The chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus said Tuesday that two African-American Republicans elected to Congress last week were welcome to join the group, but one of the new members-elect -- Tim Scott of South Carolina -- indicated he would decline.
"I grew up in an environment where we were just very much integrated, and life worked out really well," Scott told reporters Tuesday. "I think the best for America is finding a way to fuse all of our communities together and erase all those lines that separate us."
Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California, who chairs the Black Caucus, said in a statement that membership in the traditionally left-leaning group "has never been restricted to Democrats."
"Should either of the two African-American Republicans recently elected to the House of Representatives request membership in the Congressional Black Caucus, they will be welcomed," Lee's statement said.
Rep.-elect Allen West of Florida, the other incoming black Republican, told CNN on Sunday that he intended to join the CBC.
Scott, who was tapped by House GOP leaders to serve on the Republican transition team, signaled he might be interested in the new seat at the Republican leadership table created for a representative of the incoming freshman class.
"Certainly I am going to keep my eyes open and see what happens," Scott said, adding he would "get back home tonight and figure out what I'm going to do by tomorrow or Thursday and starting working towards it or start working for someone else."
Scott argued his class should wield some real power because of its numbers, adding: "I think we should play an important role, a prominent role."
Endorsed by the Tea Party in his campaign, Scott was noncommittal about joining the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, saying: "I don't know much about it, but certainly l support the Tea Party platform."
He downplayed the importance of congressional caucuses, calling them "simply optional at this point."
In addition, Scott said he supported Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling over Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann of Minnesota for the No. 4 House GOP leadership post, saying Hensarling has been actively seeking support from new members while he had yet to hear from Bachmann.
Another incoming freshman supported by the Tea Party, Republican Rep.-elect Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, also said Tuesday that he was supporting Hensarling and was not planning to join the Tea Party caucus that Bachmann founded earlier this year.
The Congressional Black Caucus says it will allow two recently elected black Republicans to join the group if they ask.
The all-Democratic caucus had wavered over the issue since Tim Scott of South Carolina and Allen West of Florida were elected last week. Chairwoman Barbara Lee had pointed to the group's liberal mission statement as a potential point of conflict.
But in a statement Tuesday, the group said the two would be welcomed if they request membership.
West has said he wants to join to bring a new perspective to the group. Scott hasn't decided.
The 42-member caucus has had two Republican members in its four-decade history. The most recent black Republican in Congress, J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, declined to join.
The black caucus includes a handful of moderates but is mostly made up of liberals serving in safe Democratic districts. The addition of Republicans would likely shake up its weekly meetings and require its leaders to navigate around them to discuss strategy.
West, a former Army officer, said in an interview he's eager to steer the group away from "failing liberal social welfare policies that have caused the demise of the black community."
West said the black caucus must confront overwhelming issues in the African-American community including high teen pregnancy, incarceration and unemployment rates. Those are issues that require "competence and character," not the caucus' "monolithic voice that continues to promote victimization and dependence."
West defeated Democratic Rep. Ron Klein despite opposition from African-American Democrats such as Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida.
What's the most overlooked, under appreciated story from the midterm elections? My nominee would be the surprising new racial and ethnic diversity of Republican congressional and gubernatorial winners.
Republican contenders-of-color had a history-making night, helping undermine the notion that the GOP is becoming a whites-only party. It's hard to say how much help the new diversity will be in winning more nonwhite voters. But it already appears to be helping party leaders get more comfortable with an increasingly multiracial, multicultural voting population.
For example, South Carolina's Tim Scott and Florida's Allen West became the first African-American Republicans sent to Congress from their states in more than a century. They'll be the first black Republicans in the House or Senate since Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma retired in 2003.
Cuban-American Marco Rubio of Florida will become the Senate's only Hispanic Republican since Florida's Mel Martinez retired last year.
In the House, Idaho's Raul Labrador, Florida's David Rivera, Texas' Bill Flores and Francisco Canseco, and Washington state's Jaime Herrera will join re-elected Florida Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart for a record total of eight Republican Latinos in both chambers, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
Among governors, Republican Susana Martinez of New Mexico is the nation's first Latina governor-elect.
Republican Nikki Haley became South Carolina's first female governor and the nation's second Indian-American governor after Louisiana's Bobbie Jindal, also a Republican.
What have we learned? For one thing, since Rubio, West, Scott and Haley, among other conservative candidates-of-color, were endorsed by Sarah Palin and backed by the tea party movement, tea partiers earn significant credit against the charge that they're a whites-only movement.
For another, it's ironic that only six months ago I was writing about how there were more black Republicans running for Congress than there had been since Reconstruction, partly because they were encouraged by the long-shot victory of Democrat Barack Obama. If he could do it, others figured, so can I.
A dozen black Republican congressional nominees made it to the general election. Two won. Both come from predominately white districts, which follows another post-1960s tradition. The parties have become so racially polarized since the civil rights/white backlash era that black Republicans in Congress have been elected by mostly white votes.
But there, it's important to note, the similarities between the House's two new black Republicans pretty much end. Scott, 45, a businessman and former state legislator, gained national notice by beating Paul Thurmond - son of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist - to win the GOP primary in June, tantamount to victory in his conservative district. Despite his tea party endorsements, he campaigned in the style of a center-right moderate - like a friendly businessman looking to make a sale.
West, by contrast, set out to shock and awe. A retired Army lieutenant colonel, 49, he delighted the far right by calling out Obama to "be a man" and declaring "institutional racism is dead." He had become a national conservative hero after he was disciplined for firing a weapon near the head of a detainee he was interrogating in Iraq for information about explosive devices. "If it's about the lives of my men and their safety," he famously told his defense attorney, "I'd go through hell with a gasoline can."
Quotes like that tell me West, in particular, will be fun for Capitol Hill reporters to cover. He also represents the tiger that establishment Republican leaders have by the tail as they try to please tea party members of all colors. As the party is wooing moderate swing voters, their right wing expects heavy payback for their help in bringing conservative voters to the polls.
Things were less complicated for Republican leaders when they could be simply the Party of No. Now they may have to learn, as Obama has, how to tell their various factions, "Not yet."
Clarence Page is a Chicago Tribune columnist. Reach him c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207 or cpage@tribune.com.
For the first time in over a decade, the incoming class of Congress will include two Black Republicans, both of whom rode the Tea Party wave to victory while playing down their race.
One of them, Allen West, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army, prevailed in a tough fight in a South Florida district. The other, Tim Scott, is the first black Republican to be elected to the House of Representatives from South Carolina in over a century. They will be the first black Republicans in Congress since J. C. Watts of Oklahoma retired in 2003.
“I did not want to run as a black candidate; I did not want to run as a military candidate,” Mr. West said in a telephone interview. “I wanted to run as an American candidate and win the respect of the people.”
