WEST VIRGINIA: CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS 2014- CANDIDATES AND CHALLENGERS AND WHERE THEY STAND: BY RUTH KING…SEE NOTE PLEASE
West Virginia: 2014 Candidates for Congress – Where They Stand
by RUTH KING, 2014 CANDIDATES FOR CONGRESS July 24, 2014
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/west-virginia-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand
Forgive a tad of boasting, but no other election site has such thorough coverage of candidates and issues in every single state. rsk
Primary: May 13, 2014
Voter Registration: http://www.sos.wv.gov/elections/voterinformation/VoterRegistration/Pages/default.aspx
Deadline for Registering to Vote: The deadline for citizens to register to vote, change their address, or switch political parties is exactly twenty-one (21) days before that election. General Election 2014 – October 14, 2014
To see the actual voting records of all incumbents on other issues such as Foreign Policy, Second Amendment Issues, Homeland Security, and other issues as well as their rankings by special interest groups please use the links followed by two stars (**).
U.S. Senate
Joe Manchin (D) Next Election in 2018.
Jay Rockefeller (D) Retiring in 2014
Shelly Moore Capito (R) Challenger
Currently represents District 2.
http://www.capitoforsenate.com/welcome/ http://capito.house.gov/#dialog
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/shelley_moore_capito.htm**
Rated -2 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
HEALTHCARE Congresswoman Capito has championed policies to increase access to affordable and quality health care for all West Virginians. Before coming to Congress, she was a leader in the State Legislature in establishing West Virginia’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Early in her tenure, Congresswoman Capito was a leader in establishing Medicare Part D, a program that today provides prescription drug coverage to over 31 million seniors, including more than 60 percent of West Virginia Medicare beneficiaries, and earns the support of 90 percent of its enrollees. Congresswoman Capito continues to champion medical liability reform to root out frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of health care. She has also co-sponsored legislation that would allow health insurance policies to be sold across state lines in order to reduce the cost of health insurance. Capito voted against President Obama’s health care reform legislation (the Affordable Care Act) because the law increases taxes and government mandates, while doing nothing to address the ever increasing cost of health care. Once fully implemented, the health care reform law will impose 21 separate tax increases which collectively impose over $1 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years. The regulations included in the law force government into the doctor-patient relationship.
Congresswoman Capito will continue to support efforts to improve the quality and accessibility of health care through patient centered reform, rather than a government takeover of our health care system.
IMMIGRATION Congresswoman Capito believes that a strong immigration policy is important to our nation’s security, as well as to the security of our economy. As a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, Capito has worked to secure our borders, prevent amnesty, and enact sound immigration reform. Cracking down on illegal immigration begins with protecting our borders which leads to a secure nation. Capito fully supports efforts to build a security fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, including efforts to build a virtual fence that uses cameras, sensors, and motion detectors. Capito wants to make sure border officials have the resources and the manpower necessary to successfully patrol the border and fund the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) During the 112th Congress, Capito voted for the Border Tunnel Prevention Act of 2012, legislation that was passed into law that will strengthen the laws against construction of border tunnels as well as charge individuals who conspire to build or finance a border tunnel with harsh penalties.
Since her first term in 2001, she has supported the employee verification program that allows America’s small businesses to have confidence that their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States. She wants to ensure that millions of jobs are not taken from hardworking Americans by illegal immigrants and believes that employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants should be penalized. Capito opposes amnesty for the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants working in the United States. She has cosponsored legislation that excludes illegal immigrants from receipt of social security benefits, as well as opposed the Administration’s announcement to bypass Congress in them granting amnesty.
ENERGY Voted for the keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments West Virginia is an energy state. Supporting an all of the above energy policy that includes West Virginia coal and natural gas, oil produced in North America, together with renewable energy, is one of Congresswoman Capito’s most important legislative initiatives. As a co-chair of the Congressional Coal Caucus, Congresswoman Capito is a leader in the fight against excessive and unnecessary regulations from the EPA and other federal agencies aimed at reducing both the production of and the demand for West Virginia coal. She was a co-sponsor of the Stop the War on Coal Act and has fought to protect the jobs of miners as well as the truckers, contractors, railroad employees, utility workers, and many others whose jobs have been placed at risk by the current regulatory efforts targeting coal. Congresswoman Capito has authored legislation that would require the EPA to perform an economic assessment of any regulation that would negatively impact employment and hold public hearings in local communities adversely affected by regulatory decisions.
