Posted on 10/04/2011 5:38:34 PM PDT by mandaladon
114 of 1,883 precincts - 6 percent
Earl Ray Tomblin, Dem 18,730 - 50 percent
Bill Maloney, GOP 17,521 - 46 percent
Bob Henry Baber, Mnt 962 - 3 percent
Marla Ingels, Ind 342 - 1 percent
Harry Bertram, Oth 167 - 0 percent
(Excerpt) Read more at wtov9.com ...
There is a bigger picture, that is part history. The mines really did prey upon people. The "company store" really did charge workers so much for basic goods to feed their families that they couldn't leave. The mines were hazardous; if cave-ins and explosions didn't get you black lung did. Unions did a lot to fix that and conservative discount it at their political peril, because the families of the miners have not forgotten.
On the other hand, because unions can function as legal monopolies, they offer a lousy product at a high price. There is no competition. Hence, the correct fix is to end the anti-trust exemption unions enjoy. Let competition force unions to reward better workers with higher pay, in order to keep them. Let competition force them to train their members to ever higher levels of skill. DO NOT interfere with the unalienable right to free association. And do not permit the inherent conflict of interest in "company unions."
There is one other thing you seriously missed in your complaint: regulation and tort law have done more to kill industry in this country than labor costs, by far. The actual labor component in the cost of industrial goods sold is surprisingly small.
This is an election we could have won EASILY, with a little organizing help from outside, and it shows us just what kind of an advantage Democrats have over us.
Frankly, I didn’t even find out about this election until the weekend.
The GOP ads helped at the end, but a loss is still a loss.
I saw tweets ALL DAY from Dem Orgs like RockTheVote, College Democrats, Young Democrats, etc., and the Daily Kos’rs were organizing Call-ins all weekend, and what did WE do?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...
This isn’t going to cut it, if you want to win in 2012, folks. The days of sitting on your butt, complaining on a message board ARE OVER, if we really want to save this nation. It our turn to take to the streets. AND ORGANIZE...
This state is solid Blue. Senator Byrd state and Jay Rockefeller. This is probably the old style Democrats and that is why McCain/Palin won this state.
Crap!!!!!!
A few K votes short? Still enough idiots voting for the good ole boy thinking he’s a conservative. They need to be smacked in their thick heads.
Silver lining, he could be the answer to defeat Manchin. All we have is Capito who probably won’t run and has abortion problems if she does.
But I’d guess unless the NRSC talks him into it he’ll probably go for a rematch with Tomblin. Let’s see how that lil’ punk does with Obama on the top of the ticket and after another year of screwing West Virginia under his belt.
M BOB HENRY BABER 6,119 2%
I MARLA INGELS 2,867 1%
A HARRY BERTRAM 1,112 0%
A Dem may have won, but saying his win indicates WVians approval of Obama is pure propaganda.
Truly we are the stupid party. To lose this election with the VERY visable and usable facts that the Dems want to destroy the coal industry means that our side had to have run a very poor campaign. Or, perhaps the union threatened workers if they voted against the Dems. Which is it?
Exactly. I live in WV and I can assure you there is absolutely no way Obama will carry this state in 2012. Anyone who thinks this election means WV rubber stamps Obama doesn’t know what they are talking about.
The WV democrat is an entirely different species than the national version.
Most liked FDR. Bobo is fundamentally unlikable. I know a ton of PUMAs and they are done with Bobo, down to a man. The next President will be the GOP nominee.
I think the answer has less to do with the coal industry than it does with the large number of folks in WV who rely on government cheese. WV is a very poor state, ranked 4th poorest by 24/7 Wall Street.
Most southern states have gotten the message that a Rat is a Rat, despite their flowery sounding prose. WV and NC are a bit slow. If NC doesn’t see the light after Perdue, they are hopeless.
Not stupid., Freeloaders. WV is the Welfare State.
WV's been getting billions from their fellow citizens. It would take guts and gumption to turn that down. Apparently the majority of WV voters have neither.
That's an understatement, to put it mildly. I live just outside of Charleston and as much as I try to keep up with the State politics, you couldn't really tell what the Republican party stood for in this election until Monday when they finally started trying to link Tomblin to Obama.
I'm originally from the Virginia Coalfields so I'm used to the mindset that's evident up here, but a big part of the problem is that the Republicans didn't give the people a reason to vote for their candidate. They were all over the place trying to say why you shouldn't vote for the Democrats, but weren't giving a reason to vote for the Republican.
This could have been won, but it only could have been done with some serious reorganization at the local level. The GOP up here is just sad.
I think the answer has less to do with the coal industry than it does with the large number of folks in WV who rely on government cheese. WV is a very poor state, ranked 4th poorest by 24/7 Wall Street.
Hope you won't mind me jumping in here, but I have to agree that the murals are absolutely incredible. I was up at the Point last fall and wasn't aware of them until literally stumbling across them while walking to the battlefield park. Absolutely stunning, to say the least. I plan on going back again soon and taking more pictures of the murals that I didn't have space for last time.
That's not entirely true.
Trust me, I'm originally from VA and thought the same way until I got up here and saw the problem first hand. These people are old style Democrats. They're socially very conservative and fiscally conservative in their personal lives, but they don't trust Republicans because the Republican party is linked to the Mine Owners, who have a very bad history up here. It's the same mindset that resulted in VA's 9th District electing Rick Boucher year after year after year. This State can be won, but it's going to take work at the local level to undo the damage that the Republican party did at the turn of the 20th Century.
Perdue oughta be meat, remember we did take the legislature down there.
I’d be amazed if she won, even without her recent attack on democracy. I think NC was regretting their choice of her by mid 2009.
If Maloney had gotten all of the third party votes he would have very narrowly won but it actually looks like most of those third party votes came out of Tomblin’s hide.
Bob Henry Baber is the “Mountain party” guy. They are the West Va affiliate of the Green Party. So those are socialist votes taken from Tomblin.
Bertram is a White supremacist nutjob who’s party is called “American Third Position”. Sounds like the Bob Byrd candidate. More votes from Tomblin.
Ingels’ platform on her low-rent website is very vague so I can’t say who she took votes from. But her 2800 wouldn’t have been enough for Maloney to win.
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