— *** Newspaper Endorsements 2014 ***—
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — When West Virginians go to the polls to vote in the General Election — either through early voting or on Nov. 4 — there is one certainty: In the U.S. Senate race, if either of the major parties’ candidate wins, she will have the distinction of being West Virginia’s first woman elected to serve as U.S. Senator.
Fortunately, both Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R) and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) have proven that each is more than qualified to serve in their own right — regardless of gender.
Capito has the legacy of being the daughter of former Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. (R) and the experience of serving 14 years in our nation’s capital as a U.S. Congresswoman representing the 2nd Congressional District. She has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in battling overreach by the EPA, as well as unpopular aspects of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Tennant has proven to be a politician with great passion for the working families of West Virginia. She has stood with the UMWA as it opposed the job-killing policies of President Obama’s “War on Coal.” She understands firsthand what it means to be denied medical insurance due to pre-existing conditions of her only child — her daughter Delaney — due to open heart surgery when she was only months old.
Capito is a fiscal conservative with a keen sense of what is needed to jump-start job creation through an overhaul of the federal tax code. As a result, the overhaul could provide incentive to Corporate America to expand its U.S. holdings and invest in research and development that will lead to job creation and economic growth. At the same time, the overhaul would close loopholes that allow the practice of “tax inversion.”
Tennant supports investing $8 billion in “clean-coal technology,” rather than a low- interest loan program, to encourage power companies to develop carbon-capture sequestration on an economical commercial scale. That would enable the United States to continue to use coal as a baseload energy source while being responsive to the effects of global climate change.
Both women have the intelligence, integrity and ability to represent the interests of West Virginia residents in the U.S. Senate.
However, it is Capito’s experience and more conservative positions on both fiscal and some social policies that warrant our endorsement of her election as U.S. senator.
As the baby-boom generation of our great state continues to age and, as a result, pushes the demographics of West Virginia more and more gray, the political viewpoints have trended more and more conservative.
As a result, West Virginia is rapidly changing its national political standing from “Blue State” to “Red State.”
Nothing would illustrate this trend more than if Capito wins the election for U.S. Senate, which would make her the state’s first Republican U.S. senator since John D. Hoblitzell, Jr., who served a one-year appointment in 1958. A Capito victory would break a 57-year Democratic Party stronghold over West Virginia’s two U.S. Senate seats.
It is obvious that Tennant continues to develop as a seasoned public servant with greater depth and breadth of understanding of the needs and issues facing West Virginia and its people. Her passion is inspiring, and we believe it will very likely result in her election to a future seat in Congress, U.S. Senate or perhaps as governor.
But, at this point in our nation’s history, Shelley Moore Capito in our opinion is best suited to serve as West Virginia’s next U.S senator.
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