While the number of African-Americans in Congress has steadily increased since the civil rights era, black Republicans have been nearly as rare as quetzal birds.
For Mr. Watts, a former college quarterback, the job came with a significant spotlight and significant challenges — as an African-American he was a minority among Republicans, and as a Republican he was a minority among blacks on Capitol Hill. While his time in office overlapped the tenure of another black Republican, Gary A. Franks, who represented a Connecticut district from 1991 until 1997, Mr. Watts is in the one who came to represent the perks and travails of his position.
“I was smart enough to not allow Republicans to compel me to play the role of the ‘black Republican,’ ” Mr. Watts said in a telephone interview. “But I never felt compelled to ignore real issues of the black community either.”
He did not join the Congressional Black Caucus because it was dominated by Democrats, he said, a decision that Mr. West said was a mistake that he would not repeat.
“I think you need to have competing voices in that body,” Mr. West said. “I think that is important.” (Mr. Scott has not decided if he will join the caucus.)
African-Americans found a place in Congress in the latter decades of the 19th century, particularly during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, when 16 black men served, all of them Republicans. The first was Hiram R. Revels, of Mississippi, who was in the Senate from 1870 to 1871. Joseph H. Rainey from South Carolina was the first black member of the House, serving from 1870 to 1879, according to Congressional Quarterly’s “Guide to U.S. Elections.”
There were no blacks in Congress from 1900 to 1929, but since then, their numbers have increased bit by bit, especially after the civil rights movement, this time with Democrats leading the way, a reflection of the changed dynamics of each party and the shifts of power in state legislatures. Of all the blacks ever to serve in Congress, 98 have been Democrats and 27 have been Republicans; there are 42 African-American members in the current lame-duck Congress.
The yield of black Republican winners on Tuesday was small considering that 32 African-Americans ran in Republican primaries this year. “If two is the highest number of black Republicans to win since Reconstruction, it’s hard to call that a breakthrough,” said Tavis Smiley, a prominent talk show host who has repeatedly criticized Republicans as not doing enough to court black voters.
Mr. Scott and Mr. West represent the more conservative wing of their party — each had some Tea Party backing, including the support of Sarah Palin — but followed different paths to Congress.
Mr. Scott, who was born in North Charleston, S.C., grew up poor with a single mother until a Chick-fil-A franchise owner took him on as a protégé, he said, and imbued him with conservative principles. “Coming from a single-parent household and almost flunking out of high school,” Mr. Scott said, “my hope is I will take that experience and help people bring out the best that they can be.”
Mr. Scott, 45, was elected to the Charleston County Council in 1995 and the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2008. In the Congressional primary, this year he defeated both Carroll Campbell III, the son of a former South Carolina governor, and, in a runoff, Paul Thurmond, the son of former Senator Strom Thurmond, to take the seat in the First Congressional District, which hugs the South Carolina coast.
Mr. West, 49, has never held public office. Born and raised in a military family in Atlanta, he rose to battalion commander in Iraq. His 22-year military career came to an end during the war when he was relieved of his command after using a gun to coerce information from an Iraqi police officer during an interrogation. After retiring from the military in 2004, he moved to Florida, taught high school for a year and then went to Afghanistan as an adviser to the Afghan army.
John Thrasher, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said Mr. West won the battle to represent the 22nd Congressional District, which includes the coast of South Florida, because “he’s a great American patriot that resonated with people.”
“His opponent was Pelosi-Obama liberal,” Mr. Thrasher added, “and Allen gave them a different understanding of how government could be.”
Mr. West said he was more surprised that he won as a Republican in a district carried by the Democratic presidential nominee three elections in a row than as an African-American in a district with a white majority. But, he added, “I am honored to be first black Republican congressman from the state of Florida since Reconstruction. There is a historic aspect of it.”
One of the under-reported stories of this election cycle is the new diversity of GOP nominees -- from African-American congressional candidates to Hispanic and Indian-American gubernatorial candidates.
The party's 2010 slate marks a step toward fulfilling the promise of the Party of Lincoln -- which championed the end of slavery -- and undercuts reflexive attempts by some on the far-left to portray the Republican surge as fueled by racism.
For starters, there are 14 African-American GOP congressional nominees this year. By comparison, 2008 saw roughly half as many black GOP nominees -- and none won. Judging by the polls, at least three of this year's African-American candidates look likely to win: South Carolina's Tim Scott, Colorado's Ryan Frazier and Florida's Allen West.
That would total in one year the number of African-American Republicans elected to Congress since the civil rights era. Granted, it's still a far cry from the numbers on the Democratic side -- there are 48 African-American Democratic nominees this year -- but it's a significant step in the right direction.
It's hard to imagine today, but all 23 African-Americans who served in Congress before 1900 were Republicans -- they would not have dreamed of being anything but members of the Party of Lincoln, the party that advanced African-Americans after the Civil War while the states of the former Confederacy remained dominated by the Democratic Party. That loyalty, forged in war, continued for almost a century.
In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower won 39 percent of the African-American vote, and in 1966, the first African-American popularly elected to the senate was a Republican from Massachusetts, the legendary Ed Brooke.
But then came the Southern Strategy and the formerly solid, conservative Democratic south realigned Republican after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Southern conservatives became Republicans, though they remained consistent in their philosophic commitment to states rights and traditional values. African-Americans took the hint.
By 1980, only 12 percent of African-Americans voted for Reagan. John McCain was only able to win 4 percent of the black vote against Barack Obama.
The nomination and likely election of Tim Scott in the first district of South Carolina captures this year's election shift in historic terms: He defeated one time Dixiecrat and segregationist Strom Thurmond's son to win the primary to represent the district that fired on Fort Sumter.
But the biggest shifts may be in the governor races, where Nevada's Brian Sandoval and New Mexico's Susana Martinez are poised to win the GOP two Hispanic governors in the Southwest. These candidates have far broader appeal than, for example, Sharron Angle, who is running on the same ticket as the pro-choice, former judge, Sandoval.
And if Nikki Haley wins in South Carolina, she and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal will be the nation's first two Indian-American governors.
Taken together, these Hispanic and Indian-American candidates would give the GOP a more diverse group of governors than the Democrats in 2011. That startling reality should help shake-up stubborn stereotypes.
In addition, front-runner Cuban-American Marco Rubio in the Florida senate race rounds out a group of six competitive Hispanic GOP congressional candidates, including likely winner Francisco Canseco of Texas.
One of the byproducts of the rigged system of redistricting -- I recommend the new documentary Gerrymandering to learn more on the subject -- are safe congressional districts that are polarized along partisan as well as racial lines.
Therefore, a compromised incumbent Democrat like Harlem's Charles Rangel has a built-in advantage even against a strong challenger, like the Rev. Michel Faulkner, the former New York Jets player who is running against him.
