Jenkins' Election Campaign in West Virginia Maligns Democratic Candidate in TV Ads
Pre-election fights in West Virginia have become very taxing. Literally! Republican candidate Evan Jenkins has come out with two ads that show Rep. Nick Rahall as the person responsible for higher electric rates in the state. The ads also imply that Rahall may have personally profited from his votes in Congress. Rahall’s team has obviously called these ads a propaganda gimmick and suggested that they were highly misleading in their content.
Jenkins has a point though. Obamacare is responsible for higher health care costs for all Americans. In terms of energy, the Obama administration has destroyed coal which has destroyed jobs in West Virginia by the tens of thousands which has also led to higher energy costs for all Americans.
Picking at Nothing
The two ads that have been running in West Virginia for a while now seem to imply that the state’s Virginia’s electricity rates skyrocketed after Rahall voted for a carbon tax. But some tax attorneys in the state say that this is completely fabricated as the budget plan that Rahall had approved never got passed and the 23.2% rate increase in carbon tax that one of the ads mentioned has nothing to do with the increase in electricity rates. This was the first ad released by the Jenkins campaign team on October 1st, and it has graphics with the words “power bills rise”, “carbon tax hits the poor”, and “23.2%” in quotes.
But it is still tax rate increase right Rahall based on some phony numbers about global warming or climate change?
The second ad says that Rahall has been known to take bribes in exchange for votes, and that the Democratic leader had been given millions of dollars in return for his help in “killing coal” from the Obama administration. This point has already been mentioned. And America is the Saudi Arabia of coal and the left does not even care!
But in truth, Rahall has not pocketed any of the money that has come West Virginia’s way but he is still a Democrat and every knows the Democrats have attacked coal and are against oil shale too boot despite its prolific job creation and help to get America off of Saudi oil. The ad also picks up excerpts from editorials written in 1994 about Rahall’s out-of-state campaign contributions and paid trips. The 1994 editorials have absolutely no connection with the Obama administration and coal but since Rahall is a Democrat whose party has destroyed so many lives in West Virginia, anything is fair game this time around.
The ad titled “Bribes” went on air on October 10th, and it features a narrator who says that since Rahall got rich in Congress, he’ll never have to face a choice between “feeding his kids or heating the home”. The ad then goes on to say that Rahall pushed for a carbon tax raising electric rates, but when he did so he was surely not thinking of the citizens in West Virginia.
On top of this, his Democratic friends in DC have targeted coal while protecting American interests abroad in terms of the Middle East and so on. Coal is not ISIS Democrats says Jenkins! Jenkins just wants America to get its priorities straight and to stop shooting itself in the foot.
At least America does not get like this.
Election Race Heats Up
The election race in West Virginia is currently touted as a tossup between Jenkins and Rahall, with Jenkins proving to be a tough opponent for the Democratic incumbent. The Jenkins campaign has very cleverly taken the 2013 Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget plan that was created with an aim to increase taxes to pay for more social programs (such as the ACA) to keep people connected and dependent on the government which also only expands the deficit. This is what Rahall voted for and Jenkins has turn this into anti-Rahall propaganda.
The budget proposed a fee of $25 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted by companies who employ thousands of West Virginians, and if passed would have made the emissions fee increase by 5.6% each year. 25% of this revenue was proposed to be used as rebates for helping low-income families from the high energy costs.
Attack Coal = Higher Energy Costs
Funny, as Jenkins has been saying, anti-coal policies supported by Rahall have created thousands of poor families and have increased energy prices. Why not just lower taxes and stop attacking the coal industry so they employ people so they will not need any rebates and government handouts?
Saudi Arabia loves Rahall and the Democrats for what have done and are doing according to Jenkins.
