By Esteban Fernandez, Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN — Four months after forming, the voices against West Virginia’s national elected leaders are getting louder.
“We went from about 25 people in a smaller church basement,” Mindy Holcomb, an organizer at West Virginia Citizen Action Group, said. “We now have, I think, close to 1,800 people on our membership rolls.”
Mountaineers Indivisible Citizen Action held a town hall Saturday in Morgantown where more than 100 attendees criticized Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. and Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va. An effigy of Baby Dog presided over cardboard cutouts of Capito and Moore, acknowledging the canine’s greater visibility over that of its owner, Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va. Although event organizers invited Capito and Moore to meet with constituents at the town hall, neither appeared. Instead, attendees aired their grievances toward a pair of empty chairs, which had cutouts of the politicians secured to the seat backs.
Mountaineers Indivisible announced they would start weekly actions, alternating between Capito and Moore’s offices every Thursday. Moore in particular has earned a lot criticism from the organization. Holcomb said that while Capito herself hasn’t talked to Holcomb or her group yet, at least members of Capito’s office up to her chief of staff have made themselves available. The office of her nephew, however, is a different story.