Natalie Tennant (D) Challenger
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
HEALTHCARE As the mother of a child who has been denied health-care coverage because of a pre-existing condition, I understand the anxiety associated with not having access to affordable health care. I am disappointed about the implementation of health care reform because it has made it harder for West Virginians to get affordable coverage they expected. Changes must be made to the Affordable Care Act in order for the law to work for West Virginians.
- We must work to attract additional health-insurance providers to the West Virginia marketplace so that West Virginians have more options and cheaper premiums. A single provider does not constitute a competitive marketplace.
- I support delaying the individual mandate penalty. West Virginians who have previously tried to register and purchase insurance through the website should not be penalized because the site did not originally work as intended.
- No West Virginian should lose their current coverage or be forced to see a different doctor because of the Affordable Care Act.
- We must also provide additional relief to small business and streamline reporting requirements.
- I stand with the 270,000 West Virginians without access to health care.
COAL AND ENERGY With some of the finest coal in the world, abundant natural gas, manufacturing know-how, and our research capacity, West Virginia should continue its key role in powering our nation as part of an “all of the above” approach. In addition to supporting thousands of families and jobs across our state, our state’s energy resources go a long way toward reducing our dependence on foreign oil and making the United States energy independent. I want to keep our coal miners working and will stand up to any misguided efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will destroy our coal industry. I’ll fight the EPA and any politician regardless of party who tries to stand in our way. Coal should not be a partisan issue – it’s an economic issue for our state and a critical strategic issue for our nation.
To secure the future of coal, we must acknowledge that struggling with the same battles of the past is not enough. In the Senate, I will fight for funding for the development of clean coal technology which is critical to securing coal’s future. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown and West Virginia University should lead the way in clean coal research. As I’m fighting to keep our coal miners working, I will also fight to keep them safe. I will co-sponsor the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Act, which has languished in Congress for three years. The number of mine fatalities in recent years in West Virginia is unacceptable and I will support efforts to reduce that number to zero. I also believe the promises made to miners when they are working must be kept when they retire. I have been a strong advocate for the Patriot retirees and miners whose health care benefits and pensions have been jeopardized –because of corporate greed. In the Senate, I will support legislation that reforms our bankruptcy laws so that retirees and workers will not be on the losing end in our court system.
As we are working to secure the future of coal, we must also acknowledge the incredible potential of our natural gas reserves, especially the Marcellus Shale. I support Marcellus Shale development that creates jobs for local workers and improves our communities, while protecting our other natural resources. I am supportive of efforts to build cracker plants in West Virginia – those facilities can be critical in reviving our chemical industry in the Ohio and Kanawha valleys. I will always support efforts to create jobs in coal and natural gas as well as renewable energy – wind, solar, water and biomass. The potential for West Virginia energy jobs is great and I will make it a priority in the US Senate. With our manufacturing capabilities and research base, we need to be growing this industry to complement our coal and natural gas.
District 1
David McKinley (R) Incumbent
http://www.mckinley2014.com/ http://mckinley.house.gov/#dialog
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/David_McKinley.htm**
Rated -7 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
HEALTHCARE Obamacare – As a former hospital board member and the husband of a critical care nurse, Congressman McKinley draws upon his experiences to influence his work on health care. The rising cost of health care is unsustainable and America is facing a crisis in health care. While advances in technology have brought us treatments our grandparents couldn’t even dream of, the cost of providing care has increased significantly. McKinley believes that we must lower health care costs, increase access to high-quality care, and put patients in charge of their health care dollars and decisions, not government. President Obama’s new health care law does not achieve this.
Affordable Care Act – Rep. McKinley continues to work to repeal Obamacare and replace it with reforms that will help ensure access to affordable, quality health care to all Americans without hurting our economy and adding to our national debt.
ENERGY Voted for the Keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments. The War on Coal must stop. Coal and other energy sources provide tens of thousands of West Virginia jobs, and Rep. McKinley considers them our state’s lifeblood. He is using his Energy and Commerce Committee assignment to curb the EPA’s over-regulation, which is stifling the energy industry and preventing the creation of more jobs.
In addition to coal, natural gas and oil are very important to the economy of West Virginia and this country. Exploration and aggressive drilling for these two fuels should be permitted without further delay. Rep. McKinley believes we should also encourage the use of wind, water and solar as alternatives to fossil fuels. Additionally, he supports nuclear power as a complement to meet our growing energy demands.
Rep. McKinley believes in market-based solutions to providing America’s energy needs. Protecting American jobs should be just as important as protecting the environment.
