The more you read about Joe Manchin of WV the more you see that he is no friend to the Democratic Party. And a lot of what he has had done to sabotage President Joe Biden’s Agenda makes “sense” when you find out what a cancer he has been to the WV Democratic Party and his constituents. Those who have had to deal with Manchin in WV have been warning the rest of us for a few years now that Manchin is an egomaniacal, corrupt, selfish, greedy, right wing politician. I suppose the only real surprise is that Senate Democrats and President Biden thought they could be extra nice to Manchin and placate him to get something accomplished.
Everyone outside of WV has stated that Manchin must be doing something “right” to have won reelection in WV, especially in 2018. It is a super duper Trump state. And everyone said he is the last Democrat to still hold higher office in WV, so he must have some great political smarts or strategy.
But what if that is the wrong way to look at Manchin and WV politics? Maybe WV has become so toxic for Democrats isn’t necessarily ALL the national Democratic Party’s fault? Maybe another reason for the elimination of the Democratic Party at the state level in WV has a lot do who has been leading the WV Democratic Party since 2004: Joe Manchin.
Actually, Joe Manchin started his sabotage of the West Virginia Democratic Party back in 1996. Manchin ran for governor in 1996, but he lost the Democratic Primary to a progressive candidate by the name of Charlotte Pritt. After the primary, Manchin started an orginization “Democrats for Underwood” who was the Republican candidate.
Yeah. Manchin was supporting the Republican over the Democratic candidate.
That’s bad enough, but Pritt claims that Manchin devised a smear campaign against her and helped Republicans with a false TV Ad.
Manchin’s sabotage of progressive candidates was most direct against Pritt, who served in the WV state house and senate in the 1980s and 90s as a strong progressive who was fiercely pro-union and strong on the environment in a state essentially run by the fossil fuel industry and corporate interests.
“I was leading in the polls going into the last weekend and so they brought in these negative ads,” Pritt told Status Coup. The Republican ads, which Pritt alleged Manchin had a hand in, falsely accused her of salacious things like wanting to teach first graders about condoms and that she was for selling pornography to children.
“In the State Senate, Charlotte Pritt proposed teaching first graders about condoms,” the television ad began. “Surprised? You shouldn't be. Senator Pritt also voted to permit the sale of pornographic Videos to children.”
To this day, Pritt is disgusted.
“It was really sick, stupid stuff that hardly anyone, if they were really thinking, would know that that’s just ridiculous,” she said. “Many of the newspapers printed his [Manchin] smear sheet just as it was in the newspaper and op-ed pieces; so he worked with the establishment in these terrible assaults on my character.”
Pritt is certain that Manchin and the WV GOP worked together on the crippling ads against her in the homestretch of the campaign.
“It was really kind of like a petulant spoiled child; I didn’t realize it, but it was the first time that Joe Manchin had ever been defeated—and by a woman. I think it was a great blow. He couldn’t handle it.”
After leading in the polls going into the final week of the campaign—before the alleged Manchin-engineered ads—Pritt lost to Underwood by 36,648 votes.
After her defeat, Pritt sued Republican National Committee for defamation over the smears. The response, according to Pritt, was the GOP pointing the finger at Manchin, not the ads, as the driving force behind her failed campaign due to Manchin pulling the strings behind Democrats for Underwood.
Given the duplicity of Manchin on BBB, I believe the above did happen.
When Manchin won the governorship in 2004, he had the power to appoint the state Democratic Party chairman. And it is here where many progressives in WV accuse Manchin of stacking the state Democratic Party with Manchin yes men. In fact, Manchin is considered the “king”of the Democratic Party in WV.
Senator Joe Manchin has been a stumbling block for nearly every aspect of the Biden administration’s agenda—whether it is climate policy, paid family leave, or a new Food and Drug Administration chief. As a result, he’s drawn lots of attention from activists who’ve held protests at his offices, blockaded his Maserati, and even showed up in kayaks at his houseboat.
Many of these protesters are from Manchin’s home state of West Virginia. Notably absent in these efforts to lobby Manchin, however, are elected Democrats and party officials in the Mountain State.
