West Virginia\u2019s five electoral votes won\u2019t be in play for President Obama this November but his campaign has to be somewhat aggravated by how that state\u2019s democratic party primary turned out last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Of the nearly 180-thousand presidential primary votes cast, an astounding 72,544 were marked for Keith Judd.\u00a0 Obama received the balance (105,854 votes).\u00a0 Unopposed in most states, Obama is a cinch to recapture his party\u2019s nomination.\u00a0 The outcome in West Virginia won\u2019t impact his campaign\u2019s strategy to gather 270-plus electoral college votes in the slightest.<\/p>\n
But the extreme outlandishness of what happened in West Virginia cannot be understated.\u00a0 Judd might as well be Daffy Duck for the purposes of categorizing him as a candidate.\u00a0 He\u2019s nuts.\u00a0 He has zero credentials for the job and he\u2019ll be incarcerated in Texas for the entirety of the term he\u2018s seeking.\u00a0 Judd shouldn\u2019t be anywhere near a presidential primary ballot – especially when serious, law-abiding public servants seeking lower-ranking offices are denied ballot access all over this country all the time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m all for greater choice in the voting booth but Judd\u2019s performance in West Virginia reflects badly on that state\u2019s notoriously crooked Democratic Party machinery and the loyalists it turns out for elections.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers there can start by refining state election law to raise the bar on access to the Presidential primary ballot.\u00a0 While the US constitution put limits on what states can do in this regard, there has to be a way to keep a guy like Judd from making a joke of the process.\u00a0 From Texarkana, TX, Judd mailed off three money orders (likely with help from a trickster) totaling $2500 and a notarized, completed form to gain his spot on WV\u2019s ballot.\u00a0 Only the names of Judd and Obama appeared on WV\u2019s democratic party ballot under the choice for president.\u00a0 For $2500, you\u2019d think more people would take a crack at it.<\/p>\n
West Virginia\u2019s junior senator Joe Manchin and current governor Earl Ray Tomblin are both democrats but both refuse to endorse Obama.\u00a0 Manchin wouldn\u2019t even reveal who he voted for in the Obama\/Judd matchup.<\/p>\n
Judd won 41-percent of the vote state-wide.\u00a0 He won coal-rich Mingo County by a margin of 2972 to 1967.\u00a0 He won ten counties across the state.\u00a0 Even in Raleigh County where there\u2019s some degree of scrutiny and structure, Judd garnered nearly half the 6500 or so votes cast.<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s clean energy push (as modest as it may be) scares many in West Virginia.\u00a0 Coal is king there.\u00a0 But the droves who cast a protest vote for a convicted sap look foolish for the choice made.\u00a0 So do the party power brokers who got a little too cute for their own good when they facilitated the outcome they ended up with.<\/p>\n
-Congrats to Dan Lynch for hitting the five-year mark with his great web site NYCTaper.\u00a0 A week after recording the Woods\/Crystal Stilts show at 285 Kent, Lynch is celebrating NYCTaper\u2019s anniversary at the same venue tonight.\u00a0 Oneida will top the special bill.\u00a0 Among the hundreds of shows recorded and made available for download on Lynch\u2019s site the last five years are 11 Oneida gigs.\u00a0 Lynch and a small team of helpers record many of New York City\u2019s important music performances and later present them to the public in full form with a brief review and set list.\u00a0 Said Lynch on NYCTaper:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a humbling experience to realize that our hard work and good intentions have made this site work for a community of music performers and music lovers.\u00a0 We hope to keep doing this and to continue to grow into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
West Virginia\u2019s five electoral votes won\u2019t be in play for President Obama this November but his campaign has to be somewhat aggravated by how that state\u2019s democratic party primary turned out last Tuesday. Of the nearly 180-thousand presidential primary votes … Continue reading