Many Democrats who ran in the 2014 election in West Virginia, particularly those seeking statewide seats, did so while bearing the yoke of President Obama. The unpopularity of the President and some of his policies forced Democrats to carefully parse their words.
Candidates like Natalie Tennant in the U.S. Senate race, and Nick Rahall and Nick Casey in the Congressional races, tried to energize members of their party to support them, yet keep their distance from the more liberal national Democratic Party.
Their opponents relentlessly linked them to Obama, particularly on the Affordable Care Act and the energy policy. Tennant even ran a TV ad showing her cutting off the power to the White House.
The difficult balancing act failed. The National Democratic Party, having moved farther to the left, apparently saw West Virginia going red and did not go all-in.
West Virginia Democratic Party leaders were relieved to put 2014 behind them and start planning for 2016, when Obama would not be on the ballot. However, Obama will leave behind yet another stiff headwind for West Virginia Democrats—the Clean Power Plan.
The proposal released this week by the President and the EPA slashing carbon-dioxide emissions from utility power plants will have a devastating impact on West Virginia’s already struggling economy. If the rules are allowed to stand, we can expect more job losses in coal and related industries, a further erosion of the tax base and government budgetary challenges for years to come.
When U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) brought up legislation in subcommittee this week as an alternative to the Clean Power Plan, she was condescendingly lectured by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) that West Virginia should “get with it.”
Since Boxer was in her “tough love” mode, she could have easily added that California has 55 electoral votes, while West Virginia has five (soon to be four after the 2020 Census). Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky produce 60 percent of the nation’s coal, but have only 16 electoral votes.
You do the math.
The course on the environment has been set now for the 2016 likely Democratic Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. The Clean Power Plan plays on the west coast and in the northeast. The coal producing states of West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming were already red (although Virginia remains a swing state).
So West Virginia Democrats—at least those serious about winning statewide office—will again have to become adept at repeating, “I-am-a-Democrat-but-not-that-kind-of-Democrat.”
The President’s supporters say the climate plan is part of Barack Obama’s legacy, and it will secure his standing among more liberal Democrats. However, that legacy will make it even more difficult for moderate to conservative Democratic candidates in West Virginia in the 2016 election.