"The growing diversity of the Republican party is not so much a response to Republican outreach efforts as it is to the bankruptcy of liberal ideals," says Faulkner. "Our growing diversity is really us just getting back to our fundamentals."
Of course, it's worth keeping all this in perspective: In the same post-civil rights period that Republicans have elected three African-Americans to Congress, Democrats have elected more than 90 -- not to mention the country's first African-American president.
But progress on overall diversity is still progress, and Michael Steele's leadership has proven effective in helping to recruit a group of candidates that can help close the pathetic diversity deficit. It is a reflection of the fact that our country is far more diverse than it was in the past, and the GOP is evolving to match.
A less racially polarized national political debate is in the interest of all-Americans. We need to move past the era when the color of a person's skin is seen as a reliable indicator of their political beliefs. That is a vision of a more perfect union, toward which we strive in every election.
Sixty-one years after the last Streetcars rolled in Atlanta, they're coming back.
In a coup for the city, the U.S. Department of Transportation has agreed to grant Atlanta$47 million for its proposed $72 million downtown east-west Streetcar project, according to U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta and Mayor Kasim Reed.
Lewis' office said he got confirmation of the award in a conversation with DOT Secretary Ray LaHood on Friday morning.
With the grant, which the Obama administration has not confirmed, the competing visions of American transportation held by the Obama and Bush administrations are playing out in stark contrast in metro Atlanta.
President George W. Bush's Transportation Department focused on roads and traffic. It used grant money to push electronic tolling as a key answer to intractable U.S. traffic congestion, and one of those seed projects is being installed on I-85 in Gwinnett County.
In contrast, the Obama administration, while continuing to fund road projects, has tried to make a mark in passenger rail. It has broadened the focus of transportation funding requirements toward sustainability and economic development, hoping mass transit projects will re-shape cities into denser development in a longer-term attack on congestion.
Each hoped their seed project would spur development of a metrowide network.
The Atlanta streetcar project will run between tourist stops from the Martin Luther King Jr. center on the east and Centennial Olympic Park, with its access to CNN Center and the Georgia Aquarium, on the west. But that doesn't mean it's just a tourism project, said A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown self-taxing business group that will help fund the project. It's a transportation project important to local travelers, too, he said.
"It’s all of those. It is definitely economic development for sure," Robinson said, adding it will also serve employment centers downtown and Georgia State University students and staff, and link to current and future mass transit stops like MARTA and the Beltline.
Luz Borrero, the city's deputy chief operating officer, echoed those comments, adding that it would serve Grady Memorial Hospital and Peachtree Center, which is both an office complex and MARTA station.
Local residents had mixed reaction. Some along the project corridor were ecstatic.
On Auburn Avenue, Wellington Howard said he foresaw the federal approval. "I heard the (streetcar) bell this morning in my dreams," said Howard, who has owned Georgia Insurance Brokers for more than 40 years. “It will help the neighborhood on its upclimb.”
Some responding to the news on ajc.com and by Twitter called it frivolous, misguided and a waste of money. Kay Matthews of Chamblee said it was "ridiculous" to fund the streetcar while MARTA had just cut more than 10 percent of its service.
The grants come from a $600 million pool called TIGER II designed to upgrade transportation networks and create jobs. Georgia has several other applications in the ring, including road and mass transit work. The state has asked for $50 million for a $129 million project to build the Jimmy DeLoach Parkway serving the coastal ports area. It also asked for $37.5 million to serve as an interest payment toward $375 million federally assisted loan for the $1 billion project to add optional toll lanes along I-75 and I-575. Douglas County applied for $12.3 million for a $16 million extension of Lee Road.
On the mass transit side, the state asked for $1 million in planning grants for a downtown Atlanta passenger terminal.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia DOT said the state had not heard anything about the grants.
For those who read tea leaves, there was a good omen for the city of Macon. Macon and Georgians for Passenger Rail applied for about $1.9 million to help plan a commuter rail line between Atlanta and Macon, said Gordon Kenna, CEO of the passenger rail group. On Friday, LaHood is expected to address a mass transit conference there. A spokeswoman for the U.S. DOT said the winner announcements would come next week.
Macon is in the district of U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, a Democrat who is in a difficult re-election battle.
Federal, state and local officials are planning a press conference on Wednesday in Atlanta to formally announce the streetcar funding and give the latest details about the project, according to Lewis.
The grant rewards years of work by Atlanta officials to bring streetcars back, revive mass transit, and, they hope, provide an economic development engine to a downtown area that faltered with the rise of highways and suburban commutes.
Reed and former Mayor Shirley Franklin seemed to stake their claims to credit.
"What we changed is, I followed the plan to Washington," Reed said. “I don’t want to say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the squeaky wheel gets grease." Franklin congratulated him and others in an e-mail she titled "EUREKA!" -- and noted that he "picked up the baton."
Reed said the project would transform downtown. His office has estimated the project would create 5,200 jobs over 20 years and would not only help ease downtown traffic problems but also help the city compete for more tourism and convention business.
“I see this as a marriage,” said Reed, who withdrew the Beltline's application for the grant program in order to focus on one project. “Because without something to pour into, where does the Beltline go? It’s a little choo-choo train going around and around and around. So there has to be something that brings it into the heart of the city.”
In the early 20th century, Atlantans owned fewer cars, with many instead getting around on a sprawling network of streetcars. Although the network's heart resided in a tangle of routes on Peachtree Street, this project does not include a significant Peachtree Street leg.
Without the Peachtree leg, it is far more modest than the $298 million application that failed in February.
The $47 million award for the streetcar project is less than the $56 million Atlanta applied for in August. Making the project finance work will depend on the city council's approval of an extra $5.6 million toward the project, Borrero said, beyond the $10 million the city already pledged. In addition, $2.8 million will be shifted within the city budget to streetcar-related projects. Borrero said that the shifted money was originally budgeted for transportation-related projects within the same corridor, so no area would lose out on project money.
Robinson's group, the downtown self-taxing business district, will contribute $6 million toward the capital costs of the project, and will help fund the $1.7 million annual operating costs. Passenger fares from an estimated 2,600 weekday ridership and advertising revenues would also contribute to operations.
Borrero said the city pared its request in recent days in talks with federal officials. She said the city council, which approved funds for the original application, had not yet considered the request for additional money.
"We did not know what degree of success this proposed approach would have, but we knew that if we were successful as we have been that we would have an opportunity to demonstrate to the members of the the city council that leveraging a $45 million investment against a smaller increase in our local match would be definitely a worthwhile and absolutely outstanding opportunity," Borrero said.
City Council President Ceasar Mitchell said he was not sure what funding source the council would approve, but it was important to try to find the extra money.
City officials have been pursuing the funding for the streetcar line for months. Lewis, along with Reed, met with and had conference calls with DOT Secretary LaHood as recently as a few days ago.
In Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the viewer must grapple with reoccurring themes of fantasy and reality, as seen by Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. Much of Blanche’s life is posturing to cover up reality. At one point she exclaims, “I don’t want realism, I want magic.” Like Blanche Dubois, our mayor, through his Democratic majority on council, is hoping to perform a magic trick on the voters.
In 2007 voters reaffirmed their support for the use of a half-cent sales tax to support and expand our bus and rail network. Citizens also affirmed their support of a regional body, the Metropolitan Transit Commission. The objective of the MTC is to promote a regional vision and a regional approach to transit.
On Nov. 15, 2006, the MTC adopted a 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan that ranked its priorities: complete the light rail to UNC Charlotte; build a commuter line to north Mecklenburg and then begin on the streetcar.
Soon after, a stark reality became known to the MTC and council: the sales tax revenue stream would not be able to support building and running the desired streetcar under the original timeline.
This was recently reaffirmed to The Observer by Carolyn Flowers, CEO of the Charlotte Area Transit System.
The City Council commissioned a consultant to study the potential economic impact of the Streetcar. That April 2009 report showed that the economic impact to east and west Charlotte would be less than a third of what we’ve seen in the south corridor. The consultant delivered the most important dose of reality: The only way to pay for a streetcar would be through federal grants and additional City of Charlotte tax revenue.
The second part of this drama began with the prospect of an Obama presidency. Rumors of a federal Urban Circulator Grant gave Charlotte hopes it might be eligible for a streetcar grant. With this teaser opportunity, the majority on council pushed ahead without addressing the revenue dilemma. Then, on the night before the Charlotte city primary, Democrats by one vote overrode an appropriate veto by then-Mayor Pat McCrory to fund engineering studies for $4.5 million. Again, the fantasy continued, despite fiscal reality.
This leads to the next act: Charlotte has received a $25 million grant to build a $37 million, 1.5-mile segment, a corridor now serving 950 riders on two bus routes. Not exactly the area that needs the most help or has the best potential for new jobs and economic development. The vast majority of land along this leg is owned by the government or Central Piedmont Community College. Rather than using a streetcar that looks like cars on the light rail line, we’ll recycle our novelty trolley cars. The $12 million construction gap will be funded in part with a “reserves for economic development initiatives fund.” Translation: DEBT.
The approximate $1.5 million operating costs would come from the general fund. Clearly, this would use money we could spend on other priorities such as public safety and roads.
Like the voters of Charlotte, council members Warren Cooksey, Andy Dulin, and I support expanding mass transit, which includes the streetcar. However, we must do so within our half-cent sales tax revenue stream. We do not believe we should break our promise to the voters and leapfrog the MTC’s priorities. Doing so not only loses the voters’ trust but jeopardizes Charlotte’s ability to address core responsibilities. Further, a city-initiated streetcar risks creating a project that could compete with CATS for future federal funding.
We must continue to fight for our fair share of federal and state dollars to help us complete our regional transit system. However, we must do so with one regional voice.
The more reality sinks in, the more the voters will realize no magic is going to make the streetcar appear.
It’s time for an intermission, before this potentially tragic play squelches our city’s successes in mass transit . At the citizens’ forum at Monday’s City Council meeting, ask Mayor Anthony Foxx and your Democratic council members to reject this grant.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and Republican John Raese had their only meeting Monday evening, in a debate in which the two Senate candidates sparred over the president, his most controversial legislation and the state's dominant coal industry.
With a national spotlight shining on the once-sleepy Senate race, Manchin and Raese tried to capitalize on their last opportunity to speak directly to voters, two weeks before Election Day. Public polls show a competitive race, and both political parties have zeroed in on the contest, pouring millions into the race.
A relaxed Raese frequently attacked Manchin, who often brought up his six years as governor when making his case that voters should send him to Washington to serve the remaining two years of the late Sen. Robert Byrd's term.
Manchin invoked Byrd twice during the debate in Morgantown, W. Va., recalling that the state's political legend would occasionally buck his party for the sake of his home state because he "didn't care who the president was."
A pair of third-party candidates rounded out the debate, for a total of four men being grilled in the West Virginia public broadcast studios, but another politician took center stage for most of the evening: President Barack Obama. In keeping with his strategy to tie Manchin to the unpopular president, Raese repeatedly brought up Obama throughout the hourlong session.
Manchin has tried to distance himself from Obama during the campaign, most notably during his latest television commercial, in which he fires a gun at the Democratic-sponsored cap-and-trade bill. Monday evening's meeting was no exception to the Obama dodging.
"I hate to inform my opponent, but Mr. Obama's name will not be on the ballot for the U.S. Senate in West Virginia. It will be me," said Manchin. "And my record has been very clear, and I've worked very hard."
Raese shot back: "That certainly sounds like a career politician to me."
At the crux of the Obama-centered debate was health care reform. Manchin initially supported the legislation and said publicly earlier this year that he would have voted for it. But more recently, Manchin has criticized the bill, and he announced in his latest television commercial that he would work to repeal parts of it. Pressed by the moderator, Manchin said he favored getting rid of the "onerous" small-business provisions and the mandates for coverage in the legislation.
Raese, for his part, said he would scrap the entire bill.
"I'd like to repeal every part of that because it is pure, unadulterated socialism," said Raese. "It is the worst bill that has ever come out of the United States Senate and House."
Raese also hit Manchin for another of Obama's signature pieces of legislation: the stimulus package. He questioned how the governor could accept funds from the stimulus bill and still claim to support a balanced federal budget.
"Mr. Manchin has accepted $1.4 [billion]; he's already used $500 million," Raese said. "So if this is his idea of how to save and cut spending, then it's rather odd to me."
Manchin quickly interrupted, noting that the state did not support a second stimulus package. He argued the funds were acceptable because "the federal government and state government should be your partner but not your provider."
Raese has recently come under fire for expressing opposition to the minimum wage — not a popular stance in West Virginia, with its high percentage of low-income and working-class families. Raese tried to explain his position in the debate, saying he wanted to get rid of the minimum wage because he wants "a better wage" for workers by eliminating the federal requirement for hourly pay.
"I want a better wage for everybody, and in order to get a better wage for everybody, we have to start lifting jobs and manufacturing where they should be," Raese said. "Not like Manchin and Obama — they enjoy people working for $7.25. Quite frankly, I don't."
Coal, one of the state's most dominant industries, also played heavily in the debate. Raese, who owns a mining company, said he thought coal has "almost 200 years of reserve" to satisfy the nation's energy needs. He also said he did not believe in global warming.
At the heart of the coal issue, however, was mine safety. The topic was a raw one, coming less than a week after dozens of miners in Chile were rescued after being trapped for months underground; meanwhile, West Virginia has endured several mine accidents with casualties in the past few years.
"As you know, the safety of our miners is the most important thing in my mind," said Manchin.
Raese, audibly angry, lamented why he — as an owner of a mining company — had never been asked by government officials to give insight about safety issues.
