Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) is laying the smack down on Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R. WV):
http://thehill.com/...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will portray Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) as a friend to Wall Street — not West Virginia — during a campaign stop for Capito's Democratic opponent Natalie Tennant on Monday.
A senior Tennant campaign aide told The Hill that Warren is "expected to draw a stark contrast" with her own record as a member of the Senate Banking Committee to Capito's time on the House Financial Services Committee.
"I've seen Congresswoman Capito in action on the House Financial Services Committee, and time and again I have seen her put the interests of Wall Street banks ahead of the needs of working families," Warren said in a statement to The Hill.
Capito laughed off Warren's criticism.
"She doesn't have any idea what she's talking about," Capito told The Hill in response to Warren's criticism. "I think she says that about anybody that she's campaigning against."
While most political watchers view Warren as more liberal than Obama, she is considered a high-profile liberal fundraiser. And Warren's trip to West Virginia on Monday will likely highlight Capito's financial record. Capito's No. 2 career contributor is Citigroup, second only to Powell Construction.
Warren is an outspoken critic of Wall Street, calling for more financial reform as well as more transparency with the so-called "revolving door" between the public and private sectors, where former government employees take jobs financial institutions and vice versa.
One of Capito's most high-profile financial services regulatory political fights was in 2011.
As chairwoman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, she introduced legislation that delayed the implementation of a final rule on "swipe fees," legislation that Wall Street backed heavily.
The 2010 Wall Street Reform Act, also called Dodd-Frank, after its authors, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), gives the Federal Reserve authority to regulate how much money banks collect each time consumers swipe their debit cards.
It's a lobbying war that pits two of Washington's most powerful industries against one another: big banks versus the retail industry and divided Democrats in the process.
Capito introduced the legislation with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) on March 15, 2011, that would delay implementation of the proposed rule by one-year.
The Democratic-controlled Senate, which never took up the bill, was split on the issue. Since then, the banks versus retail spat has turned to the federal courts.
During the 2012 campaign cycle, Capito's largest campaign donor was Wall Street lobbying group Sullivan & Cromwell, with its employees contributing $48,500, according to public records. That was more than triple the amount that Sullivan & Cromwell employees gave to anyone else in a House race during the 2012 cycle.
About two months before introducing the credit swipe legislation, Capito hired Dan Coats, an attorney from Wall Street lobbying group Sullivan & Cromwell, to be her legislative director. (Coats is no longer with Capito's office.)
Wells Fargo Advisors officials announced on March 29, 2011, that it hired Capito's husband, Charles Capito, as a senior vice president in their Charleston, W.Va., offices. - The Hill, 7/10/14
Here's some more info about Warren's upcoming visit:
http://www.wvgazette.com/...
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s trip to West Virginia will take her to Shepherdstown for a Natalie Tennant campaign event.
The Massachusetts Democrat will be in the Eastern Panhandle city Monday.
Tennant is West Virginia’s secretary of state. She is running for the Senate against Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito. Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller is retiring from his long-held seat. - The Charleston Gazette, 7/11/14
By the way, look who's coming to campaign for Capito:
http://www.msnbc.com/...
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan has co-sponsored legislation that would criminalize some forms of birth control, voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and mocked the “war on women,” and yet he’s headed to West Virginia to support Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in a U.S. Senate race where only a woman can win.
The 2012 vice presidential nominee will support Capito during a campaign event in Charleston, West Virginia next week, during which criticisms of President Obama’s fiscal policies are expected to be the focus.
“I am thrilled to have Congressman Ryan join us for a conversation about protecting our way of life and getting West Virginia back to work,” Capito said in a news release.
“We will discuss the importance of an energy policy that employs West Virginians and stops President Obama’s war on coal. We will discuss creating an environment for job creation through lower taxes, common sense regulations and less debt, and we will discuss putting a stop to the pessimism and lack of growth that has resulted from Obama’s presidency,” she said. - MSNBC, 7/9/14
Interesting choice to go with Ryan especially after this:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
During recent remarks to a local GOP group, Rep. Shelley Moore Capitol (R-W.Va.) hailed Medicare as "a tremendous program" and imagined she would have "many sleepless nights" without it, since her parents rely on it to keep the costs of their prescription drugs down.
What you wouldn't know by Capito's comments, though, is that she voted -- three times -- for the House Republican budget put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which would overhaul Medicare and reopen the prescription drug "donut hole," that would force immediate costs increases onto people like her parents.
Capito, who has been in the House since 2000 and is now running for Senate, made her remarks during a speech to the Greenbrier Republican Party on April 20. - Huffington Post, 5/3/13
Medicare is also a big issue in West Virginia so maybe Warren can remind voters about that as well. She should also remind voters where Capito comes from:
http://atr.rollcall.com/...
In Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s bid for Senate, Republicans and Democrats frequently cite one major political asset: Her middle name.
It comes from her father, the beloved former Gov. Arch A. Moore, Jr., who brought the Mountain State’s infrastructure and education system into the modern age during his two separate tenures in the 1970s and 1980s.
But Capito’s father also holds a complicated place in West Virginia history. In addition to introducing kindergarten to the state and overseeing a massive Interstate construction project, Moore spent over two years in federal prison.
Dale Banball, a retired coal miner and construction worker, said he will vote for Capito because she is “Arch’s” daughter.
“I worked under her dad. We did more road work under him than any governor ever. Just like her dad, she’s good,” he said. “He got his hand in the cookie jar, but he built more roads than any governor we’ve ever had.”
That cookie jar involved five felony corruption convictions in the early 1990s. Moore pleaded guilty but later maintained his innocence.
All that happened nearly 25 years ago, but his name surfaces, unsolicited, among voters on the trail as Capito runs her first statewide campaign. Much of this was litigated years ago, but Capito is making introductions to new voters outside of her 2nd District.
She is the favorite to win the race over her Democratic opponent, West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant. The race is rated Leans Republican by Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.
In interviews across the state over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, it’s clear Capito will both win and lose votes because of her father’s legacy.
One registered Democrat, a retired aluminum company employee, said it, “I’m not too fond of Shelley’s background … I know she’s probably her own person, but that’s going to haunt her.”
There’s no doubt that after 13 years in Congress, Capito stands on her own as a political figure. When asked about her father’s legacy at a Fourth of July parade in Ripley, the usually mellow congresswoman showed a firm side. - Roll Call, 7/9/14
Tennant could certainly use Warren's help. Capito has been in the lead for a while now but PPP noted that West Virginia voters tend to change their minds a lot. Lets see if Warren's magic can pay off. Click here if you want to donate and get involved with Tennant's campaign:
http://natalietennant.com/