West Virginia's three gubernatorial candidates have several views in common, but are miles apart on others - including mountaintop removal, abortion, the death penalty and the leadership of the current administration.
Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin and former Republican state Sen. Russ Weeks both agree on mountaintop removal mining, which they support as long as it's done responsibly.
Charleston Gazette - Sunday, October 19, 2008-- West Virginia's three gubernatorial candidates have several views in common, but are miles apart on others - including mountaintop removal, abortion, the death penalty and the leadership of the current administration.
Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin and former Republican state Sen. Russ Weeks both agree on mountaintop removal mining, which they support as long as it's done responsibly.
Manchin says he's working with the Department of Environmental Protection on "a very aggressive plan" that states "there will be no disturbance of the land unless you can show with the post mine land use program that you'll put the land back better and more productive than what you altered it."
Mountain Party challenger Jesse Johnson is against mountaintop removal mining, a stance that earned him an endorsement from the Sierra Club environmental group.
Johnson does support underground coal mining, saying it means more jobs, "which will breathe new lifeblood into those communities." He wants underground mines made safer, though, and also would like to see West Virginia create a "new coal economy" by researching and developing new products that can be made from coal.
He would like to see the emergence of a citizen's dividend, a policy based upon the principle that the natural world is the common property of everyone and that each person should receive regular payments from revenue raised through the leasing or selling of those natural resources.
All three candidates support development of other energy sources - such as solar, wind and hydro - but agree that coal is king right now and for the foreseeable future.
"West Virginia is coal, has been coal and West Virginia will continue to be coal - past, present future," said Weeks. "We can't do anything at all right now that's going to alter the fact that most of the tax money that comes to Charleston is generated by what they call mineral extraction and energy production."
Manchin wants the state to become a leader in clean coal research and technology and help the nation stem what he says is an over-dependence on foreign oil.
On the abortion issue, Manchin has received the endorsement of West Virginians for Life even though Weeks, another anti-abortion proponent, alleges the governor has done little to help the cause.
Johnson, who supports abortion rights, says he's also against abortion personally and knows of no other person who supports these rights who doesn't think it's a "horrible form of birth control and should be prevented to ever be a choice to begin with."
"The government should have no say-so in your health care choices or my health care choices," said Johnson, adding that a ban on abortions would lead to more illegal, unsafe procedures.
All three candidates stress that West Virginia needs to attract more jobs, diversify its economy and improve education and access to affordable health care. They also are all "for sunshine," as Weeks put it, meaning they favor government information being available to the public.
Manchin and Weeks both support the death penalty, with Manchin stipulating that he only believes it's appropriate for the most heinous of crimes and only when forensic evidence has made guilt clear beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Weeks points to a passage in the Bible's New Testament about how it's better for a person to have a millstone tied to his neck and drowned in the sea than it is to offend a little one.
"If that's not the death penalty, I don't know what is," he said.
Johnson is against the death penalty, saying he's "someone who believes that it's not our place to make such a decision."
He said if West Virginia had a death penalty when former State Police chemist Fred Zain was found to have fabricated lab results in order to get criminal convictions, "we would all collectively have blood on our hands."
Johnson is also the only candidate in favor of the "decriminalization" of marijuana. He asked, "If you believe in God, did God make a mistake when he made that plant?"
Despite their similar views on many issues, Weeks is critical of Manchin's leadership, saying the administration is rife with corruption, cronyism and nepotism - allegations the governor denies.
"People are appointed to high positions where they oversee a lot of money or they have influence over contracts," Weeks said. "I call it the good ol' boy system."
Weeks has alleged that a Division of Highways official had illegally benefited from a state contract. He says he has proof but hasn't produced it yet, saying he fears his source will be retaliated against. The DOH is one of several agencies in which Weeks believes there is, "for lack of a better word, squirrelly activity going on."
If elected, he wants to order independent audits of several departments and agencies and clean house by reducing redundancies, getting rid of inefficient programs and people and cutting wasteful spending.
"We're going to have to cut back to bare bones, provide for the needs and services of the people of this state first," he said.
Manchin contends that Weeks' allegations "ring hollow."
He says he doesn't use "the old political system of who you know and 'you helped me get elected so I owe you something.'"
Weeks also has made the West Virginia University degree scandal involving Manchin's daughter a major issue in his campaign, saying it's a perfect example of the cronyism plaguing state government.
The university officials who granted Heather Bresch a masters' degree she didn't earn did so because of their allegiance, and a perceived obligation, to the governor, he alleges.
Manchin, however, says he had nothing to do with the university's decision to grant the degree.
"I wish I would have known about this, maybe I could have helped," Manchin said. "I guarantee you, there's no one more upset than her mother and I to find out that someone wrote in a grade or a class she never took and a grade."
"She has never, nor would she ever, expect or ask something for nothing," he said of his daughter.
Manchin says the voters shouldn't look at issues he had nothing to do with but instead focus on the state's achievements during his tenure.
"Any time you have an incumbent running for re-election it's pretty easy to be able to look at a record and see if you're satisfied or not," he said. "When I first came in four years ago, I told the people, I said we had to get our financial house in order."
"I think now, when you see with the meltdown in Washington, that the state of West Virginia - we're in the best financial shape we've ever been in and prepared to weather a financial storm."
Manchin points to the privatization of workers' compensation, which has resulted in savings of roughly $150 million for West Virginia companies. He also cites the more than $1.7 billion that has been put toward reducing unfunded pensions and state debt, record state revenue collections in fiscal year 2007 and a $106.7 million budget surplus that year.
Manchin also touts the fact that the corporate net income, business franchise and food taxes have all been reduced and the 5 percent state privilege tax on automobiles has been eliminated.
Other achievements he stresses include a reduction in the size of state government employment while overall employment in the state has increased, upgraded bond ratings, a 23 percent increase in exports and the recruitment of companies such as specialty plastics manufacturer Kureha Corp. and Hino Motors.
Manchin said he wants to continue to help strengthen the state's economy, make it a national energy leader and attract even more jobs.
"I haven't even begun what I think we can do in West Virginia," he said.