"I'm in the mining business; I'm in the coal mining business; I've served in the limestone mining business," said Raese. "You know, I have never in my life, ever, been asked by any bureaucrat, ever, about my input into safety, my input into what we can do."
Flanking the two third-party candidates on a closed television set, Manchin and Raese kept their distance from each other for most of the debate.
The two third-party candidates were also questioned by the panel of local journalists, although less frequently than Manchin or Raese.
At one point, a visibly nervous Constitution Party candidate, Jeff Becker, ranted about a conspiracy behind Sept. 11. A more polished Jesse Johnson, a Mountain Party candidate, railed against the environmental damage caused by coal mining through the mountaintop removal method.
In Reno’s Washoe County and Las Vegas’s Clark County, Republican turnout was disproportionately high over the first three voting days, according to local election officials. The two counties together make up 86 percent of the state’s voter population.
The sparsely populated counties outside Clark and Washoe, which have yet to report complete early-voting results, are strongly Republican.
Some 47 percent of early voters in the bellwether Washoe County so far have been Republicans, while 40 percent have been Democrats, according to the Washoe County Registrar. Nearly 11,000 people had voted in Washoe over the first three days of early voting, which began Saturday.
Voter registration in the county is evenly split, 39 percent to 39 percent. The disproportionate turnout is a concrete indication of the Republican enthusiasm that is expected to portend a nationwide GOP wave.
In Clark County, which is heavily Democratic, more Democrats than Republicans have voted, but Republicans are outperforming their share of the electorate.
Out of the nearly 47,000 votes cast in Clark County, 46 percent were Democrats, 39 percent Republicans, according to the Clark County Election Department. But while Democrats make up 46 percent of the county's registered voters, Republicans constitute just 33 percent.
Washoe County is home to Angle, a former Reno state legislator, whereas Reid's hometown of Searchlight is in Clark County.
Democrats disputed the notion that these numbers represented a boost for the GOP, noting that more Democrats than Republicans had gone to the polls overall in the two counties.
“Republicans have a small lead in terms of raw votes cast in Sharron Angle’s backyard and after a day in which Sarah Palin hosted a GOTV rally,” Reid spokesman Jon Summers said of the Washoe numbers. He added that focusing on Washoe “ignores that this is a statewide election.”
But the Democrats’ overall raw-vote advantage in Clark and Washoe is up against their likely deficit in the yet-uncounted rural counties and among independent voters, whom polls have shown heavily favoring Republicans this year.
"This makes for a pretty significant uphill battle for Democrats," Las Vegas-based Republican consultant Ryan Erwin said. "It's still early, but we're seeing that the enthusiasm gap is certainly real in Washoe County, especially when you factor in that Clark County Republicans are overperforming as well."
In the suburban Las Vegas-based 3rd Congressional District, where Democratic Rep. Dina Titus faces a challenge from Republican Joe Heck, the parties are nearly tied in early turnout despite Democrats' registration advantage. Early voters were 43 percent Democrats, 41 percent Republicans, while registration was 42 percent Democrats and 36 percent Republicans.
Reid's campaign sees its extensive get-out-the-vote infrastructure as crucial to the senator's prospects in a contest polls have shown to be deadlocked. Angle hopes the pro-GOP national climate and voters’ dislike for Reid will sweep her to the Senate.
Democrats said they are confident they are hitting their targets.
"The Democratic Party is feeling good about turnout," state party spokeswoman Phoebe Sweet said. "While we're taking no vote for granted, what we're seeing is on par with our expectations thus far."
Statewide, Democrats have an edge of about 60,000 registered voters more than Republicans, but that represents a decline from 2008, when their advantage was over 100,000.
The Democratic turnout machine that powered President Obama to a 12-percentage-point victory in Nevada was kept in place after the 2008 election to work for Reid's reelection this year. But early figures in the first few days of the 2008 voting strongly favored Democrats.
"Harry Reid has spent millions of dollars on the Nevada Democratic Party turnout machine, and it's really, really good," Erwin, the GOP consultant, said. "But with independents breaking heavily for Republicans, Democrats are going to have to overperform their registration advantage to win this year."
Nevada’s two-week early voting period, which tends to account for half or more of total election turnout, ends on Oct. 29.
Sen. Robert Byrd’s death Monday cast serious doubt on whether Senate Democrats can pass the Wall Street reform bill this week.
The combination of Byrd’s passing and early negative reactions to the conference report by at least one key Republican, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, signals Democrats face the real possibility of falling several votes shy as they try to finish the bill.
"It is a tougher road, believe me," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday. "A 58-vote majority is not as good as a 59-vote majority."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) spent Monday trying to line up votes, and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was planning to sit down Monday evening with one of the Republican holdouts, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine.
But at least one Democrat, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who previously opposed the bill has told Reid that he was still not supportive. Reid asked him to help Democrats at least break a Republican filibuster, but that was “not really” something he would consider, Feingold said.
"They'd like me to vote for cloture," Feingold told POLITICO, adding that he hears from leadership "all the time."
"I'm not going to enable something that doesn't do the job to be passed so that people can pretend it does the job," he continued. "It does not do the job. The American people deserve a bill that prevents the kind of collapse that occurred a couple years ago and I don't think this bill does it."
Reid could attempt to bring up the bill this week and force Republicans to vote against it, or he could wait until West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, appoints a replacement for Byrd’s seat, which may not come until after the July 4 recess, according a senior Senate Democratic aide.
"It's hard to see how we do it this week, unless one of our members is willing to change his mind or if Scott Brown stops his retreat," the aide said. "But overall, people remain confident it will pass sooner rather than later."
The House could vote as early as Tuesday, but action could get pushed to Wednesday, said a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Even before Byrd’s death Monday, the prospects for the financial regulatory overhaul appeared cloudy in the Senate.
Two Democrats, Feingold and Maria Cantwell of Washington, opposed the bill last month, and they have no given no indication to Democratic leaders that they will switch their votes. Without their backing, Democrats would need to hold the support of at least three of the four Republicans who have voted for the bill — Brown, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Susan Collins of Maine and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Without Byrd, Democrats would need all four Republicans.
But the late addition of a 10-year, $19 billion tax on banks came as a surprise to Republicans, who have typically used new taxes as reason enough not to support a bill. Democrats added the tax to ensure the bill was deficit-neutral and satisfied pay-go rules in the House.
A conference report cannot be amended, so Democrats will be unable to promise any changes in order to mollify Brown or win other votes.
“There is much to like in the bill, but I do not like the new $19 billon tax that was slipped in at the wee hours of the morning,” Collins told reporters Monday. “I'm looking at how that works and what my options are.
There is much in the bill that I think will strengthen oversight of financial institutions. I'm very pleased my capital standards amendment was included and that auto dealers and other small businesses were not swept up in the bill. So I have to weigh all those factors."
