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A 'Winnable' Race

The Morning News
Statewide

The Republican Nominee in West Virginia's Third District says he's confident he can beat a man who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for decades.

"This race is definitely, positively winnable and we expect to win it, frankly," former state Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard said on The Morning News Wednesday.

Just more than 12 hours after the polls closed on Primary Election Day, Maynard was already looking ahead to the November 2nd General Election when he will face longtime Congressman Nick Rahall.

"We're already looking at what we think the thrust needs to be and what we think the best issues are for the Fall campaign and, of course, there's no question the first and biggest issue in the Third District is the (Obama) Administration's War on Coal," Maynard said.

Unofficial results show Maynard won the Republican Nomination over three others with 4,996 votes.  Rahall was renominated with 44,544 total votes.

The man Congressman Rahall defeated for the Democrat Nomination, Bruce Barilla, lost to Rahall with more votes than all of the votes in the Republican Primary combined.

Maynard admits, at least on paper, the numbers are against him.

Continues @ WVMetroNews.com
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Congressman Nick Rahall was part of the Supak bloc and when Stupak finally relented and supported the HCR, Rahall followed and made a supportive statement after Stupak and Marcy Kaptur spoke.. Both Rahall and Kaptur shared their perspective as HCR being for the greater well-being of many many more people, and asserted that HCR from that viewpoint is extremely pro-life.  Rahall in more recent WV Mine explosion case made strong statements about compliance and safety conveying essentially that that coal company - Massey Energy - is well monitored.  In the end it Sen.Rockefeller and Gov.Manchin performed their jobs better, esp. the governor who I was very impressed with.

Spike Maynard is a former Supreme Court of Appeals Judge in WV and was a dem until recently. Supreme Court of Appeals positions involve running both primary and November election.  He lost his re-election bid a couple of years ago in the primaries with some questions as to linkages to the coal industry (some photos emerged quite suspiciously.. long stories on that).  Interesting character.  Dont know much more on him.. but worth finding out.

Neither is going to come in as greatly favored overall, but I get the feeling that locally, Congressman Nick Rahall is well liked.  The fact that Maynard switched parties to run does not bode well for him although he has not been in a legislative position but is not stranger to election as we know.


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Some typo and grammar corrections made

-- Edited by Sanders on Thursday 13th of May 2010 11:39:37 PM