West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
Teamsters and other unions joining the Occupy Wall Street protest. I had an epiphany tonight about who is really needed there: Cecil Roberts.
UMWA need to get Roberts there and put a microphone in his hand to address the people because he's one of the finest at speaking for those of us in the 99 percent about the issues important to us.
Here he is at the "Don't Destroy the American Dream Rally":
West Virginia Democrats owe West Virginia GOP Chairman Mike Stuart a big thank you because he did something we wouldn't have been able to do. Stuart assured former West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland will never be governor.
Ireland, (R-But not right-wing crazy enough)was the one Democrats feared running against this year. Check out this PPP poll that showed her support in West Virginia in April nearly double Maloney's. But Stuart kicked Ireland to the curb after she announced, saying he was even considering a run himself.
The key is bold leadership. We need a GOP candidate that is not afraid to lead to build a better future for West Virginia," he said.
Stuart is in the middle of a reorganization of the state party and said he would want to meet with key business leaders before settling on a decision. But he could use the overhaul of the state party as a launching pad for a campaign.
"We will be releasing my vision plan for the state in February which will go a long way toward defining key goals we want to achieve for West Virginia through new leadership," he said. "The race must be about the future as well as a referendum by the people on whether they are satisfied with placeholders as opposed to transformative leadership."
Stuart got heat for that. Party chairman are supposed to build the party and not use the party to build themselves. At this point after yet another Stuart-picked candidate has lost a race going against the national tide, however, Maloney and other West Virginia Republicans might want to check to see whether Stuart really was doing everything he could to help Maloney win or whether Stuart was thinking about his own political future -- again.
In any event, Stuart's backstabbing of Ireland should send the message to any West Virginia Republicans with any kind of moderate views that the West Virginia GOP is no place for you. We have a big tent in the West Virginia Democratic Party and you're welcome inside.
Below is a statement from WV Democratic Party Chairman Larry Puccio on Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's victory today.
"Twice in eleven months, the people of West Virginia have said 'no' to big money from out-of-state trying to buy an election. They have made it clear that our great state of West Virginia is not for sale.
There is no one that I know of that is better prepared to continue the progress West Virginia has made than Governor Earl Ray Tomblin. And I congratulate him on his victory tonight.
Our staff and volunteers continue to prove that we are committed to winning elections by earning them with hard work. It is so impressive to know that they have made more than 235,000 live person-to-person calls in this election. It has shown that they are dedicated and committed citizens of West Virginia and I thank them."
From the Democratic Governors Association:
A Statement on the West Virginia Governor's Race
Washington, D.C. - Governor Martin O'Malley, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, released the following statement on tonight's election result in West Virginia:
"Tonight the people of West Virginia sent a clear message to national Republicans. Even in the most competitive circumstances, Governor Tomblin was able to highlight his record of effectiveness and withstand Republican attempts to nationalize the race. Ultimately, the people of West Virginia elected Governor Tomblin because they know he is best suited to create jobs and expand opportunity.
"Democratic governors have shown an ability to thrive in the toughest of times because we are singularly focused on the things that we know will make our children winners and not losers in this modern economy: creating jobs and opportunity now."
Whatever results come in tonight, we need to mobilize. El Cabrero has a good post up - Occupy Wherever
A common criticism of these new actions is that they seem to take a (nonviolent) shotgun approach, meaning that they cover the map of issues rather than getting too specific. And from what I've seen, there's some validity to that. I tend to be pretty specific and focused about issues I've worked on. Still, it's interesting and exciting to see such a spontaneous series of actions raising economic justice issues.
Every shotgun has a pattern, and he's identified it - economic justice.
This diary is written for voters who agree that in our severely flawed-yet-the-only-one-we've-got two major party system, when there's a close elections we are stuck voting for the candidate who comes closest to supporting our goals.
I don't think anyone will argue this is a close election. The polls are showing it a toss-up. I don't know anyone who is confidently calling it one way or another.
