Well it looks like West Virginia won’t be pulling out of last place any time soon. The election is over and the dust has barely settled, but here are my initial thoughts.
You snooze, you lose
Republicans have had control of the U.S. House for 14 years and the U.S. Senate for 4 years and there’s not much to show for it. Rather than stand for Republican values they have pandered to the middle. When it was time for the Republican base to show up and vote, ehh…they had other things to do. Who can blame them? The local Republican candidates were merely collateral damage.
Money does not win elections
It is something I have written time and again. While you do need money to get your message out, the candidate and his issues are what give you a win in the end. In 2002, Weeks, Harrison and Barnes were all significantly outspent and they won anyway. Maybe this will be a lesson to all the democrats (are you listening Casey?) when they harp for election reform. The article would be different today if money truly corrupted the election process.
While Blankenship’s money was nice, it couldn’t overcome other prevailing factors.
The state Republicans did all they could
The Kanawha County Republican Party was a lean, mean fighting machine thanks to Chairwoman Melody Potter and her horde of volunteers. Other counties were just as organized.
Each Republican candidate worked very hard and should be proud. It’s not easy doing everything you can do and losing anyway, but it was simply not to be.
Two losses are particularly hard: Mark Plants and Senator Russ Weeks. Weeks was a friend, not only to me but to his constituents as well.. It is hard to believe his district would want Mr. Vegas instead.
Plants lost Senator Harrison’s old seat. I cannot help feel sorry for Kanawha County. They went from being represented by a true conservative to a California liberal.
What doesn’t kill you…
Hopefully the loss will wake up Republicans. We have a great opportunity nationally for a strong comeback in 2008. More on that later…
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© Copyright 1999-2007 William Stewart. All rights reserved.
Comments
The “Perfect Storm” got us. Too many things came together at one time. The national scene, resentment of Don’s involvement (backlash),Democrat statewide ads which were partly or completely false, similar ads from Dem county committees, Mojo’s campaign fatwa against Don (the least part).These all overcame the best-qualified, hardest-working group of candidateswe could have had. rebuilding starts today.
Well……the Democrats in this Nation wants change, and boy did will they get change. For the better? Not hardly., but you know folks we’ll just have to wait and see. Believe me you won’t have to hold your breath long to see what evils pervade this nation now. With the liberal agendas of the rich And famous Who have invaded the Democratic Party, (John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr) would have turned over in their graves)the platform that was once respectable, moral and honest will now be pushing for Homosexual marriages, abortions greatly demanded, (murder by the millions more for those who can’t speak,namely babies) and higher taxes for the folks, Senators names appearing by the hundreds on billboards, highways, buildings, (sounds like Robert C Byrd with over 100 roads and buildings named in WV after him).
While the Al-Qaeda advances their planning for America, our Democrat Leaders will be twidling away their thumbs on knowing what to do next. God help America.
Cut and run..?….I guess……..
You would think that an honest person of Integrity would name these things after those who are the least fortunate, for instance a wounded soldier, a mother who stood courageously for her country or a father who stood soundly in defense of his family, church and country.
God help America.
America has got what they’ve asked for.
If the Dems are so great, let’s see how much they can put us down now with Big Daddy in charge of the appropriations committee. I am quite sure there must be one town out there without his name slapped on something or other.
I think the gay Foley, corrupt Abramoff hurt us tremendously (you can visit Jack in Cumberland, MD by the way).
In any other year, we would have picked up seats in the house.
The sentiment was totally against us. Two brokeback state senators were re-elected unfortunately…
Now is NOT the time to become complacent, but to make plans for working the next two years to educate the voters about the record of the Dems starting NOW. I know Doug will be doing that as chair. We need to work for our future.
The Eastern Panhandle will have to rely upon our three senators - Yoder, Barnes, and Helmick since the other one is never here…
Mobilize and rally the troops now and regroup for 2008 - we have a lot of talent and intellect!!!
