Can Mooney survive?
The double-edged sword of a weighted new congressional district and a serious ethics investigation may finally be too much for current Second District Republican Congressman Alex Mooney to overcome. And, then again, it may not.
Months ago, we discussed the expectation that the state legislature’s supermajority Republicans would prefer First District Congressman David McKinley over Mooney when redistricting rolled around.
They certainly did that as the new district territory looks more like McKinley’s old district than resembling Mooney’s. Based on land area alone, McKinley should be the winner.
Population-wise, the disparity is not as great.
While far short of being the Man from Glad, McKinley is simply better liked among Republicans. Throw in the fact that he’s a former legislator and stalwart West Virginia (not Maryland) Republican and you have two reasons the GOP prefers McKinley.
Attacks on Mooney as a “carpetbagger” are sure to erupt again as well.
Wait. Did I just do that in the preceding paragraph?
In March 2012, Mooney filed as a candidate in the 2014 Republican primary for Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District.
He subsequently had to withdraw his candidacy because he was still Maryland Congressman Roscoe Bartlett’s part-time outreach director at the time he filed to run. House ethics rules do not allow congressional staffers to remain employed in a congressional office while campaigning. Prior to leaving the Bartlett staff, Mooney was alleged to have done just that.
So, Mooney subsequently moved to Charles Town and declared his candidacy for West Virginia’s Second Congressional District. The district includes most of the West Virginia portion of the Washington media market. Seven-term Republican incumbent Shelley Moore Capito was giving up the seat to run for the United States Senate and was overwhelmingly popular with voters, which helped Mooney.
Mooney received the Republican nomination on May 13, 2014, beating six other candidates. He finished first in 15 of the 17 counties in the district, with 36.02% of the vote.
Mooney then defeated Democrat Nick Casey in the 2014 general election, 49% to 47%. He won Berkeley County, in the state’s Eastern Panhandle, by 5,000 votes, which was more than his overall margin of 4,900 ballots. Like Charles Town, Berkeley is part of the Washington media market.
Mooney’s chief of staff is Maryland State Senate Whip Michael J. Hough and his responsible party for financial reports is also from Maryland and the current state GOP Chair, Dirk Haire. He employs a Pennsylvania firm as his chief political consultants. His strategist, Mark Harris, was contacted by the media regarding the current allegations against him.
Thus, the “carpetbagger” name tag still fits.
On top of that, Mooney is facing continued accusations of ethics charges. We’ve detailed those elsewhere in lootpress, so suffice it to say he is chiefly accused of using campaign resources for personal gain.
Clearly then, McKinley is the favorite if he decides to challenge Mooney in the May 2022 primary. He’ll also be favored to win it all in November with no “big name” Democrat poised to get in the race.
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Southern West Virginia legislators wanted no part of cockeyed congressional redistricting proposals that would have lumped them with the Eastern Panhandle.
Mooney’s election in 2014 and subsequent winning campaigns showed the futility of Kanawha County ever outvoting the Panhandle. Mooney had recent contests won by the time the EP votes were counted.
Charlestonians have spent nearly a decade yearning for the days when they had a local congressman. Those days seemed destined to last forever if Kanawha somehow ended up in a new district with the EP.
Kanawha County officials, who often would prefer taking poison to praising Huntington and Cabell County, finally saw the value of a regional approach with Putnam and Cabell after six years without a congressman to call their own.
Suddenly, those in Charleston liked the “regional” approach with Putnam and Cabell.
Which might serve as notice to Cabell and Congresswoman Carol Miller, who has announced re-election plans.
Miller, the lone incumbent in her new district, should not expect a free ride with her Huntington base.
Several Kanawha Democrats contemplate challenging Miller in the new district. There may even be more than one Republican challenger.
Reminder: Kanawha Republican Delegate Moore Capito STILL hasn’t made his “big announcement” about what he’s running for. Despite protestations from Miller supporters, a congressional run is still possible from the son of the state’s most popular Republican, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito.
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Cabell Republicans have been celebrating their “win” in congressional redistricting. It may be another case of the famous, “another such victory and we are undone.”
Remember that Cabell, like Kanawha, is used to one of their own serving in Congress. That certainly isn’t guaranteed with Charleston, Beckley and Bluefield included in the new Southern district.
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Just as Southern West Virginia lawmakers wanted no part of a congressional district that included the Eastern Panhandle, they are not going to be pushing to add three Western Maryland counties to the Mountain State any time soon.
Some ideas simply reach beyond easy contemplation. A few Democrat lawmakers have pointed out the better standing Maryland has in national statistics of virtually every kind.
It isn’t Maryland that West Virginia regularly competes with for last place in the ratings, folks. It’s Mississippi.
Legislative leaders in three Western Maryland counties that want to consider redesignating themselves to West Virginia should quickly be given the Joe Biden Mental Test. That won’t happen, naturally.
Including those Maryland mountain counties in the Mountain State will never happen either, so legislators wasting their time with the proposal are doing a disservice to their constituents when they could be working on something realistic.