Glen Gainer (D) Challenger
http://www.glengainerforcongress.com/
District 2
Shelley Moore Capito (R)
Is a Candidate for US Senate in 2014
Alex Mooney (R) Challenger
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
GOVERNMENT AND TAXES Politicians in Washington, D.C., have been racking up $1 trillion deficits annually, leaving our nation with a national debt approaching $17 trillion. This amounts to over $53,000 in federal debt for every man, woman, and child in the United States. We must cut wasteful government spending and eliminate expensive new entitlement programs like Obamacare to ensure our children and grandchildren are not burdened with massive amounts of government debt. I will stand up and vote “No” when President Obama and his liberal allies in Congress propose new wasteful government spending programs. I support a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will require the federal government to balance its budget every year. Currently, forty-five states, including West Virginia, require their legislatures to enact a balanced budget – Congress should be required to do the same. Finally, I believe our government has a spending problem. Tax increases are just an excuse for the spending addicts in Washington to spend more of your hard-earned money. That’s why I signed Americans for Tax Reform’s “No New Taxes Pledge.” As your congressman, I will vote against every attempt to raise taxes.
HEALTHCARE Obamacare has to go. Already, Obamacare has resulted in new taxes and fees, massive regulation, and an increase in the cost of health care. I am fully committed to repealing Obamacare and will do whatever it takes to see that goal through. I support replacing Obamacare with commonsense, free-market health care reforms that will keep health care affordable, increases access to good health care in rural communities, and keeps government out of our most personal health care decisions. Some of these reforms include allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, expanding health savings accounts, passing commonsense tort reform, and removing the discrimination in our tax code that prohibits individuals from buying health insurance with pre-tax dollars. Finally, doctors struggle to treat patients when government gets in the way. I have witnessed this firsthand due to my wife’s work as a neurosurgeon. Let’s repeal Obamacare so doctors can do what they need to do to treat patients and save lives.
IMMIGRATION Our immigration process is broken, and instead of fixing it, Washington is trying to push through amnesty legislation that will only exacerbate our current problems. I oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants.
As the son of Cuban and Irish immigrants, I want America to be a country that welcomes hard-working legal immigrants who want to live the American Dream. But we must make sure that we do it in a manner consistent with our fundamental belief in the rule of law and fairness. I will support legislation that focuses first on securing our borders and fixing the problems in our immigration system.
NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS I believe our government has a duty to protect its citizens from foreign threats, but that it can and must do so without sacrificing our fundamental civil liberties. I am deeply troubled by the expansive overreaching of the NSA’s surveillance program and recent revelations about the program’s many abuses. I will fight to make sure our government does not overstep its constitutional bounds in the process of fighting terrorism and protecting our country.
Support for Israel Israel is the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East and one of its closest allies in the world. Not only do we share strategic goals; we share a common belief in democracy and freedom. Like America, Israel is blessed with an entrepreneurial people that have produced military and non-military inventions. U.S. cooperation with and support for Israel makes both countries stronger, more secure and more prosperous.
ENERGY President Obama has made no secret of his disdain for the coal industry. His radical policies and the increasingly burdensome regulations imposed by his administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are destroying jobs and hurting West Virginia families. Liberal Harvard professor, Daniel P. Schrag, a prominent member of Obama’s Presidential Science Panel publicly revealed President Obama’s true intentions when he declared, “A war on coal is exactly what’s needed.” West Virginia has a long and rich history of providing energy to the rest of the nation, and I will do everything in my power to defeat President Obama’s EPA and support West Virginia’s proud coal industry. In addition, I will oppose other radical energy regulations, like President Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade plan that will increase the cost of energy and impose a de facto energy tax on every family in the United States. Finally, I support expanding the development of our natural energy resources in the United States to increase our domestic energy supply and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Nick Casey (D) Challenger
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
ENERGY West Virginia has the energy America needs to make us a more independent and prosperous nation. West Virginia has the coal, gas, wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal energy that our country needs. Washington however does not have a workable energy plan. We are suffering under an ever-expanding web of EPA regulations, especially in our coal industry. Congress needs to set energy policy, not the EPA. I will fight for common-sense regulations that businesses can operate under and our workers can make careers out of to provide for their families.
We need a plan to use all of our energy resources as cleanly and efficiently as possible. As a nation, switching from foreign oil to West Virginia natural gas to fuel our trucks and cars is an obvious opportunity. Vehicles will run cleaner, cheaper and we keep money here at home while creating good paying jobs. Energy gives us a tremendous opportunity to provide many more good-paying jobs and to keep our children in West Virginia…I will to work to make that happen.
JOBS Every politician says ‘they are for jobs,’ but I have a plan… And it’s really a simple plan: we need a government that gets past the petty partisan infighting and gets back to work for the American people.
