Longtime friend of SSP, WV Blue diarist Carnacki, gives us the bad news:
State Sen. John Unger, our best shot at beating Shelley Moore Capito, has decided not to file.
Unger said he’s spent too much time fundraising and not enough time connecting with people. […]
Unger has more than $250,000 in the bank and had the strong support of the DCCC. This leaves Richie Robb, the former Arch Moore supported Republican, who has no money to compete against Moore’s well funded daughter.
With today being the deadline for filing for congressional races in West Virginia, Unger’s decision pretty much takes WV-02 off the table. Terrible news.
The chatter at WV Blue suggests that Gov. Joe Manchin’s tacit support of Capito may have been a factor in Unger’s move.
UPDATE (David): Anne Barth, the state director for Sen. Robert Byrd, jumped into the race at the last second, apparently after Unger decided to bail. Carnacki thinks she might be able to make a real race of it, so there may still be a reason for hope in this district.
I will feel much better if Republican candidates like Tim Bee and Jeb Bradley drop out.
He seemed liked a decent and compassionate guy who would be a credit to Congress. I hope he considers a run for higher office in the future.
Anne Barth, a long time Sen. Byrd staffer, filed just before the midnight deadline last night.
Unger did a fine job raising somewhere in the ballpark of $250 to $300K, largely from leadership PACs, unions and such.
That money was raised with the understanding it was to be used to beat Capito this year.
Since Unger bailed out while still in the exploratory committee phase, my understanding from chatting with a FEC compliance person is he can pretty much do anything he wants to do with it. He can’t transfer it en masse to another federal candidate due to contribution limits… but he can give it to the DCCC.
And the DCCC should promise to reinvest the money in WV02.
I hope Unger will do the right thing and transfer the money he’s raised so it can be used for the purpose it was intended.
Anne Barth is a respectable candidate. She was a good soldier and cleared the field for Unger. She deserves our support now, especially considering the hole she’s in was dug for her by Unger’s incredibly poor timing.
Eternal gadfly Richie Robb is not a serious candidate. Heck, he’d run for Pope if all it took was the filing fee. And he’d have a better shot in the College of Cardinals than he would against Shelley Moore Capito.
Good luck, Anne Barth.
And, as for Unger, yeah, he had a shot. If he had bailed when there was still time I might have understood and nodded in sympathy. Stretching it out until the filing deadline is just incomprehensible to me.