Manchin is indeed on the ballot again this year.
I am so hoping that he loses!
Does anyone from WV have any insight as to Manchin’s prospects?
That would be great! I thought he had 6 years.
*Deep inhale* - how long have you got?
Don’t worry, I won’t write a book. As the article suggests, there are huge number of WV voters who are Republicans but either don’t know it or refuse to admit it.
They, above most traditional D voters, have been abandoned because they are white, prefer work (when available) to welfare, retain a fiercely independent streak that is mostly a legacy of their Appalachian Scots-Irish heritage but also a reaction to near-constant negative stereotyping by outsiders through the years, and who still have Christianity at or near the center of their lives, especially where families with children are concerned.
Last but not least, they refuse to budge one millimeter when it comes to gun rights and are ever vigilant in detecting threats to those rights and to any politician at any level who gives off the slightest indication of weakness at the knees when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms. Coal gets all the headlines, but WV politicians, whether D or R, display a rather stunning uniformity on gun rights, which tells you all you need to know about its true importance at the ballot box. It famously cost Gore the state in 2000 and with Obama on the ticket no state is more solidly red in 2012 in terms of the presidential contest - just ask the people working at the FBI background check facility in Clarksburg who have been run ragged with the huge increase in gun sales since 2008.
As for the Senate race, this is where the traditional D voters soften quite a bit. The romantic, if naive, notion that ‘Democrats are for the werkin’ man, Republicans for the rich’ is still deeply ingrained, as is the time capsule-worthy view that D means FDR or Truman instead of Obama/Reid/Pelosi. To run as a Democrat is to enjoy a considerable head start even for lowly local offices thanks to the WV version of a political machine.
Manchin is personally likeable (although I hate using that word) and has walked the walk when it comes to protecting WV’s energy interests. As above, he is solid on 2nd Amendment issues. He is a member of WV’s version of the Kennedys with numerous family members holding legislative and statewide offices in the past.
As a DC neophyte he was placed in a no-win situation (aww) on Obamacare but still took the coward’s way out in refusing to state and/or hold a position before voting in favor lest he risk a short stay in office.
His opponent, John Raese, is an uncompromising my-way-or-the-highway business tycoon whose family were/are the royalty of North Central WV through media holdings (they own the local paper [which is still a miserable AP/NY Times reprint rag] and multiple radio stations), aggregates (gravel etc.) and other interests. However, he is a FReeper’s dream come true on Constitutional and economic principles. Ironically, it requires Raese’s level of economic might to fight off the bureaucrats, political hacks, Marxists in environmentalists’ clothing, et al but he is definitely the genuine article. He was/is happy to expend large amounts of his personal fortune (public contributions received/expended are a fraction of Manchin’s) to act as a thorn in the side of Sen Byrd and has pursued the same strategy in the race against Manchin.
Unfortunately, Raese’s JR Ewing persona is ripe for the kind of robber baron caricatures that have failed against Mitt Romney.
Sadly, the polls are about 65 Manchin/25 Raese and the kangaroo court will present its foregone conclusion of a verdict again.
Nan, might have some information.
John Raese is essentially invisible ... how the heck he expects to get elected without actually campaigning eludes me.