So, the next question is how much difference is there between the two candidates? If Maloney is elected governor, will he be even more conservative than Tomblin has already been?
There are several reasons I think so. The case has already been made in comments and is worth repeating in a diary.
heath_harrison says "Maloney's on record saying he's inspired by Walker/Kasich and the Koch-owned govs" and:
It will be spun as a referendum on Obama by the media both locally and nationally. No matter how much the Mountain Party folks delude themselves, they won't be noticed and will be drowned out in all of the gushing over how West Virginia is becoming more of a Red State.
The only 'lesson' West Virginia 'Democrats' will take from this is to go further to the right. Candidates in single digits don't set the agenda.
Neither candidate is good, but Maloney is infinitely worse, and allowing the WV GOP to get a bigger foothold in the state would be a mistake and could have serious implications for House and Senate elections down the road. It's naive to believe that Maloney would be gone in a year. Remember a lot of folks thought Capito would be a one-termer.
As for where liberal voters go from here - it would be more effective if all of the revenge-seeking for a 15-year-old election and protest voting would be cast aside and people would instead get involved in the primary process and local party organizing.
The take-my-ball-and-go-home strategy got us Manchin, Tomblin and Oliverio. 10 years out, it's obvious the third party route isn't working to give us more liberal candidates for the general, and is, in fact, doing the opposite.
If progressive forces like environmental groups became a voting block that primary election candidates have to court, you won't have a situation where an entire field is afraid to talk about MTR. They'll have to address the issue to win. Polls already show a majority of Dems (and West Virginians) oppose MTR. It's time to make sure candidates understand that.
Instead, this year, we had people vowing to vote third party before all of the candidates had even announced this year, a strategy that guaranteed environmental issues would be written off by the field.
Like it or not, we have a two-party system - and the only way to make it work is to get involved and take back the Democratic Party, rather than leaving it to the rightwingers.
The Howard Dean model gets results. The third party teach-them-a-lesson route is just shooting yourself in the foot. We need to organize and put pressure on Democratic candidates and, if they still don't share our views, run some of our own.
Progressive organizations are supporting Tomblin. Unions support Tomblin over Maloney. As does Fairness West Virginia (emphasis mine):
We think that it is critical that every LGBT West Virginian and straight ally vote in this special election. The winner of this election could have profound consequences on whether all West Virginians are treated fairly. Here's why:
Earl Ray Tomblin does not believe that the West Virginia Constitution should be desecrated to include a discriminatory amendment banning marriage equality. And although Governor Tomblin does not support full marriage equality, our friends should know that he has twice before voted to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace.
Bill Maloney, the Republican candidate, wants to write anti-LGBT discrimination into the West Virginia Constitution. His website is clear: "Bill Maloney is proud to be...pro-traditional marriage between one man and one woman." His hostility to LGBT West Virginians is palpable.
If you want to make a difference, please vote in this election. Because we expect turnout to be extremely low, every vote will count.
Thanks,
Stephen Skinner
President, Fairness West Virginia
wvblueguy has a further warning of what happens in Maloney wins. There's a wide swath of Democrats with appointments, replaced by ...
I've met the folks that Maloney has been surrounded with by the WV Republican party. We don't want them or Maloney in Charleston. If you haven't voted yet... make sure you vote early. We don't want a Governor that will be run by the incompetents in the WV Republican party.
Really. This is one of the things that concerns me the most. Maloney as Governor allows dozens, if not hundreds, of WV GOP members to gain valuable government experience and employment in a tight economy. That's how they start building up a bench again.
Even worse, in thousands of little decisions when they go about providing their belief that government doesn't work, they will bring unnecessary suffering to West Virginians who would otherwise be helped by state programs.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be thinking five years as Maloney finishs a second term: "if only we'd gotten out the vote in October, 2011."
Today's the day to pick the least worst path. Given the choice between not-so-good and horrible, it's an easy decision.
