I wrote in my column that decisions on how to vote are based on many things. When Senator Shelly Capito Moore didn’t have any competition, I left the box vacant. I was very happy when former WV Senate President Jeff Kessler, a Democrat, decided to challenge her. I will vote for Jeff.
My experience with Shelly was very personal and a good example of politicians who use people who thought they were their friends. Shelly sat directly in front of me when I was in the Legislature. I can’t say she was a good friend because she was always aloof. But I have crossed the aisle a few times to help out a Republican friend. The two best friends I had in the Legislature were Bobby Warner, a Democrat from Harrison County, and Peggy Miller, a Republican from Kanawha County. We all looked beyond the votes we cast to value our friendship. Peggy may have voted differently, but her word was her vote and I would have gone door-to-door with Peggy to tell voters that.
I had been out of the Legislature a few years when Shelly decided to run for US Senate. I got the call from her about helping her in Hancock County and I agreed to do so. People who served together in the Legislature have a unique opportunity to learn how their colleagues vote and I thought Shelly had been more of a moderate than a conservative. I thought I knew her, but I didn’t.
But, back then, before she had ever gotten elected or cast a vote, my decision was made on a much more personal level. Shelly’s outreach coordinator for the state was U.S. Court of Appeals Justice Charlie Trump’s daughter, Rebecca. Charlie was a great guy and the minority leader of the House of Delegates at the time. Rebecca called and asked if she could stop by; meet me; and drop off material. I said sure when she called, but events that happened in the next two weeks meant the message I would be delivering to her would be far from what she was expecting.
I had been diagnosed as having breast cancer only a week before the meeting. I was facing surgery in ten days and then a course of radiation, Chemo, thank God, would not be needed. I would be out of the political loop in a fight for my own survival. Even so, I felt very bad delivering the news and the Rebecca couldn’t have been nicer. She did, however, have that deer in the headlight look of “where will I find someone else to do this” as I helped her load the material back in her car.
I truly expected a call from Shelly the next day or the next to say, “I am so sorry,” but it never came. Nor did it come after after the surgery nor doing the radiation treatment. It never came. I was someone whom she liked and trusted enough to make a call to coordinate her campaign up here, but I was not a person she counted as a friend when I was of no further use to her. It’s a happy story though, because I am a survivor and I thought after that experience and having a broken neck in a wreck the year before, that I should throw caution to the wind and realize my dream of starting a small hometown newspaper. HOMETOWN NEWS will celebrate its 12th anniversary in August.
I didn’t cast my vote for Shelly that election. That experience with her, showed me her value system and her voting record continues to reflect her values and how she has distanced herself from her West Virginia constituents.
Nope, after a lot of years I have a candidate for whom to vote. I served with Jeff Kessler and respect his values. And, really although it’s deeply personal, I know had Jeff Kessler been the candidate asking for my help back then…..Jeff would have called.