What is important now is for those of us who lost to not drift away. There is a lot of experience in running races available right now. We need to stay involved to either run again or be there for those who do run in 2008. Each of us knows how hard this really is and we need to be there to tell the next campaigners how to do it so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. What happened this year is not likely to happen again in our lifetime and if it does, WV is totally lost. I predict that they will do little or nothing, resting on their laurels, assuming that they have again regained absolute control. It will soon be almost 80 years of apathetic rule and we need to be ready to provide candidates and solutions to issues. We cannot afford to let this set-back be the determining factor in our party. Remember: We are still right! They are still wrong!!
i am a raleigh resident and a weeks supporter. i was heartbroken when i was watching the returns come in. we elected a total maniac in the form of mel kessler. pay attention to how this guy votes. he has called corporations evil, is rabidly pro-union,and hates all republicans.
told old people if they voted republicans in they would take their social security.
it will take a decade..if lucky…to undue what has happened. bryd is in till death. rahall will be here 30 more years if he wants. mollohan as well.
there will be NO change in WV.
now….could mr rahall or mr byrd help me get my disability check?
then i can jump on the bandwagon.
like prez bush said “your either with us or against us”
Eric: I agree with you about Foley and Abramoff, but what I cannot figure out is why White and Mollohan got reelected. It’s the same scandal, just local.
Money did win. The untold story in my race is that not only did my democrat opposition dramatically out spend me. I believe that the advocacy groups in my race out spent “And For The Sake of the Kids” in their attacks on me and promotion of the democrats.
The state democrat party was relentless. Their attack mailings were comical compared to the last minute mailings the unions used to attack and smear me. Very ugly! Nationwide casino gambling money was sepnt under the guise of “West Virginians for a Brighter Tomorrow” to smear me with radio ads on a couple stations back up with automated smear phone calls. I’ve been told they even sent mailings.
Some voters in my district received a mailing every day for two weeks attacking me. The media never said a word about it. They just kept reminding people that I took money from Mr. Blankenship.
The Harrison County Democrat Executive Committee even saw fit to include me in their TV attacks on Blankenship. I must have awesome name I.D. However, no one could have survived the demented flogging they gave me. I’m surprised that anyone voted for me after these smears. I’m just glad that I am not them. As usual I can look in the mirror and be at peace with my reflection.
Although, the very recent grey additions are a bummer.
Cindy Frich
WV House of Delegates, 44th
www.cindyfrich.net
hey william…to answer your question, i think it all comes down to dems voting straight ticket. here in ral eigh, almost 70% of dems voted straight ticket. heck, if youll remember, lunatic nick casey told the state dems after bush won WV in 2004, “if you dont vote straight ticket…get out of the party”
one mistake that republicans are making i think is, at least here in WV, always talking like “we want to cut this biz tax and that franchize tax and we want to help the coal industry” and on and on and most working people are saying “whats in this for me” republicans are being labeled as too biz friendly.
and the minimum wage issue is hurting republicans as well.
with WV being dead last in median income, people cant wrap their head around why republicans would be against an increase.
and i am aware of the phoney raise that mojo gave
William, how is White the same scandal as Foley?
Don’t kid youself, Mr. Stewart. The republicans lost because they did not clearly demonstrate that that they are different from democrats. The strategy of appeasement apparently used by West Virginia republicans can not continue if they are to be a viable party.
On a national level the republicans (including Bush) racked up record deficits and increased entitlement spending. They deserved to lose.
When the republican party returns to the center - and that means fiscal responsibility - they will once again start winning elections.
Mike
I think on the national level we will see things swing hard to the left from a legislative standpoint. In WV, we need to gather together for a standard set campaign, i.e., the Contract w/ America in 94 and hammer the SAME message home EVERY day.
I was shocked to see the people of the EP did not elect Jerry Mays - a quality candidate who is a hard worker.
By 2008, we will have 76 years of Democratic control sinking us even lower. We have to fight.
I think the national vote and sentiment hurt us. What did the Democrats stand for? The were NOT republicans. Regroup, reload and refire in 2008!
well, ill tell you what i think about it. we dont need to be in ANY hurry to get to the 08 elections. republicans need to regroup and take a “50 state strategy” into 2008 like dr dimento howard dean did. wolfe and raese got no help on the national level. they just concieded these spots.
i saw clinton out working and stumping…where was bush 41? we should have had off year U.S. senators out working to get people elected, the republicans never did get organized and work in this election like the dems did.