West Virginia Blue
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In a second development on Friday, the justices blocked a decision of a federal court in West Virginia in another election case while the justices consider an appeal. The West Virginia case concerns whether that state's three House districts must be absolutely equal in population.
There was some Texas stuff in there, too, now that Gov. Perry is ba-a-ack. But back to us here in the Mountain State.
Isn't it sweet that Cheif Justice Roberts is our federal court overseer? He puts a new meaning to one-person-one-vote, huh?
In its second ruling Friday on courts' power to draw new election districts, the Supreme Court in a West Virginia case raised doubts about the authority of federal District Courts to require states to achieve absolute equality of population in drafting new voting boundaries.
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The District Court had not adopted a substitute plan of its own, and, in fact, stayed further proceedings after state officials had gone to the Supreme Court for a stay of the ruling.
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One of the goals of the legislature's plan was to assure the state's two Republican members of the House - Reps. Shelley Moore Capito and David McKinley - that they would not have to run against each other in the GOP primary for the same seat.
So for those of us living in the district that looks the most like a salamander, it is staying the same, minus Mason County.
Tim Manchin is not running for Congress this time around: Times WV.
Just to remind the folks at Politico and the DCCC, there is already a Democratic candidate in the race and she is planning to win the seat back. Sue Thorn is our Woman!
Legislature is back in session on Wednesday. This should be an interesting session. Will there be a new and proper redistricting plan in place before the Jan. 17 court deadline? edit: forgot the appeal gives the legislature more time. I'm hoping for a WV-02 that makes geographical sense.
What other issues are you looking forward to this session?
I am not going to post her entire diary here. Go to DK to read it: I'm Sue Thorn and I'm Running for Congress. If you have time tonight, drop by and chat with her and her supporters.
This has been a magical week for her campaign. Sue spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington and came back with promises of help from major national organizations. Teacherken at Dailykos offered to provide advice and assistance, which has resulted in her first diary making it on to the rec list at DK.
Sue had her diary ready to go this afternoon when Mike Oliverio made his announcement that he was not going to run. I don't think that he was trying to help us, but the timing could not have been better. Thanks, Mike, and best wishes in your future endeavors!
Wednesday evening Sue Thorn held her first campaign rally, at which she formally announced her candidacy for the 1st Congressional seat. On a frigid weekday night, a year before the election, 175 people showed up from all over the district to hear Sue's message. There were elected officials, political activists, political novices, union members, business owners, young and old. Twelve counties in the district were represented- many people drove more than an hour to attend the event in Morgantown. Sue gave a rousing speech. Judging from the cheers, comments, and donations people liked what they heard.
This capped an amazing week for the Sue Thorn campaign.
Last Friday I posted my first diary about Sue's campaign to take back the WV-01 congressional seat and it immediately made the rec list. West Virginia Blue asked me to cross-post it there.
Over 175 people showed up yesterday evening in Morgantown to hear Sue Thorn formally announce that she is running for Congress. There were people from eleven different counties in the 1st Congressional District, including those who made the long drives from Ohio, Marshall, and Wood Counties. There were elected officials, the press, county Democratic Executive Committee members, business owners, union workers, students, and just plain folks.
Sue Thorn, a Democrat from Wheeling, will make her formal announcement of her candidacy for the US House of Representatives Wednesday, November 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ramada Inn, Morgantown.
Thorn's announcement is open to the public and event volunteers encourage people to learn more about her candidacy on her website, Sue Thorn for Congress, or contact the campaign at 304-933-6203.
Does a woman raised in a working class family, who has never run for public office but is outraged by her growing realization that the economic system is rigged, have a chance to win election to Congress? Can common sense and decency defeat corporate money, political connections, and name recognition?
But enough about Elizabeth Warren. If you want to hear about a truly bizarre campaign, come with me to visit West Virginia's 1st Congressional District.
Paul Nyden begins a story at the Charleston Gazette that for a moment gave me hope Republican Reps. Shelley Moore Capito and David McKinley were going to be reasonable people. Capito, afterall, claims to be a moderate and never includes Republican on her campaign material because she must be embarrassed by the affiliation and McKinley, afterall, voted against repealing the so-called "ObamaCare."
In the face of continued deadlock over ways to reduce the country's debt, some lawmakers who have signed a pledge never to raise taxes have been rethinking that action.
But no, Nyden was just doing the usual media papering over what the Republicans say to make them seem reasonable. Neither Capito or McKinley said they were rethinking their action.
Here's what he quotes them as saying lower down in the story:
Asked last week if she still plans to abide by the Norquist anti-tax pledge, Capito did not answer directly.
In a statement, Capito said she supports changing the tax code "to make it fair and flatter, reining in burdensome regulations that make it harder for small businesses to operate and getting the reckless spending under control."
