EDITORIAL: Governor Manchin Needs Retired, Not Promoted
Former Bluefield Mayor Craig Hammond has one of the best political
roundtables going among local talk radio shows in the Mountain State.
Now in its seventh year, Hammond's "Radioactive" morning talk radio
show on WHIS-AM serves up a balanced fare of local news, community
events, as well as state and local politics.
This past week, talk turned to the upcoming Special Election for the unexpired U.S. Senate term left behind by Robert C. Byrd. The political roundtable that followed was revealing. One of Hammond's co-hosts, William Payne, tried gamely to defend Governor Manchin's record over the past five plus years in office.
For his part, Hammond questioned the wisdom of Manchin putting off paying for a huge new defined benefits plan for state employees, a financial timebomb that will go off six years from now, when Manchin is no longer Governor.
But it was left to Russ Hatfield, the other regular on Hammond's panel to voice an all-too-common "defense" of Governor Manchin. While Hatfield didn't deny that Manchin's accomplishments have been meager during his tenure as Governor, he said that's not the only measurement we have in West Virginia for our Governors. "If he didn't do much harm, then that's something, too," said Hatfield.
The day is coming when settling for mediocre must end in West Virginia. The sad truth is that Governor Manchin had great potential coming into office as a new kind of Democrat, one with at least some kind of business savvy. But he has shown himself to be totally lacking in creativity and drive when it comes to developing new businesses and new jobs across West Virginia.
Example: Can you name one new company that has come into the state, thanks to Manchin?
With the exception of the Workers Comp Reform bill passed in his his first year as Governor, the Manchin Administration has been lackluster at best in terms of new job creation in a state that needs it more than most. For five years we have waited for the second act from Governor Manchin on pro-business legislation.
We're still waiting.
The Office of the Governor is not a mere launchpad for getting into the United States Senate. Some observers believe that Manchin has simply been playing it safe, doing no new bold initiatives, so that he could maintain his popularity in order to secure Senator Byrd's seat in the U.S. Senate. That's hardly what you'd call leadership.
Meanwhile, thousands more West Virginia young people left the state looking for work in Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Kentucky, rewarding grateful employers there with our extraordinary work ethic.
Joe Manchin has not earned a U.S. Senate seat--not because he hurried up the process for succeeding Byrd to his advantage. That was unseemly, yes, but the real reason Manchin should not be returned to office is because West Virginians have now learned the price of rewarding mediocrity, as we did with Manchin's re-election to the Governor's Mansion.
The price is a continual downward spiral for West Virginia, a state that has the potential to be an economic powerhouse for our mineral resources, hydroelectric potential due to our great rivers, our tourism potential, and our most dynamic resource, our people.
With all these positive attributes in West Virginia, if Joe Manchin hasn't managed to move our state ahead even one notch after almost six as Governor, then it's time he was retired, not promoted.