Changes in the Mountain State
We have noted on a couple of occasions recently the changes in West Virginia politics that have transformed the state within a generation from being a sure thing for Democrats in presidential elections to a deep-red stronghold for the GOP.
More evidence of the shifting political winds in the Mountain State were on display last week when West Virginia’s senior U.S. senator, Jay Rockefeller, announced he would not be seeking a sixth term in 2014.
Though Rockefeller, who will be turning 77 next year, might very well have decided that it was time to kick back and retire regardless of any other circumstances, he would have probably been facing a grueling campaign if he had taken the plunge. Rockefeller has not placed great distance between himself and President Obama, who’s about as popular as ebola in West Virginia, plus he has not been afraid to antagonize the state’s powerful coal industry.
Moreover, U.S. Rep. Shelly Moore Capito has announced her intention to seek the Republican nomination for the seat. The daughter of former Gov. Arch Moore, she would have been a vastly more formidable contender than the sacrificial lambs Rockefeller has led to the slaughter over the last couple of decades.
The great-grandson of tycoon John D. Rockefeller and the nephew of Nelson Rockefeller, the late New York governor and U.S. vice president, Rockefeller’s signal achievement in the Senate was moving forward the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, which provides health-insurance coverage to about 6 million low-income children every year and has rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
Considering the still-vast family fortune from which he can draw, public service was perhaps a form of noblesse oblige for Rockefeller. But few would deny that he has been both hard-working and dedicated.