Snowe said Monday that she needed to study the bill before making a decision.
"It's regrettable that in the course of business, in this case in the House-Senate conference, that different initiatives emerged that clearly should not have," Snowe said, adding that Dodd had given her no advance warning about the provision.
But Snowe suggested the bank tax might not be a deal-breaker for her vote. When asked whether the tax was "more palatable" because it calls for a fee against banks with more than $50 billion in assets, and hedge funds and hedge funds with more than $10 million, Snowe said "absolutely."
"I think that is certainly preferable that it's on the larger banks where the legislation is appropriately designed and for including private equity and hedge funds. Absolutely," Snowe said. "I mean, if you have to draw the line some place, that's where to draw it.”
Durbin said Democrats, including Dodd, were surprised to see Brown's statement Friday. Brown said he was "surprised and extremely disappointed" with a $19 billion bank tax added to the conference report and signaled he might switch his vote from yes to no.
"Senator Dodd went the extra mile to try to address his concerns in the bill, so I hope he reconsiders," Durbin said.
Brown was one of the driving forces behind a change in the bill to temper the Volcker Rule, winning an amendment that allows banks to make modest investments in hedge funds and private-equity funds with their own money. Massachusetts banks including State Street would be helped by the change, as would others nationwide.
Dodd defended the $19 billion bank tax when it was first debated by the conference committee about 3 a.m. Friday. He said the amount of the tax could effectively be paid for if Wall Street executives were willing to forgo their bonuses.
Those executive’s firms “are alive because the American taxpayer wrote a check,” Dodd said early Friday morning, referring to the $700 billion bank bailout plan. “To ask them to forego their bonuses ... ought not to be a lot to ask.”
Brown, at least, didn’t sound persuaded.
“While I'm still reviewing the bill's details, these provisions were not in the Senate version of the bill which I previously supported,” Brown said. “My fear is that these costs would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher bank, ATM and credit card fees and put a strain on lending at the worst possible time for our economy. I’ve said repeatedly that I cannot support any bill that raises taxes.”
If Democrats are able to persuade Cantwell to support the bill — and hold Collins, Snowe and Grassley — they would have a path to 60 votes.
But the likelihood of that scenario remained unclear Monday.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said the opposition from Feingold and Cantwell was empowering Republicans.
"No one has shown me a strategy by which my friends on the left can get a better bill," Frank said. "So I mean, if they vote against cloture, what they do is they increase the leverage of people who want to weaken it. So I don’t understand how, if you start out in the position that you want a stronger bill, you take an action which can only have the effect of weakening the bill."
Crews on Saturday began the bleak task of carrying bodies out of a coal mine shattered by an explosion that left 29 men dead, only hours after families' hopes were crushed when they found out none of the workers survived.
It had been an excruciating week for friends holding onto faint hopes that their missing miners were somehow alive.
Seven bodies had already been removed soon after the blast Monday at Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch mine, the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.
Federal mine safety officials said crews were working to get the bodies out but did not know how long that would take.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is awaiting a report on the mine, which has recorded a long list of safety violations, and Congress is planning hearings.
"All Americans deserve to work in a place that is safe, and we must take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that all our miners are as safe as possible so that a disaster like this doesn't happen again," Obama said.
On Saturday, the mood among many people in this swath of coal country was somber.
"It takes something like this to really get your attention, but I think about it everyday," said James Lipford, 38, who said he has been a miner for 10 years.
The discovery of the final four bodies ended days of futile searches by rescue crews that repeatedly battled a volatile mix of poisonous gases and thick smoke that turned them back on three previous attempts. The massive blast also left the inside of the mine a mess of twisted tracks, boulders and debris.
"We did not receive the miracle that we prayed for," Gov. Joe Manchin told reporters after meeting with relatives to deliver the news. "So this journey has ended and now the healing will start."
The explosion erupted without warning.
"They didn't know what hit them," said Patty Ann Manios, a city councilwoman from nearby Whitesville.
While watching the official announcement on TV, she took off her glasses and started to weep. "Oh God. Oh God."
Initially, 25 men were known to have perished and two men survived. That left four unaccounted for, resulting in an agonizing week for relatives and officials who hoped the miners had somehow managed to find refuge chambers stocked with food, water and oxygen. But none of the mine's refuge chambers had been deployed.
"The rescue workers told us they're sure no one suffered," Manchin said.
Twenty-eight of the dead were Massey employees, and one was a contract worker, a company spokesman said. A complete list of victims was not released, though several were known through obituaries and information families released.
Even as rescuers were making their final trip into the mine, the close-knit community was beginning to mourn the dead.
More than 300 people packed the Mullens Pentecostal Holiness Church for the funeral of Benny Willingham, a 61-year-old miner who was five weeks from retiring when he died. More services were planned Saturday.
"He wasn't the biggest man in town," said the Rev. Gary Pollard. "But if you could see the size of this man's heart, you'd see a giant."
The conditions were so rough after the blast that rescuers only late Friday realized that they had walked past the bodies of the four missing miners on the first day without seeing, a federal mine safety official said.
"There was so much smoke and the conditions were so dire with dust in the air that they apparently bypassed the bodies that were on the ground," said Kevin Stricklin, coal administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Once the bodies are recovered, MSHA and West Virginia regulators plan a joint investigation that could take up to a year, Stricklin said.
"No stone will be left unturned and we'll find out the cause of this explosion," Stricklin said. "Quite frankly, the only good thing that can come out of this is to educate everyone, put regulations in place to make sure that this never happens again."
"Amen brother!" retired miner Willam "Hot Rod" White yelled as officials vowed a thorough investigation. White was so infuriated watching the news conference come to an end that he left the poker room, hopped in his car and sped away. He did not return, leaving an unopened beer he bought from the gas station next door.
Officials have not said what caused the blast, but they believe high levels of methane gas may have played a role.
The U.S. House and Senate plan to hold hearings, though a date has not been set. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said lawmakers will scrutinize Massey's practices.
In the days since the explosion, details have emerged about an extensive list of safety violations at the mine. Mine owner Massey Energy Co. has been repeatedly cited and fined for problems with the system that vents methane and for allowing combustible dust to build up. The company also said it will conduct its own probe into the blast.
CEO Don Blankenship, who was with the families when they learned the miners were dead, has strongly defended the company's record and disputed accusations from miners that he puts coal profits ahead of safety.
Federal regulators issued evacuation orders for all or parts of the mine more than 60 times since the start of 2009, according to inspection records.
In 2007, the mine met criteria to be declared by the Mine Safety and Health Administration as a pattern violator, which would have allowed for stricter oversight, including the potential shutdown of the mine. But Massey was able to reduce the number of the most serious violations and avoid it.
