According to the West Virginia Blue, a partisan Democratic blog site at http://www.wvablue.com/tag.do?tag=John+Unger
State Senator John Unger has decided not to file as a candidate to run against Shelley Moore Capito, despite having raised about a quarter of a million dollars for a campaign for that congressional seat. According to bloggers, Unger decided not to run because there were other announced Democratic candidates and he did not want to spend considerable time in the primary election campaign which would distract him from his work for constituents during the legislative session at a time when an economic downturn requires his full attention on their behalf. However, other bloggers intimate that Unger was chagrined to receive little or no support from the Governor and the state party leadership, and speculate on reasons why this might be so. Richie Robb, one-time mayor of Charleston is in the running, and some think that he wouldn't be there without the Governor's blessing. The conspiracy theorists suppose that the Democrats consider '08 to be a good year for them, with prospects of sweeping the presidential and congressional elections and all the state offices. If Unger were to run, it is theorized, he would have a good shot at winning, which would put the "Charleston seat" in the House of Representatives in the hands of a politician from the Eastern Panhandle-- an idea which is anethema on the lower end of the district. Hence, Unger gets taken to Coventry and a Charleston worthy gets the nod.
I think Unger had other considerations. He should have made this decision much earlier.
ReplyDeleteThe DCCC had raised big money for a challenger, and raised it early.
It would have been better for him to ran and lost than to withdraw on the last day of filing and force the Dem brass to scamble the plane to get Barth here in time to file.
He will never get any love from the DCCC, and I suspect he lost a lot of respect in those "smoke-filled backrooms"