West Virginia Democrats are raising hell over 2014 U.S. Senate candidate, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito's (R. WV-2) vote against raising the minimum wage:
http://www.newsandsentinel.com/...
State Democrats are saying Republican U.S. Reps. David McKinley and Shelley Moore Capito voted against a bill that would raise the national minimum wage, while the lawmakers believe the vote was a bit of political maneuvering to make certain people look bad.
Jacob Winowich, executive director of the West Virginia Democratic Party, said Monday Capito and McKinley voted down a measure to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over three years.
"Congressional members Capito and McKinley have taken a page from John Raese's playbook claiming hardworking West Virginians do not deserve a fair wage for an honest days work," he said. "Capito and McKinley who make $174,000 a year are clearly unwilling to help hard working West Virginians.
''The very people that bag their groceries, prepare their meals at the local restaurants, and got them elected apparently don't do enough to warrant a livable wage.''
The state's only Democratic representative, Nick Rahall, voted for it, Winowich said. - News and Sentinel, 3/19/13
Capito voted to increase the minimum wage when George W. Bush was President:
http://thinkprogress.org/...
A ThinkProgress analysis finds that at least 67 Republicans who are still in Congress today backed an increase in the minimum wage in some form, including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Political momentum for an increase began in 2004, after President Bush announced his support for a bill by now-Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). After Democrats won majorities of the House and Senate in the 2006 elections, a minimum wage increase became one of their first priorities. The Fair Minimum Wage Act — which also included tax cuts for small businesses — passed the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. When the increase was folded into a larger appropriations bill, it again passed with strong bipartisan support and was eventually signed into law by Bush. 26 House Republicans even signed a letter to then-House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), asking for a vote on a minimum wage increase, including current Representatives Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Peter King (R-NY), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Christopher Smith (R-NJ), and Fred Upton (R-MI). In incremental stages, the law raised the minimum wage from $5.15-per-hour to $7.25.
Though Ryan ultimately voted against the measure, he argued that he supported raising the hourly rate as long as it came with a suitable “offset” of small business relief. “Last year, I supported an increase in the minimum wage because it also included tax relief measures for employers to offset the cost of the proposed minimum wage increase,” he noted in a floor speech, as he announced “with great regret” that he could not back the bill without more small business tax cuts. - Think Progress, 2/15/13
Emphasis mine.
Here's a statement Capito made back in 2007 in favor of raising the minimum wage:
http://votesmart.org/...
"It has been nearly ten years since Congress approved an increase in the minimum wage. This pay raise for lower-income workers is long overdue, and I am proud to have supported this measure to help the working families in West Virginia and across the country." - Vote Smart, 1/10/07
Capito bragged about how she voted to increase the minimum wage during the Bush presidency and tried to blame House Democrats for why she voted against raising the minimum wage this time:
Capito said Friday's vote on a procedural motion offered by Democrats was nothing more than "political theatre."
''President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 in his state of the union address,'' Capito said. ''Before a single hearing was held to consider the potential impact of that increase on small businesses, House Democrats offered a motion that would increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.''
Capito stood by her past record and said she will support balanced increases in the minimum wage that help West Virginia workers. - News and Sentinel, 3/19/13
Yeah right. Capito voted against raising the minimum wage this time to make the Club for Growth and other right-wing Super PACs hoping to defeat her in the GOP primary happy:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/...
The American Conservative Union announced Tuesday that Capito, who's running next year for her state's open U.S. Senate seat, will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The event, known as CPAC, is one of the oldest and largest yearly gatherings of conservative leaders and activists from across the country.
After announcing her Senate bid last year, two conservative groups, the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth, both criticized Capito's House record, especially when it came to spending, and hoped that a more conservative candidate would enter the race. Capito remains the only major Republican to jump into the contest.
A Capito adviser, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told CNN that the congresswoman has "a message that she thinks will resonate very well at CPAC."
In January, the incumbent, Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, announced that he wouldn't run next year for a sixth term in office. With Rockefeller not bidding for re-election, Republicans see the West Virginia seat as a strong pick up possibility as they try to win back control of the Senate. - CNN, 3/12/13
The Club for Growth has yet to find a candidate to go up against Capito (I wouldn't be surprised if four time loser, John Raese (R. WV), ended up being their nominee) but they are still gunning to take out Capito. Capito's vote against raising the minimum wage gave West Virginia Democrats a great issue to hit her hard on in 2014. Several local Democrats have been named as potential candidates to run for retiring Senator Jay Rockefeller's (D. WV) seat but my ideal candidate is Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D. WV) who is seriously looking at the race. Right now, she's focused on stoping GOP voter suppression laws in West Virginia:
http://www.newsandsentinel.com/...
Two bills in the guise of voter ID laws are being opposed by the West Virginia Secretary of State and a non-partisan voting rights protection coalition she formed.
"There are those in our legislature who want to disguise voter suppression as voter ID laws," Secretary Natalie Tennant said on Monday. "These laws would place unfair barriers on certain portions of the population that would make it much more difficult, if not impossible, for an otherwise legally registered voter to cast their ballot. This coalition of citizens from organizations around the state will not sit on the sidelines and let this happen. These laws that require people to devote money and time to obtaining one of these acceptable forms of voter identification will do only one thing and that's keep people away from the polls."
House Bill 2350 and Senate Bill 13, which are pending in the Judiciary Committees of each chamber, would require the voter to present a document issued either by the state or federal government with their name, address and photograph. Otherwise they would sign an affidavit and vote a provisional ballot and the signature would then be compared to the signature on record with the county clerk before the ballot is counted.
The Voting Rights Protection Coalition was recently formed and held its first press conference on Monday.
"The signature requirement is exactly what we do in our polling places now," Tennant said. "Making election officials fill out more paperwork at the polling place will mean longer lines at the polling place. And if the Board of Canvassers decides that all ballots cast by those without an acceptable ID don't count, that could mean that ballots cast by otherwise legally registered voters would be tossed out." - News and Sentinel, 3/19/13