure that these folks are used to hearing from constituents as opposed to lobbyists and the Governor. You can get addresses and phone numbers for Delegates by clicking here, and the same information for Senators by clicking here. Lets make the 2008 session of the WV Legislature interesting for our representatives and ourselves.
A handful of cities in West Virginia are one step closer to getting what they've always wanted -- home rule and the ability to govern themselves.
On Jan. 1, four cities -- Bridgeport, Charleston, Huntington and Wheeling -- submitted application packets to the state's Home Rule Board, which will review each city's plans during the next several months before announcing later this year which cities can proceed forward with home rule on July 1.
All four may be picked to take part in the pilot program. Or some may be denied. Legislation passed in 2007, however, requires at least one community be selected.
"I think for some cities, they see this as a real opportunity to prove to themselves and others that they know best how to run their cities," said Lisa Dooley, executive director of the West Virginia Municipal League. "For a long time, their hands have been tied. Now the ropes have been loosened."
Who is against home rule? Many big businesses are, for one. They like having a single legislature and centralized government they can lobby to do their bidding.
Although the devil is in the details, as a general philisophy I'm all for "home rule." Decisions should be made by people who are as close to the problems being solved as possible. That's the view shared by advocates of home rule.
[Wheeling Mayor Nick Sparachane] also said home rule brings government closer to the people: It allows local leaders to set the tone, rather than having lawmakers in other parts of the state deciding how things should be done.
"People are scared to death of taxes, I understand that," he said. "But home rule is a chance for people to be closer to their elected officials -- there are seven representatives at our council table, and what a great opportunity for people who want to voice dissent to come and talk to them, face-to-face. You don't get that opportunity at the state level, and certainly not at the federal level. At the end of the day, those seven people will ... make the decisions that most affect them, and they will have the ability to talk to them."
Dooley said she understands some people's fears about home rule, but she points to the four cities' applications as proof that home rule isn't just some code phrase for new taxes. None of the cities are taking that approach. The cities' approach, if anything, is to make the cities better for business, not worse, Dooley said.
"What we've been doing isn't working, or, at least, it isn't working very well," she said. "Give it a chance and see what happens."
She said the people who lead cities tend to know the needs and challenges of their neighbors, co-workers, friends and constituents better than folks sitting under the gold dome in Charleston.
"If you work on the assembly line making cars all day, you know which type of wing nut works better in certain areas than maybe the president of the company," she said. "It's the same thing here. I feel certain cities know best how to deal with city problems."
There is a storm starting to brew up regarding the Captive Audience Bill that came out of the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary during the WV Legislature Interim Session at the end of November. Basically what the Bill does is bar employers from making attendance compulsory for employees when the topics to be discussed are political or religious. A synopsis discussing this Bill can be read here in an article by Mannix Porterfield in the Beckley Register Herald.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An effort to bar employers from staging mandatory talks in the workplace to discuss political and religious matters under the threat of retaliation against workers who boycott them cleared its first hurdle Wednesday.
But the so-called “captive audience” measure didn’t exit the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary without a spirited battle.
After a lengthy debate, Delegate Tim Miley, D-Harrison, coaxed a divided voice vote in sending it out with a recommendation for approval by the full Legislature next year.
Have you ever found yourself in the position of having to attend a "meeting" at work with politicians running for office? I have... and it is not a very pleasant experience when the candidates that are being thrust on you are Republicans with no offset on the Democratic side. My boss actually required every one of his employees to gather in one place to hear political speeches by candidates running for state offices. My feelings are pretty clear on this subject... the owner of a company certainly can conduct a meeting and present political views, however, I as well as anyone else working for the company should be free to walk out or choose not to attend and not have to worry about any retaliation or punishment for not participating. Of course not attending or walking out would certainly put about 2 strikes against you as it would be obvious how you felt about something that was near and dear to your bosses heart.
Now the Bill is being touted as a Union sponsored attempt to take away the ability of mine owners to coerce employees to listen to anti-union propaganda from their bosses. In another article published this past week in both Bluefield Daily Telegraph and the Beckley Register Herald that can be read here,
Delegate Tim Mile, (D-Harrison) has taken a stand that...
While that provided some of the impetus, Delegate Tim Miley, D-Harrison, says his stand was that no such bill would be crafted that solely benefited union organizing.
“We were going to identify those areas that might be sensitive, those areas of speech and communications there might be some sensitivity to, so that we were going to make it hopefully a bill that would address areas of sensitivity and great concern to people,” Miley said Wednesday.
“We just weren’t going to pass something solely for the fact that somebody was mad at Massey Energy or (CEO) Don Blankenship. I’m not into targeting people or retaliation by legislation.”
The old standby of "another unnecessary law" comes forward from those that don't like the idea of protecting worker's rights to not listen to propaganda on political and religious matters. You aren' t protected if the boss says you have to go period! The argument is that workers are already protected under Federal law. Read what Senator Clark Barnes (R-Randolph) the Minority Whip in the State Senate says about this legislation...
Barnes wondered why such a law is needed in West Virginia if federal law now bars discrimination at the work site based on race, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation and other reasons.
“Could this be considered a brand new attack on the constitutional rights of free speech?” he asked. (emphasis mine)
Free Speech??? What a crock... the workplace is not a setting that should be abused by someone who owns a company to proselytize his or hers ideas and beliefs on those who work for their company. The real concern that Barnes and others apparantly have is that the Bill is an outright attack on Massey Energy and their CEO Don Blankenship who have blatently used mandatory meetings to threaten their employees trying to organize in our state. There was a time when worker's rights were protected... those rights have eroded since the Reagan administration, and we desperately need legislation such as the Captive Audience Bill to protect our work force from the abuses of their bosses. It doesn't just apply to union organizing... it applies to every business. I don't work in a business that is typically union, and I along with my fellow employees were required to listen to one point of view at work.
The Legislature goes back to work in Charleston next week so let your Delegates and Senators know how you feel on this Bill. All of the House of Delegates is up for reelection in November and so are a lot of Senators. I think they might just listen to you if they want to remain in office.
How about it Randolph County? I hear that Clark Barnes is going to have a tough ride in the November election... this might be an issue that can be used to send another Democrat to the Senate to replace Barnes.
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