"We're in a fiscal crisis because we spend too much, not because we're taxed too little," she said.
She gives him some platitudes disconnected from what she actually does and he dutifully serves as stenographer without pointing out how often she votes the way Norquist wants and not what her constituents want.
Then Nyden quotes McKinley as saying:
McKinley still supports Norquist's anti-tax pledge, his spokesman said Friday.
"McKinley remains committed to the pledge and opposed to tax increases. He believes fundamental tax reform that lowers rates while eliminating or limiting some tax loopholes would create jobs," Andrew Sere said.
Capito and McKinley are all but using semaphore flags to signal they their radical stance that puts the wealthiest ahead of the nation's fiscal health and Nyden spins it for them as being open to compromise when they say no such thing.
Do you know when the nation was last booming? When President Clinton was in office. Let's go back to the Clinton tax rates.
Is it any wonder Capito and McKinley can get away with voting for radical rightwing bills and still claim to be moderates back home?
McKinley now displays a nearly life sized poster purported to be a coal miner standing with his arm around his little girl at the front of his podium as he tours the district. He says that the poster also hangs in his Washington office so that people who stop in can see what WV is about. Odd, since he represents the economically diverse 1st CD, not the 3rd.
At an August 17 "town hall" in Clarksburg his opening statement included a lengthy statement on the EPA's War on Coal. When asked about the eighteen separate research studies that showed a correlation between MTR and birth defects, disease, and death, McKinley pointed to the picture and said that his main concern was "this man's job." When a constituent attempted to pin McKinley down on the statement by asking him if the man's health and his daughter's health were less important than jobs and corporate profits, a policeman was called in and remained throughout the town hall. McKinley said he needed more research and facts first. Clearly our Congressional delegation chooses to navigate by its own set of "facts", scientific research be damned.
More important than profits is campaign contributors to these people. McKinley and the others in our congressional delegation including the Democrats could have a million scientific reports with rock solid data and analysis put in front of them but they'll claim there needs to be more research.
Since the West Virginia legislature screwed up the print in their redistricting plans and are re-doing it, they should scratch the simple one-county move that made no sense either a nonpartisan or partisan stand point and draw Congressional boundaries that fixes the geographic mess that is WV-02. The plan originally put forward by Sen. John Unger makes the most sense from any standpoint.
WV-02 is one of the most ridiculously drawn districts in the nation. It's a fair criticism to point out that Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito very rarely pays attention to the Eastern Panhandle and has little understanding of the place, but in her defense it's so far away - five to six hours of driving - from her home base in West Virginia.
But what the redistricting mess has shown is that redistricting can't be left to the politicians who by nature focus on winning re-election and how redistricting will effect them rather than how it effects people in the districts carved up by them.
Ideally the redistricting fiasco has shown that redistricting can't be left in the hands of the politicians but rather a law should be passed to change the process so a citizen's committee is set up to draw the boundaries. It is too late to set up such a process this time, but there is plenty of time for the legislators to address the issue before the 2020 census.
The plan that would have made the most sense geographically, politically and rationally was of course the plan that was not chosen. Roll Call:
Why didn't the Democratic Legislature tweak the districts to be more favorable to Democratic candidates? The votes weren't there.
"The other plan that we looked at, that would have helped a Democrat in the 1st district, we couldn't get enough Senators to vote for that plan because it affected the counties that they represent," state Senate Majority Whip D. Richard Browning (D) said. "I'm the Whip, and I judged the support for the bill that would have given the Democrats a little better edge in the 1st district" to be lacking, he added, noting he was "a little bit displeased" with the final outcome of the process. He said he had hoped the final map would have made the eastern panhandle of the state whole, instead of leaving it split between the 1st and 2nd districts.
Early on Clem and I had pushed the redistricting plan that was very much like the one that Senator John Unger came up with because it was the one that made the most sense from an obvious, nonpartisan standpoint. Clem and I talked about it and thought if we pushed it, that would make it look like a partisan plan (and it made sense for partisan reasons too. It was a two-fer). WV-02 is a horribly shaped district, the longest east of the Mississippi. The fact that the senators made the minor tweak instead of redrawing the lines is proof you can lead them to an intelligent plan, but you can't make them think.
From an email from a friend at the Secretary of State's Office:
I would like to officially clarify that the 2161 number everyone saw for Mollohan on election night was a DATA ENTRY ERROR at the SOS office. I apologize and take full responsibility. The number of votes for McKinley from Barbour County were incorrectly entered by hand into a database. Once the error was brought to our attention, we quickly investigated, corrected the mistake and triple-checked ALL counties in the 1st district. The total number of write-in votes in the entire 1st CD is 390. Who received those votes will be determined at canvass.
Additionally, MetroNews' election night numbers are incorrect. The unofficial election night margin of victory for McKinley was 1357, not 734 as was reported by MetroNews.
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