Category: West Virginia Politics

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Donna Joy-Candidate for Jefferson County WV Board of Education

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Good morning. Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban show were we present news and views from God’s point of view. I’m very happy to have Donna Joy on the show today. She’s running for board of education here in Jefferson County. So please introduce yourself.

“I am Donna Joy and I’m running for the Board of Ed in Jefferson County.”

“I’ll just share with you why I feel like I’m the most qualified. I taught Special Ed for 15 years. I have a master’s degree in Special Ed. I feel that our current school board could use, we need to help with the Special Ed following Special Ed federal/state guidelines. So I could be a big help there.”

“I have a PhD in Educational measurement Statistics, Research and Evaluation. And that is necessary on the board to follow sound research using logic. Making research-based decisions, interpreting data, interpreting graphs. When I’ve seen some of the Board meetings I’ve been to, and the superintendent can explain some of the things to the Board, but the Board seems to be dependent on the superintendent’s explanation, and so the Board needs to increase in that area. I don’t know of a better way to say that. I have taught Math for 30 years, Math and Special Ed, and at the high school, college level, and I also worked as a book keeper when I was going through college. So I can look at budgets, and financial reports quickly, and easily, analyze, look for errors, find gaps or ways to save money. I am certified in all main subjects, including Special Ed, I supervise student teachers and principals dissertations, so I know the latest research on administration and supervision and also the needs of new teachers.”

Richard: As a Board of Education member what do you think your most crucial role is? What would you say the most important role of the Board of Education is?

“Right now, I feel like our Board needs a change. We need some new ideas and new skill sets on the Board. So that’s the way I see for myself. So I think I could bring that. I’m not part of any, and I’m not part of the good old boy club and I’m not part of any groups. I’m an independent, I do what’s best for the kids. My motivation is education improving the school system as a citizen, I feel that it’s my moral and ethical responsibility, given all my extensive background in education, to see what I could do to help. To apply myself in that way.”

Richard: You mentioned, you had a background in Special Education. That it’s something you’ve been teaching that’s on your information on your website. What are the most critical areas is in the schools right now, the three most critical areas in Jefferson County? I know you mentioned Special Ed. Is that one of them?

“We have a serious problem in Special Ed. We stay out of compliance, so the school system gets sued, often. So we lose money, but we’re not addressing the needs of the kids that really need help. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but education, and really requiring that we have a complete overhaul of the Special Ed program in Jefferson County Schools.  I believe that’s needed.”

Richard: I know in some jurisdictions parents have sued or filed complaints legally against the school system for inadequate education. And then they will ask for placement out of the system privately. And the school system has to pay for it. Is that something that’s happening around here, or that’s not an issue?

“That happens too. We have more basic problems, so I don’t want to sound too negative, but the truth is that this current administration and school board seems to want to minimize the number of students receiving services because they feel that it’s a financial burden. And I’m saying that because I was in one of the court hearings, and heard one of the Board Members explain that it was a burden to the school system. So what some school systems will do is they’ll try to minimize the number, that way they don’t have to supply it with Special Ed teachers or other services. So that’s illegal and we need to stop that. Right now if a parent calls and says ‘my child has a disability, I want to get my child tested’. The question will be, is your child failing? No, no, he’s not failing. Well, honey, we can’t help them if he’s not failing, we don’t have Special Ed services. We don’t give them to kids unless they’re failing. That’s illegal. That’s not the basis for an IEP or extra help.”

“So another problem is the maintenance. Every school that I have been in the ceiling, the roof leaks. There’s the heating and air conditioning problem. And then we have this whole Shepherdstown education, complex that has to be built. The lands been sitting there for a few years now. So just to maintain what we have and to get it to where it’s safe; the buildings, and there’s a track at Jefferson High School. The track field needs to be fixed so that’s another basic problem.”

“The third basic problem is the break in trust between the public and the School Board and administration, came about because there wasn’t full disclosure, and there hasn’t been, about a lot of things. But it blew up. And so, the county’s been divided. So that needs to be mended. So we need to stress transparency, accessibility, and accountability.”

Richard: one of my neighbors mentioned that he didn’t think the school board should be spending X many dollars, on the Rockwool thing. Is that the kind of thing you’re talking about, or are you talking about other things?

“I was talking about, even before that. But that’s one of the issues. So the first problem was, they didn’t ask the public. How do you feel about this PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes]? Should we go along with it? So a lot of people lost trust because of that. Because they found out it was a secret deal. Well, then there was another group that lost trust, because then they took what they claimed we don’t have money for, Special Ed to begin with, and they took that and you used it for lawyers to fight. It was a dead end fight because they had property already.”

“The argument the school system used was illegal. And that’s what I’m saying, they don’t know basic laws about Special Ed. We have worked for over 50 years in this country to get Special Ed children to be included in the regular school system, because they used to take all the special need kids and either throw them in the basement. And they would eat lunch at the end of the day, and they would end up cleaning the cafeteria by themselves. They would isolate. And these are disabilities such as a child’s gifted, but they have a language disability.”

Richard: Let me ask a question that’s close to my heart. I work in the field of sexual health education. Specifically abstinence-centered. So do you think that kind of area, sexual health education, should the expected standard for school aged children be not to have sex before marriage? That was two decades ago, that was stated in the so called Title 5 funding, that’s the expected standard for school aged children, wait to have sex until you’re married. Is that a good idea to have that kind of standard? What do you think?

“Absolutely, that would be my request for a standard. Whether the outside world has influence, but the goal of school should be to focus on education and children’s learning. You don’t want them to be encouraged to do other sorts of outside activities that are gonna distract them from the goal of learning. so that’s part of it, but for health reasons, they’re not ready to be parents, at that young of an age, they’re not ready for the responsibilities and all the changes that happen when you’re involved in a romantic relationship. So that’s what I teach my children. Doesn’t mean it always happens, but in the world and there’s a lot of influences.”

Richard: Absolutely, but at least setting a standard.  You mentioned, I noticed you’ve been working on getting a financial literacy requirement. Do you want to say anything about that?

“If we could give them one skill that would help them in their lives. I think it’s personal finance and people think that, Oh, it’s just balancing a check book. It’s mortgages, interest, estate planning, school loans, Car loans, bonds, stocks, IRA’S, taxes. There’s so much involved and most adults don’t know about those things. If we could teach kids these things, I think it would help them to save money. Learning about compound interest. Investing now, a little bit while they’re in high school, so that in 30 years they might have something. They don’t have to be dependent on the system.”

Richard: It can be a little confusing. So you can vote for three people for the Board of Education. And I know there’s some limit if there were too many people from one district, but basically, barring that, the top three people will win, right? And also tell us how would you differentiate yourself from your opponents? What should people know why they should vote for you versus other people?

“Okay, well, so yeah, you can vote for up to three people. You can vote for one, two, or three from any district. It doesn’t matter if you live in their district or they live in your district, but no more than two people can be on the Board from any one district.”

Richard: Got it, that’s clear. As people look to vote on June 9, and as we’re saying, the School Board will be elected on June 9th. That is the election, final election. Why should people vote for you, differentiating you from the other candidates?

“Well, I’m the most qualified. I am a career educator, I’ve been teaching for 33 years. I don’t have any personal ties to; several board members, they have a lot of old family and connections with businesses. I’m wanting to be on the board to help and, out of, like I said, my ethical moral responsibility to help. I have the skills that could help. I have more skills that the School Board needs than other candidates, which is unfortunate because we don’t have, It looks like we have 11 people, but we don’t really have 11 people, three of them aren’t even showing up for forums.”

“So that’s one thing I’m the most qualified. I am passionate and I didn’t just move here two weeks ago, a year ago. And think it’s a cool thing for one issue. I have several issues and they’re all related to education in helping the children and I have a track record of helping the school system. I’ve been teaching here for eight years and the whole time I’ve been here, I have put my job and my reputation on the line, dealing with issues such as the school system has a policy or had it until, hopefully they took it down after I spent a whole year dealing with the state employee grievance board to get that fixed, but they had a policy that allowed them to hire long-term subs over certified teachers.”

Richard: thank you very much for taking the time to come on today. We’ll put this up on video and podcast and hopefully many voters will watch it so they can make an informed choice. Remember, you can vote for three people for Board of Education on June 9th.

Categories
West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Bill Schwartz-Candidate for WV Supreme Court of Appeals-Division 3

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Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban show. I’m your host Richard Urban, coming to you from historic Harpers Ferry, WV, and today, May 27th, we’re having Bill Schwartz on. He’s running for the Supreme Court of Appeals in Division 3. Please introduce yourself.

”Thank you Richard. Thanks for having me on. I’m Bill Schwartz and I’m a lawyer here in Charleston, WV.  I’m a candidate for division 3 of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, Division 3.  And it’s interesting that you’re in Harpers Ferry. I think it’s a beautiful area. I biked there years ago when I was on the C & O towpath with my older boy.  And we actually camped outside of Harpers Ferry; beautiful area,” Schwartz said.

“I’m a graduate of both St. John’s University in New York, I’m originally from Queens, NY, and I was born and raised there and while I was at St. John’s, I wasn’t just a graduate at St. John’s, I was a two-time Big East Medalist in track and field. I was also student athlete of the year 1982 when I graduated, and I took that money from the award to help me go to law school where I went to Washington and Lee University School of Law,” Schwartz added.

“After graduating, I wanted to be a trial lawyer. I wanted to try cases and that’s exactly what I did. I’ve never run for office before in my life and I’ll get to that in a second, but I wanted to be a trial lawyer and I’ve spent 32 years of my career representing injured workers and families.  I’ve done, what some people call toxic torts.  That could be anything from poisoned water to men breathing poisons on the job.   I have represented a number of men who have worked with their hands throughout their career.   I don’t think you would call them liberal men by any means.  Except for the fact that they care about worker’s rights.  They fought our wars.  Their dads, their sons fought our wars.  They’ve raised families.  I decided to get into this to be a representative of them.  Again, taxpayers, I want to get taxpayers among the robes. I’m not a judge, I’m not politician. And I think we’ve seen enough of that. And so I want to be a taxpayer among the robes,” Schwartz continued.

Richard: I know from talking to some of the other candidates that a lot of the cases coming up to the Supreme Court are family law cases, and you’re a personal injury attorney. Is that something you want to address?