Pam Napper, whose 25-year-old son Josh died, said he had been sent home early the Friday before the explosion because of concerns about ventilation in the mine. Before that, apparently over Easter weekend, he wrote a letter to his mother, his fiancee and his 19-month-old daughter, telling them that he would be looking down from heaven if anything happened to him.
"I just knew that Josh in his heart knew that something was going to happen," Pam Napper said.
Donna Ward, whose husband works at a different mine, was still crying minutes after the press conference was over.
Days of rescue efforts came to a grim end after crews found the bodies of four miners who had been missing since an explosion almost a week ago in a West Virginia mine, authorities said early Saturday.
"We did not receive the miracle we prayed for," said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "This journey has ended and now the healing will start."
Authorities first notified the families of the four miners about their fate before revealing it to the media.
The death toll from Monday's blast at the Upper Big Branch mine now stands at 29, making it the worst mining disaster in the United States in nearly four decades.
On Friday, crews had reached a refuge chamber that had not been used, but the bad air forced them to evacuate before they reached the second chamber.
The airtight chambers were stocked with enough food, water and air to keep 15 miners alive for four days, but Manchin said none of the chambers had been deployed.
Rescue efforts have now turned to the difficult task of recovery, said Kevin Stricklin, of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Of the 29 dead, the bodies of 22 still remain inside the mine. Stricklin said most of them will have to be hand-carried out because of the lack of equipment.
"It's hard to turn a rescue into a recovery with the same group of people," he said.
As days of rescue came to an end, funerals were held Friday for some of the seven dead whose bodies have been removed from the mine.
At the funeral for Benny Willingham, the Rev. Gary Pollard said the 61-year-old miner had three loves in life: God, his family and his job. "He loved God so much that every day was a holiday, every meal was a buffet," Pollard said at Mullens Pentecostal Holiness Church in Mullens.
Willingham, who was married for 33 years, was devoted to his church, Pollard said, and had been a Christian for 19 years. And though Willingham had been set to retire soon, Pollard said he didn't know whether retirement would have suited him: He loved the work.
Three other funerals were held Friday and one is set for Saturday.
The cause of Monday's blast is unknown, and state and federal officials have pledged a full investigation.
The explosion has prompted renewed questions about mine safety. Obama said Friday that "it's clear more needs to be done" to improve mine safety.
He will meet next week with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and a Mine Safety and Health Administration official to hear their initial assessment of the cause of the blast and their recommendations on steps the federal government should take to improve safety.
Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine, said in a statement released Friday that it will conduct "extensive" reviews of the mine accident "to ensure that a similar incident doesn't happen again."
It said the mine has had less than one violation per day in inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration and added that that rate is "consistent with national averages."
"Most of the citations issued by MSHA to [Upper Big Branch] in the last year were resolved on the same day they were issued," it said. "The safety of our members has been and will continue to be our top priority every day."
One of the unaccounted-for miners and 18 of the dead were working in an area where long wall cutting was taking place. The technique uses a large grinder to extract the coal and creates large amounts of coal dust and methane, both of which are explosive.
Manchin said that even though it's not clear what caused the explosion, there needs to be a focus on better ventilation and sensors to alert mine personnel when gas levels become dangerous.
"There was no way to protect them against this," he said. "You just have to prevent it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
The West Virginia blast was the worst mining disaster since 1972 when 91 miners were killed in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho.
The company is well known in West Virginia, in part because CEO Don Blankenship grew to become a fixture in state politics, doling out thousands of dollars to candidates he favored – most of them Republicans. In 2004, he spent millions on advertising that attacked a West Virginia state Supreme Court justice, leading to the election of challenger Brent Benjamin.
Massey had a $70 million case before the state Supreme Court and, once elected, Benjamin made the controversial decision not to recuse himself because of Blankenship's support of him and to hear arguments anyway. Another member of the court hearing the case was Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard.
He later recused himself after photographs surfaced showing that he vacationed with Blankenship in the French Riviera.
When an ABC News reporter tried to interview Blankenship about the possible conflicts in the parking lot of a Massey Energy office in Belfry, Ky., Blankenship became agitated.
"If you're going to start taking pictures of me, you're liable to get shot," Blankenship told the reporter before grabbing his camera.
Blankenship later told the Charleston Daily Mail he couldn't recall making any threats. "Quite frankly, I don't know what I said except that I know I'm never loud, vulgar or rude to strangers," he said.
The conflicts surrounding the state Supreme Court saga triggered a cascade of changes, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that called on judges to recuse themselves when major donors come before them in court, and a vote by the West Virginia legislature to adopt public financing of judicial campaigns.
Days of rescue efforts came to a grim end after crews found the bodies of four miners who had been missing since an explosion almost a week ago in a West Virginia mine, authorities said early Saturday.
"We did not receive the miracle we prayed for," said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "This journey has ended and now the healing will start."
Authorities first notified the families of the four miners about their fate before revealing it to the media.
The death toll from Monday's blast at the Upper Big Branch mine now stands at 29, making it the worst mining disaster in the United States in nearly four decades.
On Friday, crews had reached a refuge chamber that had not been used, but the bad air forced them to evacuate before they reached the second chamber.
The airtight chambers were stocked with enough food, water and air to keep 15 miners alive for four days, but Manchin said none of the chambers had been deployed.
Rescue efforts have now turned to the difficult task of recovery, said Kevin Stricklin, of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Of the 29 dead, the bodies of 22 still remain inside the mine. Stricklin said most of them will have to be hand-carried out because of the lack of equipment.
"It's hard to turn a rescue into a recovery with the same group of people," he said.
As days of rescue came to an end, funerals were held Friday for some of the seven dead whose bodies have been removed from the mine.
At the funeral for Benny Willingham, the Rev. Gary Pollard said the 61-year-old miner had three loves in life: God, his family and his job. "He loved God so much that every day was a holiday, every meal was a buffet," Pollard said at Mullens Pentecostal Holiness Church in Mullens.
Willingham, who was married for 33 years, was devoted to his church, Pollard said, and had been a Christian for 19 years. And though Willingham had been set to retire soon, Pollard said he didn't know whether retirement would have suited him: He loved the work.
Three other funerals were held Friday and one is set for Saturday.
The cause of Monday's blast is unknown, and state and federal officials have pledged a full investigation.
The explosion has prompted renewed questions about mine safety. Obama said Friday that "it's clear more needs to be done" to improve mine safety.
He will meet next week with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and a Mine Safety and Health Administration official to hear their initial assessment of the cause of the blast and their recommendations on steps the federal government should take to improve safety.
Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine, said in a statement released Friday that it will conduct "extensive" reviews of the mine accident "to ensure that a similar incident doesn't happen again."
It said the mine has had less than one violation per day in inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration and added that that rate is "consistent with national averages."
"Most of the citations issued by MSHA to [Upper Big Branch] in the last year were resolved on the same day they were issued," it said. "The safety of our members has been and will continue to be our top priority every day."