While a few Democrats have spoken out to urge him to support the Biden agenda, most elected officials have remained publicly silent. For the most part, they do not attend the protests. They are not penning op-eds in state newspapers.
“People are afraid of Joe Manchin. He’s the king of the West Virginia Democratic Party, and it’s very hard to find anyone who’s willing to speak out against him,” said Shane Assadzandi, chairman of the Monongalia County Democratic Executive Committee, which is home to Morgantown and West Virginia University. “I’ve had people tell me West Virginia doesn’t have a Democratic Party. We have a Joe Manchin party.”
It is undeniable that Manchin wields a lot of power in the West Virginia Democratic Party. This is partly because he is the only remaining Democrat in statewide office. But his control of the party began long before the state went red. Manchin became “king” after he was elected to his first term as governor in 2004.
“When you become governor, you get the chance to nominate the party chairman,” explained Jeff Kessler, a former West Virginia Senate president and gubernatorial candidate.
Manchin used this privilege to nominate his campaign treasurer, Nick Casey, who was then elected chairman by the party’s state executive committee members. When Casey gave up the job in 2010, Manchin nominated his longtime chief of staff, Larry Puccio, who was also elected chairman and served until 2015. “He knew control of the Democratic Party of West Virginia was control of the state,” said Chris Regan, a lawyer and former vice chair of the party.
Emphasis is mine.
I had read earlier that Machin had a political machine, and there are multiple stories such as the above that is it not hard to believe that Manchin has turned the state Democratic Party into his own image. The same Larry Puccio who was a Manchin minion urged the state party to nominate a “former Republican” Jim Justice to run for governor in 2016.
After billionaire coal miner Jim Justice became governor, he cozied up to Trump and “switched” parites to become a Republican. Supposedly again. And if you believe that I have some swamp land on the Moon to sell you.
Did I mention that the Democratic Party in WV got wiped out in 2014? Democrats lost control of everything: House of Delegates, state senate, and all the state wide offices are now Republican. With the exception of “Democrat” Joe Manchin that is.
And what of progressive or even moderate candidates who want to run for office in WV without Manchin’s blessing? The message is clear: “Go Fuck Yourselves!”
Natalie Cline sees the Democratic party as excluding working-class constituents in the state. Cline secured the Democratic nomination for the US House of Representatives in 2020, when she won her primary race with 74% of the vote. She identifies as a “true blue Democrat” and grew up in a working-class family where both of her grandfathers had union jobs.
After winning her primary, she said the state party offered her campaign no support or publicity despite endorsements from well-known names such as Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and actors Debra Messing and Rosie O’Donnell.
“I can’t tell you how many times I would send emails to the state party and say: ‘Can you please share this information? We need people to watch’ – to no response.”
Cline now believes that promoting inclusion within the party puts a target on a candidate’s back: seek to make good on the Democratic promise of being a “big-tent” party and get shut out by Manchin and his state party.
One of the most baffling moments from her campaign and a sign, she said, of the party’s disconnect with working-class people, came when the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) simultaneously endorsed Manchin and her opponent – a Republican who months later would vote to restrict individuals’ rights to unionize.
“I didn’t feel that they [the Democratic party] cared. If they cared, they would be yelling and screaming,” she said. “They would have called the UMWA out on it. But heaven forbid they do that, because that might jeopardize Manchin’s endorsement.”
The article and others I have included show how often Manchin and his cronies in the WV Democratic Party smother the prospects of anyone who does not agree with Joe Manchin. Here is another example of the WV Democratic Party inaction.
The West Virginia Democratic Party’s social media accounts and website contain no statements about bills currently stumbling through Congress, other than the Freedom to Vote Act—a compromise bill birthed from Manchin’s opposition to the earlier For the People Act. There are posts and press releases celebrating the passage of the infrastructure-focused portion of Biden’s Build Back Better plan, but there was nothing prior to its passage.
Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore, who lives in Manchin’s hometown of Fairmont, says there’s a reason for that. “The way to get [Manchin’s] attention is not to blast him on social media,” she said. But Biafore maintains that this does not mean the party has been silent about the goings-on in Congress. “Did the party itself publicly go out and push him? No,” she said. “But did we as a committee reach out to Joe Manchin and express our concerns and views and ideas? Yes.”