“The question is regarding children, family law, and I think what you mean is the fallout from the opioid crisis. Right now, there are 7000 children in state custody. I think that’s tragic. I have raised a family and my children have been very fortunate. I was a track and field student athlete. My son just completed a great career at Marshall University. I have another son who is probably better than both of us,” Schwartz said.

“They’ve lived very privileged lives because of my career. And frankly, their mother; they’ve had great lives.  Many children in West Virginia don’t enjoy that. And I’m aware of that. Just because my children have lived a privileged life, doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the plight of 7000 children who are now in state custody,” Schwartz continued.

“I think it’s a tragedy, and I think it’s a tragedy that our court has to focus on. I think there has to be a priority given to the front line. If you think of the virus that we’re dealing with right now, you think of the nurses and healthcare workers at the front line.  Well, think about the opioid crisis.  And the children who go home to mothers you don’t wake up, or fathers who are absent.” Schwartz added.

Richard: Our non-profit, and this is more like a philosophical question, but we deal with the issue of staying abstinent before marriage.  We have different school materials that we’ve taught over the years. We emphasize wait to have sex.  Have a stable family. What do you think about that kind of approach? Do you think that’s viable, a good approach for school-age children?

“I think you can preach and I’m all for preaching. And I think it starts with the examples that you set. And I go back to my own children’s situation. They have, I think, a pretty good example in both me and their mother. Some people don’t have those examples of how to live.   And we we’re taught in our environment, you always go back to that situation.  Is your destiny set by your environment or is it predestined for you?  And I think, frankly, environment has something to do with it,” Schwartz responded.

Richard: With the proceedings against the Supreme Court in 2018, do you feel that the legislature overreached?  I’ll mention this, I actually read through the indictment against the justice who was actually indicted.  But I have to say, now I don’t believe you should lie or file false reports.  But I do have to say, I did take the time because I kept seeing in the article, the criminal federal indictment.  I said ‘What did they indict the guy for?’  They indicted him, on some of the indictments, he filed $30 in false claims for mileage. I said Okay that’s wrong, but I mean they seem to have made this huge deal out of it.  What’s your opinion about the whole thing?

“And my feeling is, my limited involvement. Again, I was married to a federal prosecutor. So one thing I know is never lie to the feds. If they’re investigating, say Martha Stewart for example. She did a simple trade that was considered insider trading and what they got her on was lying to the feds,” Schwartz responded.

Richard: I noticed on one of your interviews,  concerning West Virginia Supreme Court elections, you were saying you are non-affiliated which means you’re not registered Democrat or Republican, and the other judges should be too. So that means they shouldn’t have a party affiliation? Do you want to speak anything about that?

“Absolutely. I’m glad you brought that up. It’s important. I am politically unaffiliated meaning, I’m not Democrat. I’m not Republican, I’m not independent. I did that for a reason. I think everyone out there should realize, first of all, the legislature later changed the law in West Virginia, several years ago, they made what used to be partisan races for judicial races – they made it non-partisan by law. It is illegal for me to tell you that I am part of a particular party,” Schwartz said.

Richard: With all the things surrounding COVID-19, there’s so many restrictions, regulations.  It’s affected a lot of things in many states, not just West Virginia. Do you have any comment about it?

“I think I’m free enough to say this. I’m affected by it. I’m one of the people. As a lawyer I ran a small business. I could see how a small business gets upset. It is a balance. And I don’t agree the governor on many things. I’m not running for policy-making decisions, I’m not running for the legislature and I’m not running for governor, I’m running for the Supreme Court, which is based on law and facts,” Schwartz said.

Richard: Would you describe yourself as more like a strict constructionist as to the constitution or some other term? Would you care to comment anything about that kind of thing?

”I appreciate that question, too. And I get that all the time, and I kind of think it’s a misnomer. When you say “strict constructionist’ person, the Constitution says what the constitution says. The judges and justices are all human beings and we all interpret language. We may both look at the black letter or something and disagree as to what that black letter says.  But here’s my opinion. The job of a justice is not to legislate. The job of a justice is to apply the law,” Schwartz said.

Richard:  Okay, alright, so I know you have a couple of opponents in this race, how would you differentiate yourself for the voters from your opponents in this race?

“I think it’s easy, if you like, if you like everything as it is, if you think it’s fun, if you think politicians, and judges, and justices have done a great job for the last two decades or three decades in West Virginia, you got some good choices besides me. I’m not saying they’re bad people. I’m just saying they are more of the same,” Schwartz said.

“We’ve got a sitting Supreme Court Justice who was appointed by the governor who spent 23 years as a judge, and we’ve got another judge, we’ve got people who pick, in  the judiciary, as a legal career, wanting to step up and be on our highest court. And what I’m saying is, ‘we already got enough of that.  And we’ve had enough of that.  For the last 20, 30, 40 years.  Our Supreme Court right now is made up of plenty of people like that; politicians or career judges.  And we have learned, I’m not speaking to the current Supreme Court at all, that maybe, maybe being a politician your entire career and being on the tax payer dime, and being a judge your entire career.  Wearing the robes and having everybody call you your honor.  Not having to worry about making a payroll or paying your taxes, but living on our tax dollar, may cause you to lose perspective.  Clearly it caused two of the justices to lose perspective.  They were charged with federal crimes.  So they lost perspective.  I bring a different perspective.  I want to be a tax payer, because that’s what I’ve been doing every quarter for the last 32, 33 years of my career now, raising a family in West Virginia.  I want to bring a tax payer’s perspective to the Supreme Court. …

If the voters want more of the same. I’m not your guy.  If you want more of the same, I’m not your guy.  There are other choices, besides me, but I’m giving you an alternative,” Schwartz added.

Richard: Well, to conclude, would you share like to share anything else with the voters as they consider the different candidates for the June 9th election, which will elect our Supreme Court Justices.

“Yes, and that’s a good point you bring up. June 9th is not a primary. It is the final vote. You are selecting the justices for your Supreme Court. And I think there are 28 years at issue here, on our Supreme Court, it’s the most powerful court in the State of West Virginia.  And I think you gave to think hard about that.   I believe that the voters should consider a change.  I want to be an agent of change.  I believe I’m an agent of change. If you want more of the same, I’m not your guy,” Schwartz concluded.

Categories
West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Lora Dyer-Candidate for West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals-Division 3

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Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban Show and we’re very happy to have with us today, May 27, Judge Lora Dyer and she’s running for the Supreme Court of Appeals in Division 3. So please introduce yourself. Tell us about yourself or family.

“Thank you, first of all, Richard. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and your viewers and listeners there. I am Judge Laura Dyer.  I am the current circuit judge here in the State of West Virginia, I am in one of the two largest circuits in our state, it’s the fifth circuit and that includes Jackson, Mason, Roane and Calhoun counties,” Dyer said.

Richard: What are the main reasons you’re running for the Supreme Court of Appeals? Why did you decide to run?

“I grew up in rural West Virginia. I was the first person in our family to actually go to college. When I grew up our house had wheels on it and so I knew early on that I really wanted to have an education and I was fortunate, blessed to have that opportunity,” Dyer responded.

“I went to Marshall University as my undergrad. And then I went to WVU Law School and got my legal degree. My first job was with the Supreme Court. I loved that job. I clerked for Justice Albright, and I think that’s where I first developed a love for the judiciary. Right after that experience, clerked for Judge Jim Stucky, he was one of the circuit judges in the thirteenth circuit,” Dyer said.

“From those first experiences legally, and having clerked for the judges and justices, I knew that I liked that type of work, that that it’s very diverse. The questions that come are different facets of the law, and I like that, I like the challenges of that. And so that sort of led me to, after a lengthy career in private practice and working for the government in public service to do what I do now, which is be a circuit judge.  And that experience really opened my eyes to a lot of the trouble that children and families in West Virginia have.  And my experiences both with the judiciary and with that, and the passion for it and knowing that I’m uniquely qualified; I feel very compelled to ask for this opportunity to help and serve my state,” Dyer added.

Richard: So how do you see the role of the judiciary like in improving child welfare? I guess there are many child welfare cases coming up to the Supreme Court level. How do you see your role in that, in improving child welfare?

”So that’s a great question, and it’s why I’m asking for the job.  As a Circuit Judge you are in the trenches with these issues and you’re handling the people and the families as they come dealing with the laws that are in place, but also with the administrative rules that are in place and those come from the Supreme Court.  Not only does the Supreme Court issue opinions relating to things coming up from the lower court.  It is the administrative office for all the courts in the state of West Virginia.  So thereby it takes a lot of administrative experience, which I have and a lot of communication with other branches of government.” Dyer said.

“It’s a unique place to use those skill sets to try to develop administrative role to help resources and communications with other branches of government. So that’s how I see the opportunity to help the children is definitely via the administrative function of the Supreme Court,” Dyer added.

Richard: Our non-profit deals with helping youth stay abstinent before marriage, and form stable families. I’m wondering around that kind of idea, do you think in the long run, that kind of approach could help?  I think we’re seeing a lot of issues because of the family situation. What do you think about that? Is that like a viable approach in encouraging youth to stay abstinent before marriage?

“Well I, I think that that is a great question, and I can tell you how I utilize so far in the job that I have, those types of resources is what we’re going to have to do. Our state is unfortunately not one of the most wealthy or resourceful when it comes to the particular issues being what avenues that different people have to have access to resources” Dyer continued.

Richard: I was thinking more, that could be specific service a church could provide.  Also, I was thinking more on the long-term picture, also.  Along those lines, have you heard about, in some cities that have community marriage policies, it’s not, I think, something that’s mandated. But I know in some communities, like Kansas City, Kansas, they have churches get together and they say, “Okay if you want to be married, you’re going to have this counseling and things like that that you should go to.” So I think it’s something that churches do. Do you think that’s a good idea or something like that?

“I don’t know, I honestly don’t know about that particular situation as far as the court is concerned with those issues. I don’t know that I don’t really know how to answer that one,” Dyer answered.

Richard: I guess it’s not so much a court thing.  It’s more like just a general policy on the issue. 

“Are you talking about specific laws?” Dyer asked.

Richard: There was one organization. They’ve been working for, I think several decades; Marriage Savers. So they suggest that in different communities, churches, could adopt a community-marriage policy saying, that if you’d like to get married then you should go through this training or counseling before marriage. And they find that that helps increase the success of marriage.

