West Virginia State Sen. Mike Oliverio drubbed 27-year House veteran Alan Mollohan (D-WV-01) tonight in the Democratic primary. They’re not done counting, but it currently stands at 56%-44%. With the announced retirement of Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, Mollohan stood to become second in seniority on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. It’s hard to exaggerate how badly the people of West Virginia’s First District need a top appropriator to represent them. It’s coal-mining country. That they threw Mollohan out in favor of a guy who doesn’t want to support Speaker Pelosi shows that there is something afoot in this country.
Don’t get me wrong, like most long-time appropriators of both parties, Mollohan had long ago compromised himself and become corrupt. I’m kind of glad to see that he’s gone. I’d be more enthusiastic about it if his replacement gave me hope for improvement. But, hey, West Virginia’s loss will probably be Philadelphia’s gain. Mollohan was the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. Now that he’s been defeated and Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island is retiring, the chair should go (by seniority) to my old congressman, Rep. Chaka Fattah. Of course, Fattah recently announced that he will compete in the next Congress for the chair of the entire Appropriations Committee. That doesn’t surprise me. When he was running for mayor of Philadelphia, we were talking at the upstairs bar at The Khyber when he explained to me that he wasn’t going anywhere in Congress. I had asked him whether he couldn’t better serve Philadelphia as a member of the House Appropriations Committee. And he explained that he had no seniority and no prospects of even chairing a subcommittee anytime soon. So, he was bolting to be mayor. Except, he got crushed in the primary, so he went back to his dead-end job in DC. And now he’s ready to become the first black man to be in charge of the Justice Department’s budget. Amen.
What do we know about the district? Do we have much of a chance to hold onto it?
Sure. It’s a district that voted for Bush twice and McCain. But it is a Democratic district on the local level. It’s a swing district now that we don’t have a powerful incumbent, but it can be retained. But you’re missing the point. The Democrat won’t necessarily caucus with the Dems.
Then what’s the point of him calling himself a Democrat?
to beat the Democrat in office?
I know he won’t … that’s why I hope the DCCC learned their lesson with Parker Griffith … but who knows .. elsewhere people were wondering whether this was a Karl Rove type ratfucking .. but I have to wonder why Oliverio is a Democrat in the first place
Isn’t it the phenomenon that occurs in Louisiana and Arkansas too? They’re all “Democrats” because they’ve “always” been Democrats but in reality they are simply Republicans that haven’t made the leap with the rest of the south in 1968. We saw in the primaries that Appalachia is very much of a mind with the “south.”
Does WV-01 include where the Upper Big Branch Mine is?
Fattah is a good man.
but really, why did Obey retire?
From what I remember of his statement, it sounded like the biggest immediate factor was the Senate’s failure to act on the nearly 300 bills that have passed the House this session, but have not yet made it to the Senate floor. He said he’d been thinking of retiring from Congress for about 10 years.
He also talked, in response to a reporter’s question, about a post-9/11 meeting about homeland security with Bush. Obey and the Republican chairman of Appropriations had gone around to various departments and negotiated a bipartisan package to include in a bill. When they went to the White House, Bush made it clear it was his way or no way. Obey decided then and there that he would stay in Congress and use his seniority and power to fight Bush as best he could.
The thing afoot seems to be local jobs. It’s like opposition to mileage standards in Detroit and Flint or gasoline taxes in Texas and Oklahoma. There is no hint in the article that it is a left-right issue, just the local economy.
And they think Republicans will save them from Don Blankenship? Granted, Democrats don’t really either, but at least there is a chance, where with the Republicans there is none. And isn’t it usually the hardcore party faithful that votes in primaries?
President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, won a state Senate seat in Georgia last night.
Mollohan lost for the same reason that Stupak was driven out of running. The pro-life movement turned on him for voting for the health care reform bill.
When will the Democratic establishment realize that the pro-life movement has become a front group for electing Republicans?
The same for other wedge issues. They are wedge issues to split off Democratic voters. Except there are very few Democratic voters left to split off with these issues.
Become? It was brought to the fore for the sole purpose of fusing Catholics and Baptists into a “Moral Majority” several years ago…