Party switching state Senator Evan Jenkins is the ONLY Republican running in WV-3 so.......
http://evanjenkins.com/evan-on-the-issues/page/2/
There is where he says he’s a social conservative, easy miss because it’s on “page 2”.
I’d be more concerned he’s not really a fiscal conservative than social.
This is Rahall’s first real race since 1990 (well he only got 54% last year) of all years, when won by only 4 points over one Marianne Brewster. Maybe FMDJ knows something about that race, in ‘88 she was also the nominee and got only 39%.
For WV-2 the candidate getting the most attention is former Maryland State Senator and GOP Chair Alex Mooney who has lots of big name conservative support and some criticism for carpetbagging.
Another prominent candidate is Charlotte Lane, they say she’s a RINO but “they” are a pro-Mooney blog post that attacks all his opponents as RINOs. Her webiste says she’s pro-life and pro-gun.
I guess our choices hafta be Lane and Mooney over Reed. We aren’t in a position to force conservatives to decide on one. They could lead to a Reed victory.
no polling that I see that indicates who leads the race.
http://wvforlife.org/political-helps/
WV for Life is neither endorsing nor commenting on #2. Just releasing survey results. Retards.
Nick Rahall’s close call in the now-defunct WV-4 (now WV-3) in 1990 was due to the fact he had some serious personal problems in the mid-to-late ‘80s. He racked up $60,000 in gambling debts in Las Vegas and was openly sued for recovery and in 1988 he was hit with drunk-driving charges on a visit to California. Add to that, his district was in open decline economically. Ex-Congressman and sitting Secretary of State Ken Hechler (his predecessor, and then only a sprightly 76 — he turns 100 this year) decided Rahall was a fiasco waiting to happen and held him to an unimpressive 57-43% margin after running hard on the issue of ethics and moral standards.
Republican Marianne Brewster should’ve had a potential upset in the making, but the Republicans didn’t give her a dime and she was outspent by Rahall by nearly 10-to-1. I think the GOP justified writing her off because this was the strongest Dem district in the state (and in a state which at the time had zero Republicans federally). Dukakis won here by a wide 58-42% over GHW Bush in 1988. Add to that, with the state due to shed that 4th seat for 1992, she would’ve likely served the one term before being redistricted in with a safe Dem incumbent from an adjacent seat. Curiously, about 66,000 people participated in the heated Democrat primary (where Rahall got under 38,000 votes), but in the general election, most of the Rahall voters clearly either sat it out or voted for Brewster, because Rahall just under 40,000 votes (Brewster got 37,000). She had actually received 50,000 two years earlier while Rahall lost half from that year (almost 80,000 votes).
Clearly, Rahall cleaned up his act and got more focused on his district from then on. This time, however, it will be the ideological/party shift that will be impossible for him to overcome, as the state has returned to its heavy GOP voting preferences from 1894-1932.