“I can say this about that, Richard. The laws of the State of West Virginia – because circuit judges are authorized, under the law, to perform marriages.  I’ve done a few marriages.  And the wording under the law, that’s black and white law, says, it is not to be entered into unadvisedly.  And so I always feel compelled to tell young couples, when they come and they ask you to do that, to tell them that particular passage, that it’s not to be done unadvisedly,” Dyer said.

Richard: Well, to change the topic a little, what do you feel with all that went on with the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2018, the impeachment proceeding? Do you think that maybe the legislature over-stepped or did they do right thing or do you have any opinion about the whole controversy that went on about the Supreme Court of Appeals?

”Well, I think that I came into the judiciary and I have already expressed how much I admired the justices and the judges that I personally worked for that weren’t involved in what happened. And I’ve always had this reverence for that branch of government. It’s interesting that our founding fathers in writing the constitution thought about this. Everybody has an innate from childhood an understanding of what fair and fairness are. That’s a very hard thing to define in an adult parameters and all the situations that people find themselves in. So what they did is they created an entire branch of government. That’s the purpose. The purpose of the judiciary is to sort of be the referee of these things where the law meets actual, living, breathing people. So having that reverence of the court and such. When I came in and all those things happened it was very upsetting obviously because the court has to have the trust of the people that we’re doing that job,” Dyer responded.

Richard: So along those lines about the constitution, how would you describe your judicial philosophy? Is it like a strict constructionist? You really stick to what the constitution says. Did you want to give any comments about your judicial philosophy?

“Sure, the Constitution. At the end of the day, if the piece of paper was writing on it, it is a legal document and it says certain things, and it doesn’t say other things. So from that same way is how I’ve always felt about the Constitution and it’s one of the most eloquently and is beautiful, written legal documents in the entire world. You know we the people. I get to see it in a way is very real and rare, the opportunity that a person gets to see the constitution in living form, and I do every time a jury, a grand jury or petit jury is seated when I looking at box, it’s we the people, as contemplated because they didn’t want the government to make certain decisions, they wanted the people to do that. And so that’s why that’s written in there,” Dyer said.

Richard: You can say how it feels appropriate Are you concerned about many governors have put a lot of restrictions out for the COVID-19 situation? With various kinds of edicts, and mandates, it seems like we’re in a very unprecedented situation. You know what I mean, right?

“I understand that. The thing about being a judge, we’re not allowed to specifically say how you would or would not rule in a given case,” Dyer said.

Richard: So you’re running against an incumbent and another candidate, how would you – for the voters – differentiate yourself, from your opponents in the upcoming June 9 election?

“Oh, well, the incumbent, was appointed, by the governor.  This race is, we were talking about we the people, so this job being opened, to the people of West Virginia.  Based on my unique qualifications and how much I care and know that I could make a serious difference, particularly for our children.  That’s how I differentiate. The multitude of experiences that I’ve had lend themselves to doing a great job. And so I’m asking the people to have that opportunity to serve them,” Dyer answered.

Richard: So any other things you’d like to share with the audience about your candidacy that we have not already touched on?

“Well, absolutely, I would have loved to have gotten to travel a lot more, particularly in your area because it’s so beautiful. I liked being there. I got to go up there once before all this happened, so I certainly would have loved to have had the opportunity to come face-to-face and meet and talk to people. With everything that’s happened, that was not an opportunity. And I appreciate you, Richard, for allowing me this opportunity.  And I would just like to let them know that I sincerely appreciate their consideration and time, in this application.  I do have a website it’s judgedyerforsupremecourt.com. I can be found on Facebook, if they’re interested in learning more, or ask specific questions. I just appreciate their vote. We the people.  I would like the people to pick me for this job,” Dyer concluded.

Richard: Well I appreciate you taking the time to come on the show today and we’ll put this out on video and podcast. And so I urge all the viewers to vote on June 9. We will be choosing the three Supreme Court of Appeals justices and that will be the only election for that, as well as, of course, choosing other positions.

Categories
West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Doug Six-Republican Candidate for Governor-West Virginia

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Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban Show, where we present news and views from God’s point of view. Today, May 22, we’re happy to have Doug Six, a Republican candidate for Governor of West Virginia on. So please introduce yourself.

“Thank you very much for having me on. I’m Doug Six, a Republican candidate running for governor of the state of West Virginia. I’m not a polished politician so I will stumble around, probably answering questions and giving you my views on things, but please take those as being my true views,” Six said.

“I am a God fearing young man, live in the country, believe in our rights as citizens of United States and especially our rights as citizens of the state of West Virginia.  I’ve got 32 years of business experience, under my belt. I’ve been in the real estate business, engineering, surveying, areal mapping work for other companies both in Petersburg, WV, Moorefield, WV, and over in Virginia, I’m 61 years old, live on a farm and enjoy the rural lifestyle of our state. I believe our state has so much to offer for every individual out there, who wants to come to our state to live. And my campaign is probably 98% self-funded, I do have a few folks that have made some donations but other than that, it is all self-funded by myself and my wife. Other than that, I’ll let you ask some questions,” Six added

Richard: What would you say your three main campaign points are or three of your top campaign priorities, or priorities for our state? Put it that way.

“Priorities for our state, first off. My priority for our state is to bring our state back into where it should be up in the top, top states in our nation and to be able to do that we need to bring our jobs back, which everybody talks about and believes but we need to diversify but I’m a firm believer in our resources that we have in our state. For the last 20 years, I’ve dealt with coal oil and gas, and believe that those are very good sound industries that would allow us to branch out and diversify from there, but my family has been in the timber and lumbering business for over 40 years within the state,” Six said.

So the jobs and our resources are two of the things that would be on the top of my list.  The third thing is that I’m a very open individual. I believe in an open office setting. I believe that our individual voters within our state need to have access to their representatives every day of the week. If they’re good enough to vote you in to promote their thoughts and their wants and desires, you should have at least enough courtesy to listen to what they have to say.  So I do run an open-door policy.  I would continue that.  I would like to set it up to where either every two months or every three months, that I would, within those three months visit each county and allow the individuals in the county the time to spend with me and ask questions and find out what’s going on.   Probably the largest thing I see in our state that is hurting us right now is that none of us are going to be able to predict where the corona virus is going to leave our state financially.  Probably the governor is the only one that has a handle on that at this time.   That is going to be a major project for whomever is elected.  They will need to go through and find out where we stand, find out how we’re going to spend the monies that our state has, or is going to receive. I believe those monies need to be spent directly into programs and projects for our citizens,” Six added.

Richard: Could I interject one question about the COVID-19? So do you feel the governor’s handled it well? Many people, myself included, feel there’s been a lot of Constitutional violations, it’s somewhat random, it’s way overblown. Many small businesses could or will go out of business or have gone out of business. Is this really necessary or is it appropriate, or has there been overstep, is it about right, or what do you think?

“Okay, I can criticize our governor in many different ways for the way he’s handled the virus. However, none of us, other than him know the information that has been given by the President or the counselor or the group that is put together to the handle the Corona Virus,” Six answered.

“I do not agree that our state shut down. I do not believe and I’m saying that now based on what I know now, I do not believe we needed to shut down, I believe we needed to target areas, and target parts of our citizens to make sure that they were protected. I believe it’s going to create major problems for our entire nation and in our state. It has taken away our freedoms, and we gave up our freedoms very easily. The press went out and put the fear in everyone to the point that they just holed up and we kind of gave up our freedoms without a fight, and now we see that we’re going to have to fight to get those back,” Six added.

Richard: Okay, that’s a clear answer. I would have to agree with that as well, on the issue of the government reach or possible overreach. I noticed you have some background in the poultry industry, I believe. Do you think that there are too many regulations for small farms that get in the way of meat packing or poultry or do you think it’s about right, or do they more favor the larger producers or what’s your opinion on that issue?

“My opinion on that issue is that regulations stifle the growth of every industry. Regulations are put into place, normally to protect the public, but however, there are small groups of individuals that cause the regulations to be created, and it does not benefit the majority of the public.  It only benefits a small sector,” Six said.

Regulations are not to be used as something that would stifle the growth of our current businesses and and/or future businesses.  And those that are a good example would be, one of our DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] our DEP needs to be not and as much an enforcer, but an enabler that says, “In order to make this happen, this is what we see you need to do.  Let’s work together to make it better for everyone and not stop progress because one small group of individuals believe that we should do that.

Richard: I didn’t get, which position you’re referring to, or which department?

“Just, all of the departments need to be more open to helping the businesses. We don’t need to be stifling any business in our state, because we need every one of those.  We need every job.  Yes, there are essential jobs within our state, but in my opinion, everyone who has a job, it’s essential, it’s essential to their lifestyle.  It’s essential to their family.  It’s essential to keep them in a positive path to their future.

Richard:  It seems like they’re definitely some significant regulatory barriers in the agriculture area. I was talking to one candidate about the prime act. You can’t, apparently, sell any of your personal processed meat, it’s illegal.  You can process it, but if you want to sell it you have to ship it to some plant, possibly over state lines.

“It’s a very cumbersome group of individuals or a group that is out there, the USDA, that at times, they tend to have overreach that, again, it’s like everything else, instead of being an adversary, they need to be a friend of business, they need to work out the issues.  And I am a firm believer that if businesses understand that they can work through issues, they will do that,” Six said.

Richard: One issue that I’ve been working on West Virginia is the issue that we’re one of the fewer states that has no exemptions for vaccinations for school children, meaning if you don’t vaccinate your children, if you feel you want to skip a vaccine for whatever reason, religious reason personal reason, any reason, that’s absolutely not allowed in West Virginia. There’s medical exemption, supposedly. But I know I’m talking to a lot of people and they’re very hard to get. So short question is: Do you support this kind of system of forced vaccination or no school or do you think there should be exemptions or is the whole system ripe for an overhaul? What’s your opinion on that?

“I believe that the vaccinations were put into place for a reason.  Do I support all the current vaccinations that our children have to receive?  I believe, probably the current vaccinations because they’ve grown in such a large number, there are certain vaccinations that probably should be up to the parents. You know, vaccinations were brought into our system because of very deadly diseases.

We do not want to go backwards to let those diseases come back into our system at all. But, again, I believe your child’s rights should be your child, you should have the right to determine if your child has those vaccines,” Six answered.