One of the unaccounted-for miners and 18 of the dead were working in an area where long wall cutting was taking place. The technique uses a large grinder to extract the coal and creates large amounts of coal dust and methane, both of which are explosive.
Manchin said that even though it's not clear what caused the explosion, there needs to be a focus on better ventilation and sensors to alert mine personnel when gas levels become dangerous.
"There was no way to protect them against this," he said. "You just have to prevent it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
The West Virginia blast was the worst mining disaster since 1972 when 91 miners were killed in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho.
A huge underground explosion blamed on methane gas killed 25 coal miners in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades.
Four others were missing Tuesday, their chances of survival dimming as rescuers were held back by poison gases that accumulated near the blast site, about 1.5 miles from the entrance to Massey Energy Co.'s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine.
The mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, has a significant history of safety violations, including 57 infractions just last month for (among other things) not properly ventilating the highly combustible methane.
The federal records catalog the problems at the Upper Big Branch mine, operated by the Performance Coal Company. They show the company was fighting many of the steepest fines, or simply refusing to pay them. Performance is a subsidiary of Massey Energy.
The nation's sixth biggest mining company by production, Massey Energy took in $24 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company paid what was then the largest financial settlement in the history of the coal industry for the 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, also in West Virginia. The fire trapped 12 miners. Two suffocated as they looked for a way to escape. Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports.
Rescuers on Tuesday had to bulldoze an access road above it so they could begin drilling three shafts over 1,000 feet each to release methane and carbon monoxide that chased them from the mine after the blast Monday afternoon, Gov. Joe Manchin said at an early morning news briefing Tuesday. Drilling and ensuring rescuers can safely go in could take up to 12 hours, meaning the search was unlikely to resume before 6 p.m. Tuesday.
"It's going to be a long day and we're not going to have a lot of information until we can get the first hole through," Manchin said.
It had already been a long day for grieving relatives, some angry because they found out their loved ones were among the dead from government officials or a company Web site, not from Massey Energy executives.
"They're supposed to be a big company," said Michelle McKinney, whose father, 62-year-old Benny R. Willingham, died in the blast. She found out from a local official at a school near the mine. "These guys, they took a chance every day to work and make them big. And they couldn't even call us."
McKinney said her husband is a miner too and her 16-year-old son doesn't want him to go back to work. Willingham, who had mined for 30 years, the last 17 with Massey, was just five weeks from retiring and planned to take his wife on a cruise to the Virgin Islands next month.
"Benny was the type – he probably wouldn't have stayed retired long," said his sister-in-law, Sheila Prillaman said. "He wasn't much of a homebody."
Meanwhile, others waited for word about missing loved ones. Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the situation looked grim.
"All we have left is hope, and we're going to continue to do what we can," he said.
Officials hoped the four miners still unaccounted for were able to reach airtight chambers stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for them to live for four days, but rescue teams checked one of two such chambers nearby and it was empty. The buildup of gases prevented teams from reaching other chambers, officials said.
A total of 31 miners were in the area during a shift change when the explosion rocked the mine.
"Before you knew it, it was just like your ears stopped up, you couldn't hear and the next thing you know, it's just like you're just right in the middle of a tornado," miner Steve Smith, who heard the explosion but was able to escape, told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Some of those killed may have died in the blast and others when they breathed in the gas-filled air, Stricklin said. Eleven bodies had been recovered and identified, but the other 14 have not. Names weren't released publicly, but Manchin said three of the dead are members of the same family.
He said investigators still don't know what ignited the blast, but methane likely played a part.
The death toll is the highest in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 died in a fire at Emery Mining Corp.'s mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it would be the most killed in a U.S. mine since a 1970 explosion killed 38 at Finley Coal Co., in Hyden, Ky.
"There's always danger. There's so many ways you can get hurt, or your life taken," said Gary Williams, a miner and pastor of New Life Assembly, a church near the southern West Virginia mine. "It's not something you dread every day, but there's always that danger. But for this area, it's the only way you're going to make a living."
Though the situation looked bleak, Manchin said miracles can happen and pointed to the 2006 Sago Mine explosion that killed 12. Crews found miner Randal McCloy Jr. alive after he was trapped for more than 40 hours in an atmosphere poisoned with carbon monoxide.
In Monday's blast, nine miners were leaving on a vehicle that takes them in and out of the mine's long shaft when a crew ahead of them felt a blast of air and went back to investigate, Stricklin said.
They found seven workers dead. Others were hurt or missing about a mile and a half inside the mine, though there was some confusion over how many. Others made it out.
Massey Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Va., has 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and Tennessee. It ranks among the nation's top five coal producers and is among the industry's most profitable. It has a spotty safety record.
In the past year, federal inspectors fined the company more than $382,000 for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at Upper Big Branch.
ABC News has also documented the highly controversial relationship between Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and a local judge who has refused to recuse himself from cases involving Massey Energy despite long fundraising and personal ties between the two men. In 2004, Blankenship physically resisted an ABC reporter trying to ask him about the matter.
Methane is one of the great dangers of coal mining, and federal records say the Eagle coal seam releases up to 2 million cubic feet of methane gas into the Upper Big Branch mine every 24 hours, which is a large amount, said Dennis O'Dell, health and safety director for the United Mine Workers labor union.
In mines, giant fans are used to keep the colorless, odorless gas concentrations below certain levels. If concentrations are allowed to build up, the gas can explode with a spark roughly similar to the static charge created by walking across a carpet in winter, as at the Sago mine, also in West Virginia.
Since then, federal and state regulators have required mine operators to store extra oxygen supplies. Upper Big Branch uses containers that can generate about an hour of breathable air, and all miners carry a container on their belts besides the stockpiles inside the mine. Upper Big Branch has had three other fatalities in the last dozen years.
Upper Big Branch has 19 openings and roughly 7-foot ceilings. Inside, it's crisscrossed with railroad tracks used for hauling people and equipment. It is located in a mine-laced swath of Raleigh and Boone counties that is the heart of West Virginia's coal country.
The seam produced 1.2 million tons of coal in 2009, according to the mine safety agency, and has about 200 employees.
"The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration will investigate this tragedy, and take action," U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement. "Miners should never have to sacrifice their lives for their livelihood."
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If anyone else or another Organization wishes to post a link to Request Donations, I am NOT endorsing ANY of those Requests!
Unless I receive a personal Request to do so and I have Professionally Confirmed that the Third Party Organization or Charity is indeed a Legitimate Entity.
NOTE: Anyone who chooses to give to any Third Party Organization NOT Endorsed by BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ is doing so at his or her own risk.
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This disclaimer applies to ANY and All requests for Donations on this Blog. Thanks for understanding. Again No Personal Offense intended.
For Story Tips….Corrections…….. or Requests for Endorsements:
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Thanks for stopping by
God Bless
Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
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