The three-way race to choose the Democratic nominee to challenge GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito is enetering the homestretch. The primary is on May 9th, and the fur has started flying....as you can see from the headline stolen from an AP story.
AP Story
In WV-02, there is only one Democrat with a credible shot at Capito in the November general election: Mike Callaghan...a pro-choice, pro-labor, and lifelong Democrat who advoates getting our troops home from Iraq.
(Callaghan campaign site)
The other two candidates are the gunslinging cloner Mark Hunt who DOES NOT WANT TO PULL OUT OF IRAQ and Country Club Republican masquerading as a MoveOn anti-war progressive Richie Robb.
We need to back Mike Callaghan or risk handing this 2-to-1 Democratic registration-edge seat to Capito, the largest single recipient of DeLay/ARMPAC funds,
We can win this seat and derail the promising career of Shelley Capito...a DeLay acolyte slayed for either Hill leadership or a future statewide run.
We can smash the myth of GOP invincibility in rural districts.
We can return real representation to the people of WV's Second District...a Member of Congress who will look out for the interests of its constituents rather than cater to Wall Street and K Street at their expense.
But to do this, we need to nominate a Democrat who can win in November.
We need to back this guy to the hilt or we throw away a great shot at flipping this seat back.
Why Callaghan and not the other guys?
Richie Robb is literally a Country Club Republican. As the longtime GOP mayor of South Charleston, he spent millions of dollars the city could have better used buying the private Kanawha Country Club. After buying it he raised fees for the genreal public and gave the former members grandfathered lower fees.
It is quite reasonable to doubt the sincerity of Robb's covnersion from a Reaganite into a MoveOn anti-war progressive. While he has postured and made symbloic gestures opposing the war (after his political future in the state GOP evaporated...lost the 2004 GOP gubernatorial primary), this is a guy who came back from Nam and joined the GOP because of his preception the Democrats had betrayed the troops in Nam.
This is the would-be "faithless elector" who reveled in being touted as the "most powerful man in America" when he threatened to not cast his electoral vote for Bush in 2000. It should be noted he cited foreign polict differences with Bush back when Bush was promising to be a humbler nation. When he caved and voted for Bush as a Republican elector, he cited the margin by which Bush had won WV. Interestingly, he is still claiming this as the justifcation but is citing the 2004 percentages rather than the closer 2000 numbers as decisive figures. How could 2004 numbers have played a role in a 2000 decision?
We are supposed to believe a Reaganite has suddenly transformed and his conversion doesn't have anything to do with the political wind shifting to Democrat's backs. It is noteworthy that he changed his registration in Decemeber then filed for Congress in January claiming he never considered the possibility until AFTER switching parties.
On the stump, Robb has performed horribly, raising a great deal of buyer's remorse among the anti-war activists who got behind his campaign early. Robb fidgets, stares straight down when not speaking, and constantly holds up one of his yard signs. And he flop-sweats at a Nixonian level.
Even if Robb really was what he now claims to be, his retail skills are inadequate to the task. On top of that, he has zero appeal to crossover Republicans we can peel off on disaffection on the war. As a turncoat, he has no residual trust left to draw them on board. I doubt his switch helps with Indies either.
Mark Hunt is a personal injury lawyer and state senator whose name is well known in the district from his Black Ice? Sue! and whiplash TV ads on latenight and daytime TV. EVen more so, he is known as the guy who lost his son then gave somewhere between $500,000 and a million (amounts differ in various reports) to a French cloning cult called the Raelian Temple in a failed attempt to clone his poor lost child.
While one understands his grief, the episode raises real questions about his judgement and decision-making in a crisis. I think his fitness for office is in question; I know it makes him an easy target for the GOP Attack Machine, pure road kill in what should be a winnable district. And that isn't even factoring in the ambulance-chasing image he has cultivated in paid spots for years.
Add to that his financial scandals regarding a failed TV station he co-owned that leid to employees about benefits and job security...well, you get the point
AND HUNT WILL NOT ADVOCATE BRINGING OUR TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ! He's trying to finesse, triangulate the issue.
Hunt is toast if we run him against Capito. So is Robb.
Hunt is promising to spend two million against Shelley, and 500K in the primary. Do not let him buy this election...although he may be BSing about his money. He hasn't filed a quarterly. Hunt did NOT promise to be self-financing. Yet, if he didn't file a quaterly with the FEC, doesn't that mean he either didn't rasie five grand since he filed in January, didn't spend five grand (which he has...ads were up in March, spent his law firm's money on a campaign, or some combination of the preceeding.
Something is fishy here.
Callaghan has around 125K, Robb around 50K. It doesn't make sense the two guys who haven't bought TV ads have filed with the FEC but Hunt hasn't.
Even if only by process of elimination, Callaghan is the only viable candidate in November
Fortunately, Callaghan is a candidate we can support on his own merits.
Please do so. I kicked in $500 I can barely afford. Even if you can only give him a buck, do it. Let him know we want to win this seat.
We can't afford to hand this seat to the GOP on a plate.
Callaghan has the skills to win a grassroots campaign in a rural district where folks expect to meet the candidate personally
While Callaghan is in his first run for elective office, he isn't inexperienced...as you should have seen from linking to his site. Link now if you were too lax earlier:Callaghan campign site
With his impressive retail skills (link to the archives of his radio appearances on WVMetronews wvmetronews and his extensive free media coverage (google him yourself...just filter out all the Kiwi and Irish rugby players), Callaghan has the charisma to run and win the grassroots campaign this predominantly rural district historically rewards.
But he needs some money to fire back in the air wars and hire more staff to help work the grassroots.
Help him out, folks!