Richard: Well, I’ve been working on that issue and I’ve researched it for decades now. Literally those kind of bills don’t get traction. Well, I would say what happens is, they’re almost always squashed in committee. So usually people have conflicts of interest in my opinion, or analysis, for example, doctors have belonged to certain medical associations. They don’t want these things to see the light of day. I think they should be discussed as you said.

“That, or a lot of things that should be discussed that don’t get discussed. And the corruption within our government is, runs, very high right now.  And we need to get rid of [break in audio]. That’s very high on my list,” Six said.

Richard:  Definitely conflicts of interest are a huge issue.

Richard: One thing I wanted to ask about is, when you think about the long-term effects of things like poverty, or opioid use or so many other things like outside of marriage pregnancy, all those things. I’m wondering, should we have an approach,  And this isn’t maybe so much a government thing but something I’m wondering what you personally think, where we encourage youth to stay abstinent before marriage, Our non-profit does that. Is that something that should be encouraged, or not or what do you think?  Meaning, stay abstinent, because then if they have a stable family that addresses many of the issues that we see now a days. What do you think?

“I totally agree with what you’re saying, okay, because we can continue to subsidize our programs, but we’re putting that emphasis after everything’s already happened, instead of going back. It’s kind of like whipping the tail of the snake to kill it. You never do. You have to go to where the problem, the root of the problem is.  And what you’re saying, about we need to promote our youth not to be as promiscuous as they are,” Six said.

Richard: Well, I think we’re coming more toward the conclusion. I just want to ask how would you compare yourself to the other Republican gubernatorial candidates? How would you differentiate yourself?  Why would the voters choose you versus, say, the other five or so?

“I guess that I would say that you could choose me if you really want a change.  If you want a change from a politician that knows the system, and knows how to work the system and will work the system for their benefit and not your benefit, then you probably should vote for one of the other candidates,” Six said.

“If you want someone that’s going to back you as a citizen of our state and try and help our state bring itself up and try to make our state a better place to live as far as, it’s hard to make it a better place to live. Our state’s a beautiful state,” Six added.

“But as far as being a productive individual in our state, if that’s what you want, and you want to see our state become productive and not go down the same path, I am the individual.  I’m honest.  I’m trustworthy and I will be very accountable to each and every individual in our state, not just a few. So, that’s kind of where I’m at,” Six concluded.

Richard: Thank you for sharing. Anything else you’d like to share with the viewers, in conclusion?

“Just please, make sure that you go and vote. It’s very important.  It doesn’t matter who you vote for. Do not give up those rights. Those rights have been fought for for many, many years and are being continued every day.  Our servicemen fight for those rights.  So please take those rights seriously, and go and vote,” Six said.

Richard: Okay, thank you very much. Do vote, June 9th.  There are many, of course the gubernatorial primaries, but also you have no less than three Supreme Court justices out of five.   That’s unprecedented.  And your school board, magistrates and sheriffs.  So those candidates, except the sheriffs, will be elected on June 9th only.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Roy Ramey-Republican for Commissioner of Agriculture-West Virginia

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Welcome this edition of the Richard Urban Show. I’m your host, Richard Urban, coming to you from historic Harpers Ferry, WV. We present news and views from God’s point of view. Today, May 22, we’re very happy to have Roy Ramey on. He’s a Republican candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture here in West Virginia. So please introduce yourself.

“Well, hello, my name is Roy Ramey and I’m a small regenerative farmer, in Cabell County, WV, just outside of Lesage. We do pasture poultry, pasture pork and pastured eggs as well as a few other odds and ends, but those are the main stay. And we also do some workshops and training events and help out the other folks to learn this style of farming,” Ramey said.

“I’m also a 31-year veteran in the Army, currently a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, still serving. And I guess I’ll keep serving until they kick me out. And I’m also a proud husband and father, I have an 11-year-old daughter, whom we home-school and I stay pretty active in my community helping out with other civic events and fraternal organizations and so forth, that I’m a part of,” Ramey added.

Richard: Well, that’s great. So how did you come to decide to run for Commissioner of Agriculture? And what are your three main platform points, your main points that you’re running on?

“So I have been practicing regenerative agriculture for several years now. I learned this style from Joel Saladin, Polyface Farm, he’s actually closer to you all. You may heard of him. He’s the most famous farmer in the world. And I started learning those methods and finding out how difficult it is actually with the regulatory environment that we have. And I got over a lot of it,” Ramey answered.

“I left and went on active duty tour with the Army Reserve for a few years and came back and as I was trying to get my farm re-established and fully operational again, I started realizing there were some new regulations in there that the Department of Agriculture was probably pushing. And I thought, Man, this is undoable and it makes it an extreme burden that’s just not financially feasible for small farmers,” Ramey added.

“And the more I got to look into it I thought, the guy that’s standing in the way on a lot of this, or not defending us is the Commissioner of Agriculture. And I was going to get into the Legislature and try to change some of the laws and I thought, No, the bureaucrats are the ones that are causing a lot of this problem. So, I need to go there and not be the door but open the door. ” Ramey continued.

“And that really got me into this mission, and deciding to help cut some of this regulatory burden and make it easier for small family farms. In West Virginia we don’t have very many industrial farms. Yet, the regulations that are put in place at the federal and state level, are geared, not toward our safety as we’re often lied to, but they’re actually there to protect the industrial farming system as opposed to the small family farms,” Ramey said.

“And so there’s a difference between what a lot of people will tell you. Everybody says they’re for the small farm. And nobody’s gonna say, I’m against small farms, but what they really mean [when] most of the bureaucrats talk about small farms, they’re talking about industrial farms on a small scale. I’m actually talking about small farms producing food for their local communities

Richard: What’s the difference between a regenerative farm and say, and an organic farm? Or is it similar or the same?

“So there’s some similarities and I’m glad you ask that. A lot of people hear organic, and they just think this nice idyllic farm, but there’s a lot of vagaries in the organic label, it’s actually controlled by the US Department of Agriculture as a franchise. And there’s a lot of problems with it, despite what people think and you can do a lot of not so great things in producing food and get away with it and still put the certified organic label on it,” Ramey explained.

“The big difference is in regenerative farming, it’s about rebuilding the soil and rebuilding the environment. We pasture our animals and we move them around the pasture and we never shovel manure. Because we let the animals do that. And we make sure that it gets spread around to all the fields that we’re actually using and help rebuild that soil,” Ramey continued.

“One of my big passions is raw milk, and we hear a lot of contention about raw milk, and that’s a passion of mine. I think we should be able to have it. And whether you want it or don’t want it, we can both be right on that. Nobody’s going to twist your arm and force you to go get raw milk or take away pasteurized milk. However, as an individual, by the way our Constitution was meant to protect individual freedoms and choices, and therefore as one of the constitutional officers, I’m going to protect that freedom and the right to be able to choose raw milk, if you want to get it,” Ramey said.

Richard: On your site you posted about the Prime Act. So that sounds like a good idea, do you want to tell the viewers about that?

“The Prime Act. You know one of the big problems that we have is the meat production in the country as a whole. And you’re seeing a lot of that now, with the availability of meat in our super markets where most people go to get their groceries,” Ramey said.

“And the Prime Act is a bill by Congressman Thomas Massie, in Kentucky and he farms regeneratively over there, and a very smart guy, and he developed this about five or six years ago, actually. And it keeps getting knocked down. But that bill will allow us to use our Custom inspection, we got three levels of inspection – custom, state level, and USDA level – and each of those means a little different something. And custom is when you have your own animal that you take to the slaughter house and they’re going to process it for you and you pick it all up and take it home and you can’t sell any of that meat at all, although presumably it’s safe enough because you’re allowed to consume it for yourself and your family, you just can’t sell it for $1. The Prime Act would allow states to change their laws to go within the state. You would be able to use custom level slaughter guidelines in order to sell me in your local area or within the state.” Ramey added.

“Now, most people want to be able to support local farmers and they just can’t do it with the current regulatory environment and if we would change to add something like the Prime Act and then having an accompanying bill within the state of West Virginia to support that, then we could put our local meat in our grocery stores and our farmers markets and even sell directly at retail, [cuts?-unclear audio]. That’s what the Prime Act is, and I support that for the federal level, and I will build a rapport with other states that they’re supporting it, as well, and try to get that national support that Congressman Massie needs to be able to pass that bill in Congress,” Ramey said.

Richard: I was reading about GMO crops and versus non-GMO, that there could be contamination, among, neighboring farms or things. Is that an issue in West Virginia or in general? Is that something you’re concerned about or not?

“Yes, it is a concern. And let me address it in a couple of different ways, specifically what you referred to. We do have some GMO but because we’re not a generally industrial level forming community, we don’t have a lot of it, we do have some of it,” Ramey answered.

“The big thing is when I want to get feed for my livestock, I can’t get a GMO free, feed ’cause it’s just not available around here. I have to buy it pre-bagged from somewhere else. Have it shipped in at an enormous cost. Yet. I’ve got a feed mill that’s 20 miles up the road one way in 35 miles up the road. Another way that if we just had GMO-free material available, then I could get the GMO-free feed and I actually have a ton of customers who would want that very thing and they would even pay extra,” Ramey continued.

“The big thing with GMOs, and in a lot of discussions and debates about this very thing, it’s not necessarily that it’s GMO, it’s what is that GMO designed to do. We genetically modify a crop in order to do something to have some kind of resistance and in most of the cases, the resistance is to spray toxic poisons on it. They’ll kill everything else but allow this corn, this soybean to grow,” Ramey said.

“And so that’s the majority of the GMOs that we see, particularly with plants. We want to be able to spray Roundup on everything else and not kill our corn or soybeans. And so number one, it needs to be labeled,” Ramey said.

 “One of the things that happens and, again, it’s not so much here but in bigger agriculture communities what you have is a lot of farmers will have the GMO seed that they’re planting. And then you might have the lone holdout nowadays, just about all the industrials use GMOs. But a few folks were not. And so, the GMOs will cross-contaminate through the pollination process into the guy that’s not using a GMO seed and so he saves his seed, but now, it’s contaminated if you will,” Ramey said.

Richard: To bring it more to conclusion, how would you like contrast yourself with your opponent? I know you’re running against the incumbent. Kent Leonhardt, right? So what would be the contrast for voters? They have those two choices on the Republican side.

