Get this straight Mr. Ken Fones-Wolf: I'm not a parrot and I'm not a puppet. But, those who say "money from Blankenship, money from Blankenship" sound very much like parrots.
I served in the House of Delegates for four years watching puppets. I know who they are, and I'm not one of them. When I served, I was about as independent as a public servant can be. I noticed that Democrat delegates almost always voted the way the Speaker of the House wanted them to vote. Sometimes I was the only "no" vote in the House. This often resulted in the bill being reviewed more closely by the Senate or vetoed by a governor.
Those who are elected with labor union endorsements almost always vote the way the labor union lobbyists want them to vote. I voted along with labor when I agreed on the issue, sometimes in defiance of the House leadership.
I never voted with Don Blankenship (Massey Energy's CEO and president) because I never knew where he stood on legislation except on one occasion when I voted against his position. He was not my constituent so he didn't notify me. Most knew he supported eliminating the food tax, but I wrote that legislation.
One of the first things I did upon election was to sponsor legislation to eliminate the food tax, before I ever heard Blankenship's name. I was never his puppet, in his pocket, or covered in his money as the mailings from the state Democratic Party depicted.
Notice that in Fones-Wolf's letter (DP-July 4), he did not defend Barbara Fleischauer, Alex Shook,and Charlene Marshall. They chose the unions' wishes over Morgantown's voters. In a (municipal) election, where 70 percent voted against binding arbitration [July 2002]. Why would Fleischauer, Shook and Marshall ignore the voters' will and push this legislation?
Follow the money to last year's 44th House District election. Apparently Fones-Wolf didn't receive the multiple mass mailings the labor unions paid for in support of these candidates. Maybe he didn't receive the two disgraceful mailings the Saturday and Monday before the election attacking me and promoting their candidates.
Do you believe that it is possible to defend oneself when such attacks are received in the mail the day before the election? If the Building and Construction Trades PAC {political action committee) had followed the campaign finance laws, they would have disclosed with the secretary of stale's office that they were paying for mailings to attack me. Despite the rules, they did not disclose my name. Therefore I was caught off guard.
Their goal was for the labor union bosses to take over leadership of the House of Delegates. They succeeded with the assistance of the gambling industry and others. The gambling industry used similar stealth methods skirting financial disclosure rules. They got what they wanted too.
Oh, well, I accepted a legal campaign donation from a CEO. I had no control over his campaign, but to my knowledge he followed campaign finance laws. Now you have casino gambling and I have clues of other things to come. It's a shame, because West Virginia was making great progress in the four years I was so honored to serve. Much of the current good news we are able to witness is a result of that tenure.
Morgantown LETTER TO EDITOR Who is Fones-Wolf and what is his relationship?