Sept. 4, 2010
EDITORIAL: Is Trouble Brewing for Manchin with his Base?
Some call it a "death by a thousand cuts" for Joe Manchin of late. First he had to struggle to push through his version of the special election over the objections of the House of Delegates. Then he gets served with two separate subpoenas by Barack Obama's U.S. Justice Department a few weeks after his announcement for U.S. Senate.
Then we have the Democratic fans of Joe who want to keep him in the Governor's Mansion and rather resent him trying to leave early with so much work left undone on job creation, state employee pay raises, and other important issues.
And John Raese's now put together a credible enough campaign against Manchin that a new Rasmussen poll shows the Morgantown businessman dramatically closing the gap with Manchin to make it only a six point game.
Manchin never expected this. For him to only be ahead of Raese by a margin of 48%-42% before Raese's first fall TV ad has run has to be a gut-wrencher for the Governor, which is why he has decided upon the unheard of strategy for an incumbent by going negative first, with an effort designed to raise money by attacking Raese.
Does this sound like a confident Governor?
But there's a reason why Governor Manchin is feeling nauseous lately, even beyond all these other cuts listed above. And what is that?
Simple: Manchin's base is on the verge of leaving him for all the times they've been ignored by this Administration in the past five years.
Think about it: the county and state workers, the public school teachers, the school service workers in each county. They supported Manchin in both 2004 and 2008 with the promise of something better coming their way. The promises to those who elected him twice to high office continue to go unfulfilled, even as the Governor himself got a $50,000 pay raise.
That's not exactly leadership by example. And while there may be
some issues that these state workers and John Raese may not always
agree on, here's food for thought: Raese hasn't overpromised and
hasn't disrespected our state's workforce like Manchin has.
In fact, John Raese has always managed to work out his issues with the employees who work for his Greer Industries in a collaborative way. Negotiations may get tough on occasion, but all are respected for their contributions to the whole enterprise. And Greer Industries employees are paid well and have good benefits for their contributions to the company's profits.
That's all anyone wants from their work, including our county and state workers and teachers. They want to know that their work is appreciated and yes, that decent salaries and benefits are going to be a top priority whenever possible.
Those better salaries and benefits can only occur when our whole state has a better climate for job creation, which will allow our state coffers to have more money in them without having to tax the citizens more.
That's what John Raese is all about.
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EDITORIAL: Is Trouble Brewing for Manchin with his Base?
Some call it a "death by a thousand cuts" for Joe Manchin of late. First he had to struggle to push through his version of the special election over the objections of the House of Delegates. Then he gets served with two separate subpoenas by Barack Obama's U.S. Justice Department a few weeks after his announcement for U.S. Senate.
Then we have the Democratic fans of Joe who want to keep him in the Governor's Mansion and rather resent him trying to leave early with so much work left undone on job creation, state employee pay raises, and other important issues.
And John Raese's now put together a credible enough campaign against Manchin that a new Rasmussen poll shows the Morgantown businessman dramatically closing the gap with Manchin to make it only a six point game.
Manchin never expected this. For him to only be ahead of Raese by a margin of 48%-42% before Raese's first fall TV ad has run has to be a gut-wrencher for the Governor, which is why he has decided upon the unheard of strategy for an incumbent by going negative first, with an effort designed to raise money by attacking Raese.
Does this sound like a confident Governor?
But there's a reason why Governor Manchin is feeling nauseous lately, even beyond all these other cuts listed above. And what is that?
Simple: Manchin's base is on the verge of leaving him for all the times they've been ignored by this Administration in the past five years.
Think about it: the county and state workers, the public school teachers, the school service workers in each county. They supported Manchin in both 2004 and 2008 with the promise of something better coming their way. The promises to those who elected him twice to high office continue to go unfulfilled, even as the Governor himself got a $50,000 pay raise.
That's not exactly leadership by example. And while there may be
some issues that these state workers and John Raese may not always
agree on, here's food for thought: Raese hasn't overpromised and
hasn't disrespected our state's workforce like Manchin has.
In fact, John Raese has always managed to work out his issues with the employees who work for his Greer Industries in a collaborative way. Negotiations may get tough on occasion, but all are respected for their contributions to the whole enterprise. And Greer Industries employees are paid well and have good benefits for their contributions to the company's profits.
That's all anyone wants from their work, including our county and state workers and teachers. They want to know that their work is appreciated and yes, that decent salaries and benefits are going to be a top priority whenever possible.
Those better salaries and benefits can only occur when our whole state has a better climate for job creation, which will allow our state coffers to have more money in them without having to tax the citizens more.
That's what John Raese is all about.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