“So for starters, I’m not a professional politician, and he is, I don’t have a lot of big money and I definitely don’t have any industrial money backing me. The little bit of money that I have gotten has either been my own or everyday people in West Virginia or around… I do have some friends out of state that are regenerative farmers that support me, want to see this, and I’m not a bureaucrat, by any stretch of the imagination. I do believe in the Constitution and protecting it absolutely to the letter. I’ve done extensive study of our founding fathers and of their establishment of the Constitution, the history around the founding of the country, and I well understand the Constitution and the intent behind it with protecting our individual rights,” Ramey said.

“And with my 31 years of military service, I didn’t serve to protect the government of this country. I served to protect the people of this country and this service, with running for office, is just an extension of the service that I’ve spent 31 years to do. I’m not about protecting the bureaucratic system,” Ramey concluded.

Richard: Well, I want to thank you very much for coming on today and hope you will watch and will make informed choices and we know you’re running on the Republican ticket for Commissioner of Agriculture. And so, they can vote on June 9th.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Richard Ojeda-Democrat for US Senate-West Virginia

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Richard Ojeda Article

Good morning, welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban Show. I’m your host, Richard Urban coming from historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. We present news and views from God’s point of view. Today, May 21, we very happy to have Richard Ojeda, a candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Democratic ticket here in West Virginia. So please introduce yourself.

“Thank you very much for having me on your show. I am retired after 24 years from the United State Army. When I retired and came back home, I found myself in the classroom for four years teaching at Chapman, the Regional High School, and then I was also elected as a state senator for the seventh senatorial district. In my first year as a state senator, I was able to make West Virginia the 29th state to become legal for medical cannabis. And that wasn’t all the things that I was able to accomplish during that session, but that was probably my main fight,” Ojeda said.

“The very next year, as we all know, we had the teachers strike and I feel very comfortable that I was one of the main characters in elevating the voices of our educators. So I’m running for office for the United State Senate in West Virginia. During the mid-terms, I was number one in turning red boats blue out of all 435 races and I believe that I am the best candidate to go forward that has an opportunity to turn a Red seat blue in the Senate,” Ojeda continued.

Richard: You mentioned the medical marijuana on the state level here. Certainly I remember that. What would you say are your three main platform points for your US Senate candidacy?

“Well, first off I want to end Citizens United.  We’ve got to get big money out of politics. I want to fight Right to Work. I’m a huge supporter of unions. I think people deserve to have a seat at the table. If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re usually on the menu. And that’s where our working class citizens are at today, so those are two main issues. I also want to give people across this country the ability to have a non-addictive form of pain management, which is cannabis. I’m talking about fighting for medical cannabis across the country.  I want to end forever wars.  Those are just some of the top things that I want to fight for,” Ojeda answered.

Richard: What do you think about the current situation with COVID-19? To me, personally, I’ve been blogging on that a lot and talking about it. That’s a really concerning issue about the governors putting in a lot of restrictions on constitutional rights. What is your feeling about that? Has there been overreach in the mandates and edicts by the governors?

“Well, you know, first off, I’m going through the COVID-19 here in West Virginia and I will tell you that for the first time in three years, we finally have a governor that’s actually speaking and trying to educate and help the people. For the first time our governors have finally stepped up and done something across this country. I don’t think that we’re listening to the experts the way that we should, we should be listening to Dr. Fauci. I think that if we do things like opening these areas too soon I think that we risk the numbers skyrocketing. So my thoughts are is that we’re talking about the lives of our citizens.  I think we’re right about 95,000 deaths since this began in only just a few months,” Ojeda said.

“I mean, luckily I’m here. Campaigning is being done online. Here we are, and this is a phenomenal way for me to be able to reach voters because actually I can’t be out there knocking on doors because if I catch that and I’m delivering it to other people, I’m putting their lives in jeopardy and we cannot allow that to happen,” Ojeda added.

Richard: You mentioned 95,000. I think that the statistics the CDC has a lower number. Well, let’s leave that alone for now. What do you say to people who indicate that this isn’t so much different than a flu season, or maybe a bad flu season, maybe not even a bad one? How do you feel about that?

“Absolutely wrong. I mean, at the end of the day, this is a global pandemic that is absolutely turning economies upside down. It’s causing people to lose everything. This is a serious situation and I think that we should not play with it. I’ve got parents, they’re in their 70s, and I’m doing everything in my power to keep them from going out from going to the stores. I don’t want to give up one single person to this virus,” Ojeda said.

Richard: What about a somewhat related issue? I was listening to William Binney recently. He was working for the NSA, for 20 plus years or 30 years, until 2001, and he was talking about the continued surveillance as a result of the Patriot Act and at how actually they’re collecting data and then they say they don’t collect data. The short question is if when funding comes up, like for the NSA, would you try to defund those kind of surveillance programs on all the US citizens, or do you think they’re okay. What’s your view on that?

“Well, first and foremost, hopefully, if I am given the honor to represent these people and I find out that the NSA are actually doing those things, I’m against that whole heartedly and I’ll fight them tooth and nail to make sure that those things don’t happen. No, we cannot even allow organizations to privately break the law for the ‘good’. That’s unacceptable,” Ojeda responded.

Richard: Absolutely. Well, one issue that’s close to my heart is the issue of vaccinations and forced vaccinations. As you know in West Virginia, from being in the Senate, that’s something that keeps coming up here, but also on the national level through the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, the liability was removed for the ability to sue pharmaceutical companies and we have the so-called vaccine court, that’s given out over $4 billion. So, the short question is, Would you, should you be elected, support getting back the ability to sue pharmaceutical companies for injuries on vaccines or would you oppose that?

“If it’s proven that vaccines have done that, absolutely. Let me tell you. I want to fist fight big pharma for the opioid epidemic that they have thrown on top of us and for their actions in our capitals, at the state level and national level where they go in and they grease the pockets of legislators to buy their freedom to buy their security, so that they can continue doing the things that they do,” Ojeda answered.

“And look, like I said, I believe in taking your shots. I’m not one of those anti-vaxxer folks so make no mistake about it. I’m also able to look and see and realize that today one out of so many children and, it’s an alarming number, have autism. And we got to wonder, “Where is all of that coming from? So I’m not against doing the research and putting things in action so that we can pinpoint exactly what this is that is causing this and make no mistake about it, if it’s vaccinations that are being pushed, you can probably guarantee that somebody probably knows that that’s taken place, and in that case, they need to go down,” Ojeda continued.

Richard: That’s been come up with the William Thompson case.  And you’re right, I think the conflicts of interest are huge, with a big pharma and yeah, definitely the whole CDC. Like a related question is would you promote doing safety studies, because now they’re not doing vaccinated vs. unvaccinated safety studies, no one knows if the vaccines being introduced or ready existing cause more harm than good. Would you like promote doing those kind of safety studies?

“Absolutely, absolutely, first off, before we stick the first needle into the skin of anybody there should be testing to make sure.  Nobody is a lab rat. Nobody.  And nobody is expendable. We cannot allow these companies to do [that]. Let me tell you, I am from the southern part of West Virginia, and the opioid epidemic has literally destroyed our communities, has fractured our families. We know now because of information that has been gathered that the people that did this basically knew, that they used us as lab rats, even caught on video or on email, basically saying keep them coming boys. They are eating them up like Doritos. That’s the type of people that are at big pharma.  And they could care less about you and I.” Ojeda answered.

Richard: So this is an interesting question. President Trump’s been saying, Maybe we’ll have a vaccination possibly coming for the COVID-19. Maybe we’ll have the military giving it because I guess they need more personnel. So if there is a vaccine developed in the future should everyone have to take that? Some people are coming out with those kind of things. Hey, you want to work at some place you have got to take this vaccine or no job. Do you agree with that? Do you disagree with that?

“I don’t think that that would ever happen, I really don’t think that that would happen. I don’t think that our country would ever push anything of that nature. Now, if they come up with a corona virus vaccine that can cure the disease and then if they want to give that to people that have come down with the symptoms, and if they can prove that it works I don’t have a problem with that, but as far as line up everybody, mandatory. I don’t think that our country will ever push anybody to do things of that nature,” Ojeda said.

Richard: I hope not.

“I hope not, too, because once again, you always hear about those types of things. But I would like to think that our government is not the type of government that rules with an iron fist even though right now we have somebody in office that would love to do just that,” Ojeda responded.

Richard: You mentioned the right to work. Can you explain a little more?

Let me tell you when you hear certain terms, ‘Citizens United’, ‘Right to Work’. Sounds great. They’re usually bad.  Right-to-work legislation is a union buster.   And that’s all that it is,” Ojeda responded.

Richard: What about the issue of so-called Red Flag laws with putting restrictions on the right to bear arms because someone reported you, they said you’re psycho. What’s your opinion on those kind of laws?

“I disagree, I disagree. I don’t think people should be able to call somebody and get them labeled. Now, do I think we’ve got people around here that probably shouldn’t be running around carrying weapons? There’s probably a few of them that probably shouldn’t be running around carrying weapons,” Ojeda said.

Richard: I noticed on your website you were supporting President Trump in 2016 I guess now you’re not. Do you want to share anything about that?

Absolutely, I do. First and foremost, I supported, I wanted Bernie Sanders, when Bernie Sanders lost. First off, I want you to know that Bernie Sanders won all 55 counties in West Virginia. But when they said ‘who’s gonna get the votes?’ they said Hillary Clinton. They took it from Bernie Sanders and that left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. How can they give Hillary Clinton to West Virginia when she didn’t win one single county and a lot of people were angry about that, I was angry about that,” Ojeda responded.

Richard: So wrapping up, did you want to share anything else like with the viewer that they should know about your candidacy and why they should choose you in the Democratic primary June 9th?

“Well, I think that if people research me, they will see a lot of times people think ‘This guy seems like he’s always angry’. It’s passion. I spent 24 years in the military, and I thought that the leadership that I served under in the military was the best I’ve ever seen in my life and I thought that that was how it was also on the civilian ticket. So when I retired and come out, I didn’t find that I found people with their hands in the cookie jar. I found people that were bullies and that’s when I started challenging people. A lot of people don’t know. I won my state Senate race from the emergency room because two days before I won that race, I was struck in the back of the head knocked unconscious rolled over and had eight bones broken in my face with brass knuckles,” Ojeda answered.

