McKinney for Chairman

This Saturday, the West Virginia Republican State Executive Committee will meet at the Charleston Marriott. The primary business to be conducted at this meeting will be the seating of members elected at the primary election in May and the election of a new chairman to replace departing Chairman Rob Capehart.

The race for chairman features two major candidates: Mark Scott and Dr. Doug McKinney. Scott is an Elkins insurance agent and Randolph County Republican Chairman. McKinney is a Clarksburg physician, has been an elected member of the state committee for the last 4 years, ran for Governor in 2004, and is a past president of the West Virginia State Medical Association.

Dr. McKinney is the better of the two candidates to lead our party to the majority in the Legislature and our federal delegation. He has experience with fundraising, lobbying, and campaigning. As the president of the State Medical Association, Dr. McKinney led the successful fight to defeat liberal trial lawyers like former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Wooton and enact substantial medical malpractice liability reform.

Dr. McKinney has suffered two major attacks during this campaign: one from West Virginians for Life concerning reservations McKinney publicly aired about the informed consent bill in his capacity as WVSMA President and the second from individuals critical of some campaign contributions McKinney made prior to his election to the state committee.

Gary Abernathy has already tackled both of these issues on his blog (Links: abortion contributions). I encourage you to read those two posts and hope you will agree with my position that these two attacks are without merit.

Finally, I hope everyone, including those who may have strayed, will adhere in this race to Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment and not speak ill of their fellow Republican, especially on the public stage. West Virginia Republicans need to emerge 100% united (okay, maybe 110% united since we're facing a Ruling Party that has up to 110% voter registration in some counties) Saturday afternoon and focus our full attention on victory in November.

Dean Compares GOP Congresswoman to Stalin, Calls for End to Divisiveness

DNC Chairbeing Howard Dean today told a Democratic rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, that U.S. Senate candidate and current Congresswoman Katherine Harris is a crook and compared her to Soviet dictator Stalin and then told a gathering of local business leaders that we need to bring an end to divisiveness in politics.

Someone forgot to take all his meds this morning. Or is he simply being as two-faced as any other Democratic leader who tells everyone what they want to hear?

Manchin Sets 3:30 Kickoff for Friends of Coal Bowl

Don Surber says the kickoff the September 2 match between WVU and Marshall, officially the Friends of Coal Bowl, was set at 3:30 PM to acccommodate Governor Manchin.

On behalf of my fellow Mountaineers, can we restore the traditional 3:30 kickoff that prevailed until Mace Hardesty instituted noon kickoffs as the norm?

Bob Graham Trial Day 1: XXX-citing

Today marked Day 1 of the federal corruption trial of disgraced Wyoming County senior center director Bob Graham, and what a day it was!

The Charleston Daily Mail reported that federal prosecutors led off with a quite titillating revelation that Graham spent much of the $200,000 unused sick leave he cashed out between 2002 and 2004 at a popular strip club. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith said, "He needed money badly...He had begun spending tens of thousands of dollars at Southern Exposure in Princeton and on his relationship with dancers there." Among the expenditures were payments made by Graham for breast implants for an unnamed stripper.

At least we now know why he elected a bench trial (trial by the judge instead of a jury). A jury would have already convicted him by now.