Our economy is being hurt by the constant fiscal cliffs, shutdowns, debt crises, etc….we need Congress to get back-to-basics and pass budgets on a regular basis. Some agencies, like the EPA, are creating new regulations at a pace that businesses cannot keep up with…we need Congress to work together and set an energy policy that utilizes all of our energy sources. Our federal government has spent $1.7 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan and wasted much of that spending…we need Congress to reprioritize and reinvest that money in infrastructure projects here at home. If you send me to Congress, I will get to work and reach out to representatives on both sides of the aisle, who may often disagree, to develop reasonable solutions that solve problems and help our government foster an environment where businesses can grow and create jobs.
District 3
Nick Rahall (D) Incumbent
http://www.nickrahall.com/ http://rahall.house.gov/issues
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/nick_rahall.htm**
Rated +2 by AAI, indicating pro-Arab pro-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
ENERGY AND REGULATIONS Voted against the Keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments. From programs aimed at generating cleaner electricity using coal to those that would promote the development of liquid transportation fuels from coal, I have long worked to clear the way for coal to address our energy challenges more cleanly, efficiently, and affordably. I have worked to prevent unfair regulatory requirements that could undermine coal jobs, increase energy prices for working families, and reduce energy reliability. In addition, while welcoming the growth of the natural gas industry in West Virginia, I have supported policies that would balance that growth with conservation and protection of property-owner’s rights. Looking ahead to intensifying international competition for energy and increasing concerns about the world’s changing climate, I remain determined to help find workable, long-term solutions to America’s energy challenges. Rahall’s Committee Acts to Rein in EPA’s Permitting Overreach – Apr 9, 2014 Issues: Washington, D.C. – Following the recent move by the Supreme Court not to consider the Spruce Mine case, U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall pushed for congressional action to put an end to the EPA’s Clean Water Act permitting overreaches. Today, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where Rahall is the top Democrat, advanced H.R. 524, a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) that puts an end to the EPA’s practice of retroactively revoking permits they issue. Rahall is an original cosponsor of the bill.
“The EPA’s overreach threatens coal industry jobs, but it’s also a direct threat to economic activity in communities across the country,” said Rahall. “What good is a permit if it can be retroactively taken away, sometimes years later? I appreciate the Committee’s action today to address this situation moving forward. Allowing the EPA to continue to do business like this will have a chilling effect on our economy and public construction projects nationwide.”
HEALTHCARE I have always believed that quality healthcare must be accessible, affordable, and available for every West Virginian. Let’s fix portions of the new healthcare law that need to be corrected while ensuring that Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or place arbitrary financial caps on the amount of coverage patients can receive. And, as I voted to do, let’s allow patients to be able to keep their existing plans.
IMMIGRATION I am proud of my family history and of the immigrants who helped to build West Virginia. My grandfather emigrated from Lebanon and scraped together a living selling linens in West Virginia’s coal camps. He believed in hard work, God, and family, and fell in love with the United States and West Virginia.
West Virginia greatly benefited from the immigrant families who migrated to our southern coal fields in the last century, working in our mines and factories and steel mills and building our railroads and economic infrastructure, as well as contributing to our State’s culture and arts. Certainly, West Virginia and our Nation will benefit from future generations of immigrants. But, we must ensure that those generations live up to their responsibilities as past generations did – learning the English language, absorbing our Constitutional principles, and abiding by the law. And, of course, we must always be protective of the jobs and salaries of American workers, and making sure that the American taxpayer is not forced to shoulder any unfair burdens.
Evan Jenkins (R) Challenger
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
COAL President Obama and his EPA are waging a War on Coal, and Evan will fight it tooth and nail. He’ll strongly oppose Obama’s cap-and-trade scheme, a carbon tax and job-killing EPA regulations. Evan understands that in West Virginia, coal is not just our economic lifeblood – it makes us who we are. In the state legislature, Jenkins has supported numerous measures to protect the health, safety and pensions of West Virginia coal miners, and he is firmly opposed to any cuts to the Federal Black Lung Benefit Program.
HEALTHCARE Jenkins has been an outspoken opponent of ObamaCare since 2009 – Evan knows that ObamaCare will cost trillions, raise premiums and kill jobs. As the disastrous implementation of Obama’s health law has proved, this is a classic boondoggle that will greatly damage our health care system. Evan will lead efforts to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with common sense health care reforms that will improve access to quality health care and preserve your doctor-patient relationship.
- Criticized ObamaCare for damaging the doctor-patient relationship
- Criticized ObamaCare’s individual mandate as unconstitutional
- Criticized ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion
- Criticized ObamaCare, predicting a doctor shortage in West Virginia
- Criticized ObamaCare’s lack of medical liability reform.
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