She added: “For us to bad-mouth him or make him look bad … for goodness’ sakes, he’s the lone Democrat we have left.”
This approach might appeal to Manchin’s sensibilities, but it’s leading to frustration among rank-and-file members who don’t get to see behind-the-scenes conversations and just assume the state party isn’t doing anything at all.
Uh huh.
I think all of that calls into question whether Manchin would “switch parties” if we hurt his feelings. Manchin owns the WV Democratic Party apparatus. If Manchin became a Republican, he wouldn’t control the WV Democratic Party anymore. And Manchin wants to be in charge.
Does anyone think the WV Republican Party would want to suddenly have a egomaniac like Manchin trying to take over the party? There are PLENTY of ambitious WV Republicans who would be gunning for Joe Manchin. And Manchin has committed the cardinal sin of voting to impeach Trump twice.
No, Manchin has it too good being the king of the WV Democratic Party.
To be honest, I think Manchin’s days are numbered. No, Democrats will not take Manchin out. The majority Republican Party voters in WV will do that instead. Manchin only won by 3% in a good Democratic year. And Trump will be on the ballot in 2024.
Trump lives for vengeance, and I am sure he would be actively telling the rednecks in WV to vote for the Republican nominee. If Manchin runs again in 2024, I have my doubts he would survive. It is why I think Manchin may retire and go home to one of his mansions and count his ill gotten money. I’ll let someone who knows Manchin tell us about his “thinking.”
If Manchin stands by his statement from Sunday and single-handedly votes down the Biden agenda, he will become isolated, with no prospects for advancement, amid a lot of colleagues who detest him and deteriorating popularity back home. So you have to ask: What is he doing? What could explain a move with so many downsides and no obvious upside?
Perhaps there was a hint earlier this year from Manchin himself. Manchin spoke to some billionaire donors, corporate executives, and private-equity types in June. He thought he was off the record, but the audio leaked. Manchin told the donors that the GOP filibuster of an independent January 6 commission endangered the filibuster because it might inspire a change to the 60-vote threshold. But it’s what he said next that matters most. Manchin said: “Roy Blunt is a great, just a good friend of mine, a great guy ... Roy is retiring. If some of you all who might be working with Roy in his next life could tell him, that’d be nice, and it’d help our country. That would be very good to get him to change his vote. And we’re going to have another vote on this thing. That’ll give me one more shot at it.” Quite a statement about what Manchin thinks of his Republican colleague.
If Manchin seems to be risking dire consequences for his political career by killing Biden’s agenda, perhaps he does not plan to be around to bear those consequences.
But was Manchin really talking about Blunt, or was this more of a roundabout way of talking about himself? If Manchin doesn’t think it is scandalous to propose something that sounds like a payoff for his retiring friend from people who “will be working with Roy in his next life,” well, then he doesn’t think it is scandalous. The ability of former senators to legally cash in with lucrative consulting and lobbying deals is not in question. At the same time, the principal sources of funding for Build Back Better are taxes on corporations currently paying no taxes, higher tax rates on the very wealthy, and stricter enforcement of the tax laws against rich taxpayers. In other words, Build Back Better is funded by taxing the people on that call.
If Manchin seems to be risking dire consequences for his political career by killing Biden’s agenda, perhaps he does not plan to be around to bear those consequences. Those wealthy donors he spoke to about his friend Roy Blunt’s vote have tens of billions of reasons to oppose Build Back Better. Perhaps no one this side of Donald Trump would be happier to learn that after nine months of negotiations, Manchin simply walked away from the Biden agenda with a flat “no.” It’s the kind of thing that might make those folks happy to be acquainted with Manchin in his “next life.” The up-to-the minute reporting is that Manchin’s vote is not entirely lost, and that the negotiations will continue. If Manchin does intend to continue with his political life, they had better.
My point once again is that Joe Manchin is NOT a real Democrat. He’s a corrupt right wing politician who is more than willing to destroy the political agenda and chances of the Democratic Party in the elections. Manchin killed off the WV Democratic Party, and he is doing it now to the national Democratic Party.