“I am not scared to continue standing up and fighting these people.  They should have killed me, because make no mistake about it.  I refuse to sit back when I see things that are wrong.  Never walk past something that you know it’s wrong and fail to make comment for if you do you’ve accepted a new lower standard.  And I’m the guy that will refuse to sit silent when I see these things going on in Washington D.C.  I will alert everybody as to what has happened.  If people go to www.voteojeda2020.com, they can check out my page. I also do live videos, literally every single week, sometimes twice a week, because I believe in making a two-way line of communication with people and they can ask questions and I answer right there in front of everybody,” Ojeda added.

Richard: Alright that’s a good conclusion. Well, thank you very much for coming on today and we’ll make this available on video and podcast and hope people will take the time to watch it and make informed decisions on June 9th.

Categories
West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Jody Murphy-Democratic Candidate for West Virginia Governor

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Jody Murphy Article

Welcome to this evening’s edition of the Richard Urban Show. I’m your host Richard Urban coming to you from historic Harpers Ferry, WV on May 21. We’re very happy to have Jody Murphy on. He’s a Democratic candidate for West Virginia Governor. So please introduce yourself.

“Thank you for having me, first of all. I really appreciate it.  My name is Jody Murphy, I’m a Democratic candidate for governor; first time running for office; live in Wood County, Parkersburg, WV I’ve been here 17 years,” Murphy said.

“Married 23 years, wife, three boys, four cats. I’m currently working for FedEx. Before that, I’ve worked for the Pleasants County Chamber of Commerce, the Pleasants County Development Authority, and I was a newspaper reporter for about almost 15 years working in Parkersburg,” Murphy added.

Richard: So could you tell us the three main campaign or platform points you’re running on?

“Sure, sure, I think the – and this may not apply as much to your Harpers Ferry Eastern Panhandle – but my main platform, my number one goal, is to recruit and retain residents. I tell folks all the time I’m running because I want my children and my children’s children to live in West Virginia, I don’t want to go to North Carolina to visit my kids.” Murphy answered.

“Most of the state has been losing population since the 1950’s. We’re hemorrhaging population and the population that we’re losing is our youngest, our best, brightest, and the working tax-paying population. So, I want to recruit and retain those people. We need to grow our tax base. I tell people, we need more taxpayers, not more taxes. So that’s really my biggest platform and my second is to diversify the economy, grow and diversify the economy. And I know these are big things, or just things that a lot of people have been saying from decades of governorship but I believe I can do it because I did it in Pleasants County,” Murphy responded.

Richard: Since you mentioned growing the population, what are your ideas on that? How would you go about that?

“Well, when we were in Pleasants County with the Chamber of Commerce, we did a promotion where we would pay people to live in Pleasants County. We paid folks $2,000 to build and buy a home in Pleasants County, it was essentially a rebate on their first year property taxes, but we cut them a check. If anyone built or bought a home in Pleasants County we gave them $2000,” Murphy said.

“I want to create entrepreneurship zones in smaller towns, in smaller areas that used to be really prosperous. I’d like to create entrepreneurship zones. I want to create income tax-free retirement communities. I think that there are seniors that don’t want to retire to Florida, “ Murphy continued.

Richard: How would they become income tax free? Would it have to be passed by the legislature?

“It would, it would probably would have to be approved by the legislature as well as the county. So it would start as, I’d like to do it as a pilot program to see if that’s something that we can attract.  But I think if it’s income tax-free, as you know, Tennessee, and Florida are both income tax free states, and that’s where folks like to go. So I’d like to try it as a pilot program,” Murphy explained.

Richard: One thing I’m interested in and passionate about is the issue of no school, no vaccinations. And the reason I’m mentioning this at this stage of the interview is that I know a bunch of parents who moved out of the state because of that. What’s your stand on that? Is that a good policy? Like no school, no vaccines, no exceptions, no religious exemptions, and no personal exemptions. What do you think?

“My wife’s a family nurse practitioner. I’m a pretty big believer in vaccines,” Murphy said.

Richard: Most states or pretty much all states have some requirements but usually there’s exemptions. So you don’t think there could be any in West Virginia?

“I like that West Virginia is actually a pretty strong, I guess, the state is pretty pro-vaccine, and yeah, I’m fairly happy with that, pretty comfortable with it.” Murphy responded.

Richard; Now one thing I noticed in another interview is that I believe you wanted to make opioid use legal. How would that look? How would that work, or is that correct?

“Not exactly.  I’m promoting the legalization, the full legalization of cannabis, marijuana, full legalization.  One, it would create industry.  It would create growth, jobs and a set up for industry.  We would have people willingly doing tax money, paying us tax money.  I wrote an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette called A Reluctance to Tax the Willing.  If we legalize cannabis and marijuana people will buy it and we will collect tax money off of it. And I want to use that revenue stream that’s a new revenue stream.  I want to use that to fix PEIA.  And I also want to use it towards regular, less union’s health care, costs.

I do want the decriminalization of the possession of opioids. I want to decriminalize that. I don’t think we should be prosecuting and criminalizing folks that are self-harming. Our jails are overrun with people that are users; they’re addicts.  And I’m not sure that sending them to jail is the right punishment,” Murphy said.

Richard: As far as education, I was reading or I noticed you were saying that we should have possibly a free college education? And another point, I know recently, a bill added one or two or three charter schools but you said no, no charter schools. So, I guess short question is why no charter schools? And also the free education. How would that look? Does everybody need college? How would you pay for it?

“My biggest fear of charter schools is that it takes money – public money – away from public education. Now what I’m proposing as far as post-secondary – what I’m proposing is the opportunities for free post-secondary education and what that means is, let’s say Berkeley, Berkeley County. We’d go to voters and give them the opportunity pass a post-secondary school levy, like the school bond in which they agree to be taxed as a group and that money set aside – that tax money is set aside to provide free post-secondary educational opportunities for their residents’ children,” Murphy answered.

Richard: Generally, the great majority of property taxes go for local schools. So already, it’s hard to see how people will want to pay twice as much or something like that.

“I think it depends. Again, you’re getting a little more bang for your buck here, you’re not sending your kids to high school, you’re sending your kids to get a chemical operator’s license or you get a welder to get a four-year to your degree. So I think one you’re promising them a little more bang for their buck,” Murphy.

Richard: What do you think about the personal income tax, personal property tax, and the business inventory tax?  What’s your opinion on those three taxes? Are they good, bad or indifferent?

“Well, one, businesses are not paying enough, they’re not paying their fair share. If you and I working, tax-paying West Virginians, we make up 75% of the state’s annual budget. 75% of the state four and a half billion dollar budget is funded, you and I on our back. Now business, not through an inventory tax, not through severance taxes, those things, make up less on 12% of the state’s annual budget, So businesses need to pay their fair share, they need to pay a little more,” Murphy said.

Richard: Can you explain the severance tax?

“Severance tax is tax money, taken on, on exports, particularly coal, oil, natural gas, timber – any of our raw materials that leave the state of West Virginia are subject to a severance tax and I think we only charge about one to two percent on severance taxes, depending on the export that we’re talking about. Coal is a big one. They just lowered the export tax on coal, the severance tax on coal recently,” Murphy answered.

Richard: With the COVID-19 situation we see that Gov. Justice and a lot of governors have put in a lot of mandates, lock downs and different restrictions. So do you feel that’s violating constitutional rights or do you think it’s just about right or it’s way overkill or what’s your opinion on that?

“I think Gov. Justice I think he’s doing pretty well, I think he’s following the right advice and I know there’s a concern about the governor overstepping his powers, and I think that is certainly a valid complaint. But I think at the time that we had the pandemic that we were really concerned about the unknown, I think they were taking a lot of the good steps, a lot of the steps in the right direction,” Murphy responded.

Richard: How would you differentiate yourself from your opponents? You have four opponents on the Democratic ticket. What would differentiate you from those other opponents?

“What’s different is that those guys have money. I’m the guy that nobody’s heard of. However, I’m the fellow with the ideas that have actually done things. I’ve done economic development. I helped save the coal power plant in Pleasants County. I helped rebuild the grocery store in Pleasant County, keep it from becoming a food desert. What I tell people is that I can recruit, retain, and diversify the economy,” Murphy said.

Richard: So anything else you’d like to say, in concluding, about your campaign?

“Well, I’ve got a whole lot of ideas, a little blog post on my website, murphy4wv.com. I’m on Facebook. My cell number is 304-991-2350. If anybody has any questions, I’m available to talk when I’m not at work. I try and respond to e-mails, I’m pretty open,” Murphy concluded.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with William J.R. Keplinger-Democratic Candidate for WV Commissioner of Agriculture

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William Keplinger-Article

Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban show. I’m your host Richard Urban, coming to you from historic Harpers Ferry, W.V. We present news and views from God’s point of view. Today, May 21, we’re very happy to have William Keplinger on. He’s running for Commissioner of Agriculture on the Democratic ticket. So please introduce yourself and tell us about yourself or your family, whatever you’d like to introduce.

“Okay, I appreciate it, thank you, Richard. I’m William J.R. Keplinger or most people call me JR. That’s my nickname and actually that’s my name. I’m 51 years old, I live in Moorefield, W.V. I’m a third generation farmer, and I’ve got to tell you, one of the proud things. I got a letter in the mail. I am proudly endorsed the West Virginia Farm Bureau, so that was something, that I’ve been a Farm Bureau member for 30 years,” Keplinger said.

“I’ve been married to my wife, Stacy my lovely wife, of 18 years, I’ve got to compliment her; maybe she’ll see the video.  I have two lovely children. I have Makenzie my daughter and William is my son. I live on a family farm on South Fork, that’s outside of Moorefield, and we raised 700,000 broiler chickens and 65 head of brood cows. Then I went to West Virginia University and studied resource management and economics at the school of agriculture, WVU.  I graduated from there in 1991 and started a business providing bedding for farm animals and it’s called Keplinger Shavings and it’s still in operation today. So I’m quite proud of a successful business. You definitely need to understand business, if you’re going to help someone in your state. That’s one of the requirements that you must have, you need to know business. And so after that I started the business. In 2000 I ran for County Commissioner, Hardy County Commissioner and I got elected. I’ve served 18 years as a Hardy County Commissioner and during that time, I was also on the West Virginia County Commissioners Association Board and served there for 12 years, which, that was so many wonderful people I got to meet across the state. We had meetings in different counties throughout the state, and it was just a lot of networking. You got to understand how counties operate how the different problems at each county, all 55 have similar problems and they handle it in different ways and it works.  You need to talk to one another to find out what works and how to solve. Why reinvent that wheel?  So that networking is very important.  And so that’s some of the experience that I’ve gained from that, “Keplinger continued.