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If Republicans think they drew up 17 Senate districts that favor the GOP, they’re probably wrong.
We can’t say for sure because the elusive and transparent detailed maps of the districts are STILL not available to … oh yes, the public whose input was sought in the earlier statewide “listening tour.”
The outline for a Senate district that includes Boone, Lincoln, Logan and a section of Kanawha is not a slamdunk Republican district by any means.
While I think they tried with all their might, I suspect we’ll learn in November that the district stretching from Southern Wayne County to Mercer is not solid GOP either.
Reconfiguring what we might call the old Fourth District shows how influential Putnam Senator Eric Tarr is. Suffice it to say the new geography is a lot more favorable for Tarr than Mason Senator Amy Grady, the current “other” senator.
Could it be that Tarr has not forgotten Grady’s Senate run as an independent prior to her 2020 election?
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It’s good to see high-ranking national Republicans tightening the vice on renegade Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
A lobbyist close to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is warning Republican political consultants that they must choose between working for Cheney or McCarthy.
Cheney is among the self-righteous, one world Republicans who despise former President Donald Trump. She spews her hate-filled message constantly.
One fundraising firm, the Morning Group, disassociated from Cheney after receiving the message from lobbyist Jeff Miller.
We could praise McCarthy for actually having the courage to stand up or we could understand that he wants to be Speaker next year.
And he’ll only be that with Trump’s blessing.
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Do you suppose it’s occurred to any of the visionary West Virginia state legislators who proudly proclaimed they’ve been in discussions for some time with the three Maryland county legislators that if those three had joined us in time, we might still have three congressional districts?
Disclosing this enthusiastic possibility last year might have just offset the population loss that shrunk us from three to two districts.
Which makes me wonder how the election of congressmen might be resolved if the transfer took place before 2030.
Would those from the three formerly Maryland, now West Virginia, counties vote in the McKinley-Mooney district? After all, they’re contiguous with that territory.
That would also probably tip the balance of power to Mooney in the GOP primary.
Oh the possibilities, such as they are, are mind boggling.
Speaking of boggled minds, is it true that the Maryland legislators proposing this land grab are all Republicans?
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As I’ll be doing over the next few weeks up to the January 2022 filing period, I’ve spent some time speaking with some legislators to get a preview of what they think about their new districts and potential opponents.
At this point, we are still handicapped by the absence of detailed maps. For example, ten days after the House approved its new districts, nobody seems to be sure if Republican Delegates Zack Maynard of Lincoln County and Margitta Mazzocchi of Logan are in the same district.
Republican Mason County Delegate Johnnie Wamsley, the Assistant Majority Whip, says he thinks his new district is a good consensus.
Wamsley told me he feels good about the way his party’s leadership conducted the process. He was particularly impressed at points made by citizens during the “listening tour” and felt much of their input made its way into final district outlines.
I asked Wamsley if he was aware of strong rumors that former Republican Delegate Jim Butler will be running in his primary.
Wamsley candidly said, “I’m sure I’ve heard the same rumors you have.”
Butler, an arch conservative, lost a Senate bid two years ago to Grady. He placed third in the three-way primary with then-Senate President Mitch Carmichael.
Wamsley has been a solid conservative vote during his tenure but is not as visible as Butler has been.
Wamsley says he’s prefiled his candidacy and is in the race to stay.
“I hope people just look at my record,” he said. “If they do, I’ll be all right.”
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Count me in agreement with Kanawha Democrat Senator Richard Lindsay that the state’s biggest county should not be just a part of three senatorial districts.
For some time legislators emphasized their desire to “keep counties whole” as much as possible.
Although I think the Senate district that includes Boone, Lincoln, Logan and the coalfields of Kanawha makes sense, I feel the county could have been treated better with the other two, Eight and 17.
Lindsay, a Charleston attorney, is not popular with the majority Republicans. I feel certain that they want him to have as tough a re-election battle as possible. They likely gave it to him once our eyes are allowed to focus on the new maps.
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Did I mention that it’s an insult to the voters of this state that redistricting is done and John Q. Citizen has no maps to look at specifically outlining the new districts?
Well, it is.
That does not negate the fact that legislative leadership, staff and volunteers like Kanawha County volunteer extraordinaire Thornton Cooper worked tirelessly to bring everything together. A tip of the hat to all involved.
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Finally. Does ANYBODY intend to do ANYTHING about former legislator John Unger now serving as a magistrate in defiance of state law?
Wood County Republican Chair and party activist Rob Cornelius identified the law Unger is breaking by having voted a pay raise for his new job while in the legislature.
Or is it like Mingo County Commission appointments? Is there no need to follow the law in West Virginia?
How slowly do the wheels of justice roll?
Ron Gregory is a regular political columnist and reporter for lootpress.com. Contact him at 304-533-5185; ronjgregory@gmail.com; or PO Box 20297, Charleston, WV 25362.