Jake Stump of the Charleston Daily Mail got it wrong about Big Oil's favorite West Virginian, the ineffective Bush Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in today's paper:

On Wednesday, the Barth campaign attacked Capito for taking contributions from big oil companies like Exxon and Marathon in previous years, though Exxon has not given to her campaign this election cycle.

"These are very powerful and controversial special interest groups that have hiked up our gas prices and exploited working families," said Barth spokesman Mark Ferrell. "This campaign will not take money from big oil."

Oh really?

Exxon Mobil Corp. PAC
5959 Las Colinas Boulevard
Irving, Texas 75039
06/29/2008 1000.00

Despite warnings from Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), the Republican congressional leadership of 2005 and 2006 ignored the burgeoning national problems that we now live with every day (gas prices food prices, the housing meltdown, recession, etc.) in favor of wasting time and money on misguided attempts at legislating morality.  These GOP leaders, who at one time claimed a belief in limited government principles, were exposed as frauds when they showed no reluctance in using big government to legislate social issues.  In these cases, the sky was the limit!  This was especially true with Internet poker.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is typical of Republican leadership efforts to legislate morality.  To pander to anti-poker extremists like Focus on the Family, the GOP leadership embraced the power of the federal government to tell Americans what to do in their own homes with their own money.  The GOP leadership also embraced UIGEA’s deputizing of banks to enforce the law, as if America’s banks were an unpaid arm of the Department of Justice.

In 2006, ineffective Bush Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito won re-election with 57 percent of the vote in a year that saw Democrats take over the House nationally.

Measures as drastic as producing liquid fuel from coal have not been taken since the last World War.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va) is proposing to introduce the "Clean Coal-Derived Fuels for Energy Security Act" next week that would make mandatory the production of 6 billion gallons of coal-to-liquids fuel by 2022.

For years I've tried to make myself a thorn in the side of Bush Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. The day after she won in 2006, Clem and I met at Waffle House in Martinsburg to plot out what we could do to see her defeated in 2008.

Seeing and hearing how John McCain treated her today, I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe. So I did both.

Sure it's a primary and not a general election, but in a year where the Republican brand has a lower approval rating than herpes it's something to consider:

Barack Obama with just 26 percent of the Democratic votes 91,663.
John McCain with just 76 percent of all Republican votes 89,654.

More good news to consider.

Anne Barth is going to face Shelley Moore Capito.

As we all await with bated breath the results of the NC and IN primaries, it seems a good time to remind everyone that the next president will be able to accomplish very little of their agenda without the strong backing of a Congress dedicated to progressive Democratic principles.  (And if John McCain somehow wins, we'll need as many Democrats as possible to blockade four more years of Bush policies.)  As the FISA fight reminds us, many of the promises made by Hillary and Obama will be for naught without increased majorities to work with in Congress.

We need more and better Democrats in Congress to achieve this goal--and few races to take Republican House seats in the fall are as promising and exciting as Democrat Anne Barth's bid to unseat Shelley Moore Capito in WV-02.  That's why clammyc and I will be talking directly with Ms. Barth in an exclusive  interview today at Heading Left, starting at 1:30pmPST/4:30pmEST!

WV-02, a DCCC Red to Blue seat, is definitely in play this cycle -- it's our best chance yet to unseat ineffective Bush-McCain Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. We've got a great candidate in Anne Barth -- a 20 year veteran of Sen. Byrd's office.

First, Anne Barth needs to win the West Virginia Democratic primary on May 13. Read further for an overview of the candidates and learn why Anne Barth is the only viable candidate for West Virignia's second congressional seat.

Anne Barth for Congress :: Volunteer :: Donate

Most everyone here has heard of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, right?

You know, the Senator who had it right on Iraq from Day 1. He's the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, noted orator, and a tireless protector of the constitution. He's that guy who's known for carrying a pocket constitution.

What you probably didn't know is, one of his key staff members -- an aide of 21 years -- recently resigned. Because of this resignation, Sen. Byrd is asking for our help.

War-supporting Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito on Jan. 14, 2007:

"Adjustments in Iraq are obviously needed, and I welcome the president's efforts to bring about these badly needed changes. However, I have grave concerns regarding the call for increased American troop numbers in Iraq and am skeptical of this new plan's success.  I believe the escalating sectarian violence in Iraq requires a political solution, not a military solution rooted in increased numbers of American troops."

956 U.S. military deaths since she made that statement.

Democratic candidate Anne Barth is running in West Virginia 02. She's Senator Robert C. Byrd's longtime aide and an excellent candidate to take on vulnerable rightwing Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.

Originally published late Saturday night after the event. Since many are talking football today anyway, plus we'll have a compressed campaign with this race due to circumstances, I'm reposting it this morning to help introduce kossacks to our new WV-02 candidate.

I attended the meet and greet in Shepherdstown this evening for West Virginia's new Democratic candidate for WV-02 Anne Barth. About 200 people packed the event, a great turnout for an event on such short notice and on a day when the weather involved a freezing rain.

I attended the meet and greet in Shepherdstown this evening for West Virginia's new Democratic candidate for WV-02 Anne Barth. About 200 people packed the event, a great turnout for an event on such short notice and on a day when the weather involved a freezing rain.