PPP finds the race too close to call, and it looks like the Republican negative ad blitz has had an effect:
The race for Governor of West Virginia is looking more and more like a toss up, with Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin now leading Republican Bill Maloney only 47-46. Tomblin's lead was 46-40 on a poll conducted at the beginning of September and he had led by as large a margin as 33 points earlier in the year.
A lot of money has been spent on attacking Tomblin in the closing weeks of the campaign and that appears to be taking its toll on the Governor's image. His net approval has dropped 13 points in the last four weeks from +25 (50/25) to just +12 (44/32). Attempts to saddle Tomblin with the burden of Barack Obama might be having an impact as well- the President's approval in the state is just 28%, with 63% of voters disapproving of him.
- Can Tomblin pull out a win, despite one of the most bumbling, inept campaigns in recent memory and a lack of effort to fire up the Democratic base?
- Could Maloney and his band of Blankenship staffers score an upset and give W.Va. its own version of Scott Walker, despite never giving voters a reason to vote FOR their candidate?
- Will the margin be close enough for any of the third party candidates to be rightly or wrongly called a spoiler?
Several of the cell phones on our family plan received the same SMS text message a few minutes ago, including several lines assigned to those not yet of voting age.
The URL is a shortened link to the YouTube channel of someone who enjoys using edited Faux Noise video footage, and for whom everyday is must be opposite day.
After a century of mining our region has run out of abundant easily accessible high quality coal. The easy-to-get-to black gold is now in Wyoming and Montana.
Our civic and political leaders have had decades to prepare for this moment. So far, they have failed us.
What will they do with the remaining months and years? Are they going to keep finding bogeyman to blame or accept responsibility and provide some real solutions?
"The best thing you could do is make it politically unacceptable to engage in denial," Clinton told a questioner about what Americans can do to fight climate change. "We look like a joke," he continued. "You can't win the nomination of one of our parties if you admit that the scientists are right. It's really tragic. We need the debate between people who are a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right what's the best way is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We can't have this conversation because we've got to deny it?"
If it seems like just yesterday that West Virginia Republicans were placing signs that Obama = Manchin, well it pretty much was. Now they're praising Manchin for how he stood up to Obama even though he has done nothing differently than when they said he was the same as Obama.
Now they're saying Earl Ray Tomblin is not standing up to Obama the way Manchin did when they placed signs saying Manchin = Obama.
West Virginia Republicans are consistent only in their inconsistency.
Teabagger favorite and Republican nominee Bill Maloney ratcheted up the state's ugly, anti-Obama rhetoric a notch while speaking to the W.Va GOP's Lincoln/Reagan gala.
Daily Mail:
"He does not deserve to be re-elected," Maloney told a gathering of Republicans Saturday night in Charleston. "He's trying to kill our country and he's really trying to kill West Virginia."
--Sadly, no elected official in this state, Republican or Democrat, will have the guts to take issue with his comments.
The activist, hell-raiser and liberal living legend celebrates his 97th birthday today.
Our former congressman and secretary of state showed no signs of slowing down this past year, writing three books (one on mine safety, an account of his grandfather's experiences in the Civil War and "Goering and his Gang," detailing his post-WWII interviews of Hitler's defeated officers) and working on two more. --He'll have a booth at the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston next month.
His lectures have kept him on the road, taking him to speak on politics in Florida, to share his experiences working with Harry Truman with an audience at Truman's Little White House (VIDEO) and, most recently, to teach history to students at Dawson-Bryant High School in Ironton two weeks ago.
Hechler attended the solidarity rally for Wisconsin union workers, and remained active in the fight against mountaintop removal, starring in a billboard ad on the subject and taking part in the march on Blair Mountain this summer.
Whether in or out of office, Hechler continues to be the epitome of public service, a much-needed source of W.Va. progressive wisdom and an inspiration for activists of all ages to keep up the good fight.
Copyright 2011 West Virginia Blue
Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified.
This site exists thanks to financial support from BlogPAC, dedicated volunteers and participation by members of this community. The views expressed at West Virginia Blue belong solely to their respective authors.