Richard: Okay, thanks for sharing. What are your three main campaign points or three main issues that you’ll most emphasize?

“The one thing that I want to see is I want to expand and improve on agriculture.  We have technology out there today that most people, they haven’t seen, they haven’t heard.  And the easier way; we have high tunnels now, the way you can climate control and grow vegetables.  And the same thing with high tunnels goes into the poultry business, which I’ve been in for several years. You climate control everything. You know what you’re heat is, know what your water flow, what your temperature is, you can increase it or you can lower it, and that promotes the number of the days that you can grow a product. And on food safety we went through this terrible medical emergency, we had the corona virus hit us and we see the importance of quality food and so food safety and animal safety in the animal health. We have to help those farmers and help the public, the citizens of state of West Virginia be able to have a resource of safe and quality food and be able to purchase that local quality food, and just to increase the awareness of agriculture. I want to promote the youth in agriculture. I think 4-H, some of the most important youth programs out there, they inspire leadership and citizenship and community involvement. And that’s the three of the many that I can touch upon that, I think it’s very important that we need to work on with the Agriculture Department and work with people” Keplinger answered.

Richard: “Well, I want to interject one thing about food safety. So do you feel there’s a dynamic or conflict between the GMO crops and organic crops, or those kind of practices? Is that causing some problem?  I was reading sometimes that some farmers are saying, there’s cross-contamination.  Is that an issue here in West Virginia that you’ve seen or is that causing any trouble?

“I haven’t seen any trouble on it, but we’ve got to be environmentally aware of what we use and what we do. And a farmer, he knows what he has to do, he’s not gonna use too many chemicals or anything that is not necessary because that’s a cost to him.  He’s in it to make a profit.  He doesn’t make a lot of profit; some of the farmers just barely get by.  But a successful farm knows how they need to diversify our and they need to do certain things to make their product successful and grow. And as far as some of the largest farms, you have to have some type of a Round-Up Ready corn.  The smaller farms, vegetable garden, things of that nature, you can have companion plants. And what are those?  They are allow to attract the bugs away from your plants that you’re growing, your vegetables. So those are some techniques that help on the natural side,” Keplinger responded.

Richard: So you feel that those like the Round-Up things are necessary for the larger farms? They use those right?

“They are and if there’s something better out there we got to continue to research and find better ways of producing things and better ways of protecting our crops. Technology is there, we just need to advance it further, we need to be aware of what opportunities we have and that’s where the education value comes in. And the youth, we need to find a place for our youth in our agriculture future. My daughter was in DECA, and she went to the state, won state honors. And when this corona virus it knocked that nationals out, She was all fired up. She was going to Nashville, Tennessee,” Keplinger added.

Richard: Okay, About the COVID-19 – has that affected your operational? We’ve seen or heard, or seeing that there’s some shortages of like meat, or is it affected? Maybe farmers are not so much in West Virginia.

“Well as a farmer we’re always bio-secure. We have to worry about diseases in whatever manner for our farms, our culture farms. Or probably more bio-secure than any. But even your cattle farms, you need to be aware of the potential diseases that are out there and safeguard yourself. And so we were a little bit more aware of possibilities and potential scares, more than the public, but as far as changes we just practiced the same methods that were given to us from the CDC and social distancing,” Keplinger said.

Richard: Do farm subsidies come into play much in West Virginia? Do you think they’re a good idea or a bad idea? Should it be more just market-driven?

“Well, I do believe the market should help us more than anything.  Subsidies are there for a reason, and if you’re honest, and you need help, being it a drought or, whatever it may be, that’s what they’re there for. They’re for a crisis situation to where you need help, through an area where an economy burst just kind of slows your whole production down. And then that could be a possibility to help sustain those people until they get back on their feet,” Keplinger answered.

 Richard: I think it came up in my other interview. Do you think the products should be labeled for country of origin or do you not or do you have any opinion about that?

“Oh yeah, I do believe. I believe it’s called COOL, country of origin labeling yes, I do believe that I would want to know where my products come from. If I’m eating a hamburger, I would want to know if its Argentina or what have you, and you know, my preference would be West Virginia, that’s where I would like to see it from. And I think that’s one of my platforms, I would like to see, I think West Virginia needs to create a branding. You look at Kentucky. They have Kentucky brand beef,” Keplinger responded.

Richard: The GMO labeling, would you support that? I think that’s been very contentious as far as I know. I guess it’s more national issue but should things be labeled if they have GMO?

“Well, yeah, they should be labeled. It shouldn’t be deceiving in any manner. I have no problem about that,” Keplinger said.

Richard: Just to wrap up, are any other things you’d like to share with the voters, like how you may differentiate or why should they vote for you versus the other couple of candidates? I know in the primary you have a two opponents there.

“Well, for one, I’ll go through a little list of what I’ve done. Of course, I’ve been a third generation farmer.  I’ve owned a business for 30 years successfully, and still operating the farm.  I was a County Commissioner for 18 years I served on the secure Rural Schools program I was on West Virginia insurance risk pool. I was on the West Virginia County Commissions Association Board,” Keplinger said.

“I was on the Planning Commission for Hardy County.  I was on the Regional Waste Water Authority; it was a $41 million project that helped the Chesapeake Bay.  And I try to be a good steward of the land as well as a farmer.  Career Technology Educational Advisory Council, Hardy County Public Park Region 8 Council, the Extension Service Committee and so many others…. So I’ve been quite busy through my years,” Keplinger continued.

“Food safety is a priority of our citizens of the state of West Virginia. Education is essential for the future of agriculture. Technology is growing in the agriculture industry at a tremendous pace. We need to support our youth organizations like 4-H and FFA and help our children learn about agriculture, leadership and community. Our agriculture industry needs our children to be part of our agriculture future as we maneuver through these trying times. With the medical crisis upon us, our need for safe food and abundant food resources and bio-security are well understood. We need to market West Virginia products. We need to allow citizens of our state the opportunity to purchase West Virginia grown products,” Keplinger concluded.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Charles Robert Sheedy Sr-Republican Candidate for WV Governor

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Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban Show. I’m your host Richard Urban coming to you from historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and today, May 21, we’re very happy to have on the show Mr. Charles Sheedy, running for governor on the Republican ticket here in West Virginia. So please go ahead and introduce yourself.

“I thank you very much for having me on. My name is Charles Sheedy, Sr. I am a Republican candidate for the governor of West Virginia, I am a lifelong Republican, not a party switcher. My staff includes my wife, who’s my campaign manager and our public relations official, which is our golden retriever Susie. You may have seen us traveling around the state. We travel around the state, in our camper trailer and that enables us to be in touch with the people and get to know a lot of other travelers out there on the road also. We tend to stay at private campgrounds.  That keeps us in connection with the small business owners of these properties, also.  I embrace term limits, lower taxes and definitely want pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-God.” Sheedy said.

“So if you think that government is small now, it needs to be smaller. We have been campaigning now for over a year and a half, just about two years now. I decided to run in October of 2018. I’m not accepting corporate contributions or endorsements of any type. I feel that those lead to corruption. I am not a businessman or a politician. I’m a retired working man, retired combat veteran. I served with US Army, U.S. Army Reserves and went to the Army National Guard and retired from there in 2013. I’m also retired from the West Virginia Department of Highways. I worked there for thirty years and I have very intimate knowledge of state government and how things work; not the way they’re supposed to, but the way that they do work,” Sheedy continued.

Richard: I think you’ve already did cover your main three points that you’re emphasizing in your campaign. You mentioned several things, do you want to emphasize perhaps the three that are most important and dear to you?

“Definitely. Term limits, smaller government and lower taxes,” Sheedy answered.

Richard: Okay.  One of the issues that’s being discussed is the business and inventory tax and the personal property tax, so what would you do about those issues?

“The business inventory tax that does nothing but hurt our small businesses. I realized that it helps our county governments, but at the same time that is killing small business right now with this Coronavirus small businesses are hurting very badly. Some of the small businesses are going to go under. Some of them may try to come back. I see some of them not even attempting to come back. Because what happens is if we get hit with a second wave of this Coronavirus then they’re going to be in just as bad of shape, if not worse, than they already are,” Sheedy said.

“These people that own their own small businesses. My step-daughter and her husband, in Morgantown, they own Creek Roofing and Siding, which is a small business, they are hurting tremendously. They have building payments they have to make. They have inventory taxes that they have to pay” Sheedy explained.

“The inventory tax needs to go away. That has done nothing over years but hurt business opportunities, and the personal property taxes – that needs to go away. Why do you keep paying property taxes on your vehicles year after year after year after year? We are being taxed to death. “Personal income tax in the state.  You did not ask about that, sir, but I am going to tell you about that one. West Virginia pays the highest personal income tax of any neighboring state, and people that are making 18,000 a year, they are paying the highest percentage and you’re paying the maximum amount of personal income tax which that is definitely wrong,” Sheedy said..

Richard: You mentioned reducing the size of government. So when we remove these taxes, which sounds like a good idea, to me, then will we reduce the size, the government? Or would you have more like sales or user taxes or none of the above? You know, what I mean? How would we balance the budget?

“Definitely cut the size of government. Government is so over regulated right now with this Coronavirus updates coming out daily. You’ve got four government regulatory organizations that are fighting over how to reopen everything, they can’t decide on how to open things back up. And this is from a lack of leadership at the executive level. There’s just so many people in charge. The Homeland Security, National Guard, everybody is involved, everybody wants to have their input into everything re-opening back up and it’s just a quagmire and stagnant. That’s in Charleston right now,” Sheedy said.

“If I had been in charge, I would not have done all these executive orders I would have got on and recommended people use common sense, giving the guidelines and shutting the businesses down has just hurt everything,” Sheedy continued.

“Whose fault was it when we were shut down? It was the governor’s executive decision that was shut down. I don’t believe he has the authority to do that,” Sheedy said.

Richard: I was looking at some of the regulations in the West Virginia Constitution, and it seems like a lot of the Constitution issues have been violated, of course, West Virginia and U.S. Constitution, and I’m wondering, in some states, I noticed at least the legislature is reviewing the things and challenging and like they were able to get the courts to stop all the things in Wisconsin. But that doesn’t seem to be happening here. The legislature seems to be taking or having a minimal role. Is it by design or they’re not aggressive enough or maybe we need to review the laws so that this doesn’t happen again. What do you think?

“I don’t think it’s because they’re not being interested. We have a part-time legislature, which is a good thing, it’s a good thing that we only have a part-time legislature, but at the same time, the only one that can call special session on the legislature right now is the governor. Why would he want to do that and create more of a mess? Well, right now you need more of a mess. You need somebody, you don’t need an individual with the ultimate control that the governor currently has. So yes, the Constitution definitely needs to be revisited and amendments made to that so that the legislature can not necessarily meet in Charleston. But do like the state of Alaska does. The state of Alaska, the capital is in Juneau. So the only way in and out there is by airplane or boat.  There are no roads in or out of Juneau. So their legislature can meet electronically. That is something that needs to be looked at in West Virginia also. That way you’re going to eliminate a lot of the excessive payments for legislators to travel back and forth to Charleston,” Sheedy said in response.

Richard: Yeah, you’re right about that. There’s been a lot of these constitutional issues. I’m also wondering what your opinion is on this state-wide issue. I’ve been working with the issue of the forced vaccinations, meaning in West Virginia we have no vaccinations, no school. Do you think that’s the right policy or should we have a choice of what’s injected to our bodies or children’s bodies? What’s your opinion on that?

“I think everybody needs to have a choice. You need the choice to be able to decide what you want done and how you want it done. I am very skeptical of any virus being injected into me now, especially with the advent of microchips. I think they could place a microchip in you without your knowledge. And where is your freedom then? You have none, it is gone.” Sheedy said.

Richard: Yeah, that’s interesting, I was just reading about that. Recently. The technology is advancing. We don’t really know. And, in fact, there are studies that are showing, it’s well-known, that vaccines contain contaminants like the simian monkey virus from the polio vaccine. That’s a fact. So yeah, there’s so many questions about that and it’s a very, very concerning issues and it’s just that West Virginia has been behind the loop in that, or however you want to call it, the fact that we don’t have even any exemptions for a vaccination.  And there are no safety studies that have been done to show whether they are relatively more effective or more fatal. So, yeah, that’s a very concerning issue. And the governor hasn’t taken any leadership at all on that, unfortunately.

“No, he has not.  No leadership at all from the executive branch”

Richard:  So the whole policy, it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t think. What do you think?

“No, it does not.  It makes no sense at all, whatsoever. I’m the age where I remember plainly the Hong Kong flu that went back, went through back in the 60s, and my mother at the time driving me to the doctor’s office to get it to get a flu shot and I didn’t like shots. Well guess what? I ended up with it anyway. I never got the Hong Kong flu, but I truly believe that in my area right here in our small area of Marshall County, I believe that this actually went through here back in January. I think that I had it because I had a dry cough that went on for almost three weeks,” Sheedy said.

Richard: We know on the Republican side there’s several, about six or seven candidates for governor. How do you differentiate, or compare yourself? What’s unique about your platform compared to others?

“Number one, I’m not a party switcher. I’m a life-long Republican. So I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide, ‘Oh, I think I represent the Republican Party more than the Democrat party so I’m going to switch parties.  I’ve never done that, I’ve always been pro-life, pro God, pro-gun.  I just can’t see taking people’s rights and throwing them away and you’ll never get them back. And that’s where the Democrats are headed right now. Of course, Joe Manchin describes himself as a West Virginia Democrat. Well, there’s no such thing as a West Virginia Democrat.  I’m sorry.   He has aligned himself with Nancy Pelosi, he has aligned himself with Obama.  He aligned himself with Clinton. Took them all around the state.  So there’s no such thing as a West Virginia Democrat.  You’re either a Democrat or a Republican. So that being said, I’m very strong on term limits.  I believe that term limits lead to the inroads of corruption, along with endorsements.  Endorsements may not be money paid, but it is still a commitment that, ‘OK, we backed you; we told our constituents and our members to vote for you.  So now you owe us this’.  Well, that in itself is an inroad for corruption.  That is why I’m not accepting any endorsements,” Sheedy said.

Richard: I think you’ve given voters a clear idea about where you’re coming from on the important issues like First Amendment, Second Amendment, constitutional rights, term limits and endorsements.  To basically conclude, would you like to share anything else with the viewers about yourself or your campaign?

“Check me out on Facebook. I don’t have a web page, but check me out on Facebook. I have two different pages there, I have Charles Robert Sheedy and then I have Charles Robert Sheedy Sr., Republican candidate for governor. On that page, there’s a section down on the right hand side that gives you a little bit of information about me, and if you read through that, then if you have any questions, ask me because I answer my own questions, I don’t have a staff member answer questions for me, I answer my own question,” Sheedy concluded.

Richard: I’m sure that the viewers can find you there, and I hope they’ll take the time to listen to these different issues and make the best choice on June 9th and also we’ll be electing other individuals like three Supreme Court justices, so that’s huge.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Dave Miller-Democratic Candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture-West Virginia

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Dave Miller, who’s running for Commissioner of Agriculture-West Virginia on the Democratic ticket, is our guest today on the May 19 edition of the Richard Urban Show where news and views from God’s point of view are presented.

Richard: Please tell us a little about yourself or your family or whatever you like to share to introduce yourself.

Miller: My name is Dave Miller and I live in Preston County in a little town, Tunnelton that used to be a booming gold town. I was born here, and have had a really great career, been thankful for that. I’m married, I have three children and four grandchildren. I went to Fairmont State College. I got my master’s degree in the University of Virginia, and I’ve been a teacher, a coach, a principal, director of personnel in the county here, I also worked five years for Commissioner Douglas at the Department of Agriculture, and after that Commissioner Douglas said I would like for you to be Commissioner but as you know, Commissioners serve for 4 years and I went on to do something else before he retired. In the last five years I was the director of Extension Service for the state of West Virginia. I’d always wanted to run for commissioner of agriculture and this kind of presented itself as the best time for me to do that, and so that’s why my wife and I sat down and we talked about it and said, “Well maybe now is the time to do it before it’s too late.”

“We’re very much interested in creating a niche market for the people, for the farmers to sell products and to make sure that our food supply for the people is safe and that’s what the Department of Agriculture is – one of their duties – that’s what they do. So we’re very much interested in being a part of that,” Miller continued.

Richard: You’re online on your website, talking about the niche market. And so that’s one of the main things you were emphasizing. Are there other key points you’re emphasizing in your platform as you’re running, along with a niche market?

Miller answers: “I think there’s a place for the farm to table selling of our products to local people. I think the farm to school, we have had our schools buy more of the farmers’ products. And I think it’s very important now, especially since we’ve had this virus scare that people see that maybe local farmers are a very important part to get our products out and so forth. Maybe this global or united type of supply that we have sometimes it’s not that dependable. And I’m a very strong supporter of having a label on the food as to where it comes from, origin, country of origin, because I think that we, the United States, have a great opportunity to sell and market our products. So, all those type of things, to help the people and to help to farmers the farmers we’re interested in.”

Richard:  Right now is a country of origin required?  I noticed sometimes I see on honey, product of Argentina or whatever country, or it’s not required?

“It’s not required, the USDA and the Congress took it off. It was on there, but they took it off. And now, those of us that support that are trying to fight to get the Commerce and the USDA to put it back on the country of origin,” Miller answered.

Richard: There are some that are requesting the GMO labeling. Is it something to do or not? What do you think about that?

.“That’s a genetic modified type of product. And some people are totally against that because they think if you eat a lot of that food that comes from the GM product then you may get sick or injured in some way. And then the other side is saying that no it’s not, it is safe and it will not hurt you. I’m at the point we don’t try to use much of that. We try to be as natural as possible. The problem with being natural, organic, it takes a lot more work. It takes a lot of hard work to get rid of weeds and so forth, so, we advocate that you try not to use, as much of that, as possible,” Miller explained.

Richard: Has the COVID-19 situation affected farmers such as yourself very much or not?

“My life has been the same since it started. You know I live on 100-some acres, so I don’t have to be worried about people coming to social distancing with me, but a lot of people are affected differently. Farmers have been affected because they have had trouble maybe selling their products, maybe selling and trucking their products to different places and so forth. But on the other side of that, I think it’s a great opportunity for farmers to have and to show the people how local products are much better than what they have to be shipped in from other places. For example. Now, you’ve probably heard about this, that some of the large slaughter houses in the Midwest began to shut down because their employees are all sick with the virus, and so forth, so the supply of meat and the supply of pork and chicken is way down. So I think now a lot of our small slaughter houses in the state of West Virginia have really been busy, because people are buying locally, having their meat butchered at the local slaughter houses,” Miller said.

Richard: Do you think subsidies are needed or it would be better if there were less subsidies?

Miller said “I think it’s case by case. I don’t totally believe in all the subsidies. I do believe in it if there’s crop insurance, if we have weather that wipes out your crops, if we have a disease or maybe insects or something that comes in and causes a huge problem with your crops or with your cattle, or whatever, that kind of insurance, or subsidy – probably would be good to help that farmer out. “

Richard: I know you’re running against a couple of other people in the primary. How would you differentiate yourself? Would you care to say how you’re different from other candidates, something that the voters would like to know, especially in the primary ticket?

“Well, I think my experience. The things I’ve been able to do in my career, plus working with the Department of Agriculture for five years, to know the ins and outs of how that department works. I think my experience with people. I’ve been an administrator for at least 40 years, and I know how to work with people. I like to talk to people, I like to be in face-to-face, but not so much e-mails or text messages, if I have a problem, I like to go sit down and talk to them. I think that sets me apart from a lot of other people because I’m not afraid to hear your suggestions. And that’s one of the things I’m going to do, if I do get that far, I’m going to talk to all the people that work for the Department, see what the problems are, what they think and then go from there.  Or, I need to talk to the farmers also.” Mr. Miller said.

Richard: Would you like to add anything else before we close? Just maybe summarize for the voters, something about your qualifications or anything else you’d like to share?

“I just think that in my career and still in my life today I put the Lord first, my family second, and then the job would be third. I think that’s the type of person I am, a down-to-earth person. What you see is what you get. I may not be able to do what you want me to do, but I will listen and we’ll see where we have to go because you’ll very seldom ever see me write anything about I did this or I did that because I can’t do it by myself. I need your help to get things done,” Miller concluded.