Some disappointing news out of West Virginia, where State Sen. John Unger, who had been the consensus Democratic candidate for the Second District seat held by Republican Shelley Moore Capito, has bowed out at the last minute:

State Sen. John Unger has ended his campaign for West Virginia’s 2nd District congressional seat, saying he did not want to take part in an election process that was broken and soured by the "greed of money and tearing people down."

"I’d rather give hope and build people up," Unger, D-Berkeley, said in an interview Saturday, the day after he said he decided to end his campaign for the seat held by Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito "for now."

"We haven’t stopped. It’s just not now," said Unger, leaving the door open for a future campaign.

Unger had been the DCCC's top choice for the seat, and had raised a bit over $250,000 for his race against Capito. His departure from the race is certainly a disappointment for the Democratic party, which had rallied around Unger as the party's best hope for taking back the seat since Capito first won it in 2000. West Virginia Blue has a good analysis of Unger's departure.

Fortunately, however, we will have a serious candidate in the race; after Unger's departure, Senator Robert Byrd's long-time state director Anne Barth has filed for the race. Barth had considered running six months ago, but had initially deferred to Unger. The DCCC and West Virginia's congressional delegation have instantly united behind Barth's candidacy:

Byrd said in a statement that, "as my state director for over two decades, Anne has plenty of hands-on experience working with other congressional members."

DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland issued a statement that called Barth "an A+ candidate with unparalleled experience and support from West Virginians."

Barth has never held elected office, as far as I know, so we'll have to see how she performs on the campaign trail. Still, she should be a legitimate candidate in the race, which is more than the Republicans can say for the rest of West Virginia's races; they have failed completely to field candidates against Democratic Congressmen Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall, and will be fielding only token opposition against Governor Joe Manchin and Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, former Republican Rep. Anne Northup, who represented the Louisville-based Third District for five terms, has decided on a rematch against freshman Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth:

Kentucky Republican Anne M. Northup, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, will challenge freshman Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth this year in a rematch for the Louisville-based seat she lost to him in the 2006 election.

...

Northup’s entry fills what was a potentially devastating void for the Republicans, whose original top recruit for this year’s race, lawyer and former state official Erwin Roberts, dropped out just about two weeks before the filing deadline because of a military obligation.

While Northup is certainly a serious contender in a Democratic district where she managed to win five elections, Yarmuth should still be favored in the district. Northup is a staunch conservative (while Yarmuth is a solid progressive), and the district leans Democratic by nature; it was the only one of Kentucky's congressional district which favored Kerry over Bush in 2004. In addition, Yarmuth now has the advantage of incumbency, and it was largely Northup's ability to bring pork home which sealed her electoral victories in the past.

In addition, Northup has suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Kentucky Governor's race since her 2006 loss to Yarmuth, having been beaten handily in the primary by beleaguered incumbent Ernie Fletcher, who himself was crushed in the general election by Democrat Steve Beshear. It can't look good on your resume to have lost to the corrupt incumbent who was obliterated by a Democrat in a red state, only months after losing your own reelection.

Northup will run a tough race, and we certainly can't take anything for granted here. Still, I think Yarmuth has good reason to be confident going forward.

As some of you know already, those of us working on the WV-02 campaign got quite a shock when State Sen. John Unger announced at the 11th hour to not run.

Senator Robert C. Byrd's longtime aide Anne Barth had considered a run, but had decided not to because neither her nor Unger wanted to face an expensive primary challenge and then have to face Shelley Moore Capito.

About an hour or so before the midnight deadline, Barth filed her candidacy.

Distressing news from Carnacki. Today was the filing deadline for candidates in West Virginia. Netroots-recruited, DCCC-supported, State Sen. John Unger has decided not to challenge Republican Shelley Moore Capito.

Here's the breaking news from West Virginia Blue:

Shelley Moore Capito and Ginny Brown-Waite, both Repugnants, and both served on the  House Page Board have resigned their positions in 'protest'.

The House Page Board expelled pages that were found to violated guidelines set up for them, but some how Capito and Waite seem to think this is an opportunity will score them points in "the media" and with voters by resigning.

http://www.cnn.com/...

The charges that pages are 'out of control' and 'wild' have no basis in any facts: kids do stuff like this all the time. But the comparisons to what happened when people like Mark Foley
[that 'Democrat']

was caught actively trolling the House Page Pool for young boys minors to have sex with has been made. It's already burned into the narrative by these clowns. And my outrage is that not one challenge to this smear is in evidence in any news article, anywhere.

Looking for an ethical journalist to analyze the situation and call this out? You'll be looking for a long, long time. But they're happy to repeat the charges.

When those of us at West Virginia Blue began our effort to draft a challenger for Iraq war supporting Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, it looked like we were on a Quixotic quest.

Afterall, Capito had won in 2006 against what should have been an attractive challenger, former state Democratic chairman Mike Callaghan, with 57 percent of the vote.

This is a district that after long being a Democratic area went for George W. Bush twice.

So I turned to a Democrat I was familiar with, my own state senator, John Unger.