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Monday, October 03, 2005

WV-Sen/02: Capito Out Against Byrd; Callaghan in Against Capito

The West Virginia Metro News is reporting that Shelley Moore Capito will not be challenging incumbent Dem Robert Byrd in the WV senate race. Good news for Byrd. I get the sense that the remaining GOP bench in WV just isn't that strong - not that Capito herself is all that fantastic.

On the flip side, Democrat Mike Callaghan - about whom we wrote earlier - will run against Capito in WV's second district. I'm not sure if this piece of news has been reported elsewhere yet, but I have this on good authority from Drew, the author of the original extensive profile of the district and of Mike.

I'm looking forward to seeing this race heat up - the eastern tip of this district is just a couple of hours from where I live right now - and I wish Mike the best of luck!

Posted at 02:45 PM in West Virginia | Technorati

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Comments

First of all, it's good to be back everyone. I was a board regular for nearly all of last year but have been fighting a losing battle with TypeKey to create a new account for several months until today. It's good to be back as this time of year gives me election fever even on an odd-numbered year.

As for the WV news, I can almost hear the huge sigh of relief coming from DNC headquarters about the Capito news. Personally, I think Byrd was very vulnerable to a Capito challenge. Byrd may still be vulnerable, but as was mentioned, the GOP bench in WV is pretty weak. I wish Callaghan luck in his efforts to topple Capito in WV-02. That district is WV's least Democratic, so he has a helluva challenge.

One factor that could produce a problem for Dems in WV as well as PA and OH is the status of the steel industry. The rebuilding of New Orleans should keep the steel industry humming along at a very good clip, which could hurt the Dems chances of unseating DeWine and Santorum in the Senate, as well as potentially vulnerable House Republicans like Melissa Hart and Bob Ney. John Kerry did very poorly in most of the tri-state steel area, and I'm concerned that if the steel economy is booming, a similar fate may bestow us again.

Posted by: Mark at October 3, 2005 05:02 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment