Category: West Virginia Politics

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Richie Robb-Democrat Candidate for US Senate-West Virginia

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Richie Robb of South Charleston, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in West Virginia who is a promoter of jobs for our state, is our guest on this May 18 edition of the Richard Urban Show where we present news and views from God’s point of view. I’m Richard Urban your host.

Richard: So please introduce yourself and tell us about why you’re running and about your family or anything you’d like to share.

“First of all, I’m a veteran of the United States Army. I was awarded the bronze star in Vietnam.  I was the mayor of South Charleston, W.V. from 1975 to 2007. I serve on the state democratic executive committee, I’m a practicing attorney. I am married. I have two children and a delightful granddaughter,” Robb said.

Richard: Could you tell us the three main platform points of your campaign or three main things you’d like to the let people know about your campaign and why you’re running?

“It probably breaks down into this. Richard, good jobs, good jobs, good jobs. That is my primary emphasis. Most of West Virginia is being bypassed by the national economy. Now Jefferson County doesn’t appear to be, nor Berkeley county and perhaps Morgan County, as well and around the Morgantown area, but the rest of the state has not kept pace with the national economy. We need good jobs. We have a drug crisis in West Virginia. I think there’s a direct correlation to the lack of a good economy and that drastic uptake in drugs and I think with the corona virus pandemic that we’re experiencing right now West Virginia has a unique opportunity to come out of this and make itself better, but too many elected officials, including the one who occupies the seat I’m seeking, sit around and they talk about it all the time, about bringing good jobs to our state, but very little is done throughout most of the state,” Robb explained.

Richard: What would you do to stimulate or bring these jobs? Or, in your capacity as a senator, how could you help with bringing jobs to West Virginia?

“Well, as I said most folks, including the incumbent talk about it but things need to be done. One; federal contracting. We’re not getting our share of federal contracts, federal facilities. Robert Bird brought the fingerprint facility to Clarksburg and it spawned a number of other high-tech jobs in that area.  The Appalachian Regional Commission. Why shouldn’t it have a federal tax incentive there as opposed to the grants that it has formally passed out?” Robb asks.

Richard: Let me just interject. The regional commission, one of the other candidates was talking about that too. What were you referring to, having an office in West Virginia versus just having the block grant?

“It wouldn’t be block grants. I’m more in for simplicity in government, I would say, the tax incentive within the; I served as mayor within the Appalachian regional commission, but that was largely grants.  One applied, put together a program, got a grant. A tax incentive is if Toyota wants to put another facility in West Virginia, they get special federal tax benefits for that. And I know it’s gone on in the Eastern Panhandle, state and local tax benefits, and that’s going to happen. But let’s have federal ones as well. There’s another good example with the corona virus and particularly the tariff wars that have gone on for the last year or so, with China; supply chains for a lot of major industries, automobiles computers, pharmaceuticals have become disrupted. What’s happening in Arizona?  One of the largest computer component companies is locating a billion dollar facility in Arizona. Why Arizona? Why not West Virginia? President Trump actually came out and said ‘The reason we are encouraging Taiwan to locate there is because the Republican Senator, Ms. McSally is facing tough opposition.’  Well, why shouldn’t that come to West Virginia?  We have plenty of space up in the eastern panhandle part and the rest of the state as well, but the Federal Government is taking us for granted and they think, “Well we’ve got their votes, we don’t need to bring good jobs to West Virginia,” Robb said.

Richard: With the COViD-19 restrictions, there are a lot of questions about the constitutionality of lock downs and edicts and things like that. But on the national level, with the Patriot Act in 2001, there was the surveillance of the U.S. citizens. They’re continuing their surveillance of Americans presumably supposedly for national security reasons. What’s your thought on that? I know there was a move in the house to defund the NSA for the surveillance operation. Would you support such a bill should it come to the Senate or would you not support it?

“I’m not sure I would. I don’t know all the particulars and I know these measures were passed for security purposes after 9-11, and were there mistakes made, and were they overzealous on occasion? Well, yes, they were. I experienced that myself but now we’re also going through a situation where perhaps the surveillance needs to be done for healthcare reasons, and certainly mistakes have been made all across the board, including us as individuals respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. I would have to sit. I don’t want to sound like I’m giving you the limp leg, but the devil would be in the details. We need to be more concise and more brief in everything we’re doing in government. And I think some of these stimulus bills, are running to thousands of pages and we need to simplify things,” Robb answered.

Richard: Another issue I’ve been working on here in West Virginia that has national implications, has to do with the issue of vaccinations or what is called forced vaccination, meaning no vaccination, no school. And also President Trump has brought up this week, having military give potential COVID-19 vaccines, which I find very concerning. You may or may not be aware that in 1986, pharmaceutical companies were, with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, removed from liability for vaccine injuries. Would you support bringing back liability for pharmaceutical companies, so they could be sued or would you support a kind of mandatory vaccinations like for COVID-19? Are you for that? What are your thoughts on that kind of issue?

“I come from the point of view, it again, it’s public safety, and with this pandemic we’re all at risk, so I think, yes, if there’s a vaccination out there, it needs to be administered to all of us to protect all of us. Now with respect to the liability. I was reading some articles about that this weekend and I think the way the liability can be structured is, if there’s a high higher degree of negligence as far as the pharmaceutical company, and if they’re grossly negligent and reckless and putting out certain medicine, whether it’s for this pandemic or anything else, I think there should be some liability,” Robb said.

Richard: Would you support safety studies for new vaccines?

“Well, I think, certainly, certainly before a vaccine is put on the market for the general population, I think safety studies are advisable and should be done but they should be done expeditiously to get that vaccine on the market or make a determination whether it’s safe or not, whether it does good. But there are situations in the past where people have been willing to try a new vaccine or they’re in a life-threatening situation; they don’t have time to wait for the vaccine, and in certain respects, maybe with the current pandemic we may feel we’re in that situation as well.” Robb answered.

Richard: Do you think that in the different reactions states have been doing – lock downs and the various regulations that many governors have put in place -has there been some overreach or what’s your feeling about it?

“Well, I’m in a part of West Virginia that’s not largely affected by the pandemic but we’ve taken the measures here as well. I can’t say that there’s been overreach, or under-reach. I think all of us from the president, United Nations on down to us as individuals that we’re going through something we’ve never gone through before and I think it’s important that we first look for public health and then let’s rebuild the economy.   And on public health. We’ve invested millions in experts, millions in technology.  Let’s use that.  Let’s get safe first. You can always fix the economy.  That’s going to be tough, not easy to do.  But you can’t bring back a human life. So I lean on the side of public safety.” Robb responded.

Richard: On the Democrat side, you have a couple of opponents in the primary. How would you contrast yourself to them? What’s different about you? What are you bringing to the table that’s different or how do you contrast?

“I know very little about their campaigns but what I do know is, I’m the only candidate including Republicans, who are speaking about and has a plan and a willingness to work for good jobs, and West Virginia quality jobs and no one else is doing that. And one thing about bringing good quality jobs is the main ingredient is the experience and willingness and doggedness to do it,” Robb replied.

Richard: Are there other things you’d like to share with the voters?

“Well, I mentioned the jobs and I want to mention this too. It appears in the economy that education is critical and education is going to be a big factor in the new economy. I’m married to a school teacher. And education is going to change a lot with respect to those jobs, even coming out of the pandemic. Kids aren’t in school so I want to see education promoted in a visionary way. And the third thing would be medical care. I’m not, I’m wary of the one-size-fits-all approach, but I will agree, the American medical care system is a disaster. But I don’t believe there’s going to be a one-size-fits-all or a panacea. I think the Affordable Care Act was a legitimate first step that did some good on pre-existing conditions and children under 26 and eligibility for Medicaid, but we need to build on that, like we have on medical care and keep building but we need to do it sooner than later,” Robb answered.

Richard: Do you believe in the so-called single-payer healthcare model or whatever you call it?

“Well, it would seem to me that that certainly should be an option in that as I understand the single payer would be a government payment system, it would seem to me that needed to be an option, but even that needs to be a lot more efficient, a lot more effective, a lot more user-friendly than what it is,” Robb said.

Richard: With all the COVID-19 stimulus bills and more proposed, some people say, and it’s probably true, we’re printing up money that we don’t have, because of the current financial system, the money is not backed by any real assets, like gold. So my question is, are we really going overboard with debt that we’re going to load off to our grandchildren, and our grandchildren are going to be saddled with this incredible debt? Is that sustainable? Is that really a good thing? What do you think?

“Well, I think it is a legitimate concern. It just seems like what used to be a million, billions. Now we’re in trillions under this pandemic and it seems like we’re still spending, but we may have to spend it. Yes, I would agree that some day bills have to be paid. There is going to be a reckoning. I don’t think we can necessarily do that reckoning right now during what appears to be a serious emergency situation but I think we need to put together tax and spending policies that will address the debt down the road,” Robb responded.

Richard: I think we’re coming toward the close. If you’d like to make any closing comments or anything you’d like to comment on, or just in closing, why would voters choose you on June 9th?

“Well, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you and the voters. Appreciate your questions again. The primary thesis of my campaign has been wanting good jobs for West Virginia. Most of West Virginia does not have those good jobs and we’ll have a lot of opportunities as we come out of the coronavirus pandemic to maybe make a restart where we can do that. The only candidate who’s truly speaking about it and only candidate who has provided measures where it can be done. I’m the only candidate with the wherewithal to do that, I have the experience from doing it in a town that was prosperous. We have a unique location. We have good people. We have a good climate. We have a lot of advantages that aren’t being taken advantage of, and I’m willing to devote 24/7 as the United States Senator to do that very thing,” Robb concluded.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Jim Douglas-Candidate for WV Supreme Court of Appeals-Division 2

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Jim Douglas Article

Welcome to this May 15 edition of the Richard Urban Show. I’m your host Richard Urban. Today, we’re very happy to have on a candidate for the Supreme Court of Appeals in West Virginia, Jim Douglas, and we’ll ask you to just introduce yourself and maybe say anything you want about yourself or your family.

“My name is Jim Douglas. I’m currently family court judge in Kanawha County. Before I became judge for 39 and a half years ago, I was a divorce lawyer and had one little stint as a prosecuting attorney I am a native West Virginian”

“I’m 69 years old, so I guess that qualifies me as older than dirt or at least dust okay, and there’s at least two other people running in these Supreme Court races, older than I am, so I take some gratification to that. I have three kids and six grandchildren,” Douglas said.

“I am divorced. You don’t see too many people running for office that say that, but I am divorced. So, as far as family law matters, I’ve lived them. I’ve sat where a lot of people that I sit in judgment on every day have been so I can identify with those problems. I have served two terms on the West Virginia State Bar of Governors.  I have served two terms as chair of the family law committee of the West Virginia State Ba. I have argued over 40 cases to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, mostly divorce and family law cases. I’ve also tried family law cases and other cases in 44 of the state’s 55 counties” Douglas continued.

Richard: You have given a lot of experience that you’ve had in family court and other types of courts.  What would you say are the three main reasons you’re running for Supreme Court of Appeals?

“The main reason I can say that I’m running right now.  If I were to ask you, Richard, and your listeners, or the people following on video, for you to imagine in your circle of acquaintances, and your friends and family – don’t answer the question just form the answer in your mind. How many people do you know that’s had an association with a felony in your recent years? Okay, you going to have a number, maybe come to your mind.  Most statistics show though, that if you have some encounter with the law any time in your life, if you leave out vehicular offences like speeding and that type of thing, it’s going to be a family law case…. So my point is family law, family law situations touch everyone…. and that’s part of the reason I’m running, I am the only candidate that has substantial family law experience. I’m talking about substantial.  I’m talking about including my term as a family court judge, over 43 years.  Right now on the Supreme Court of Appeals…there are three justices on that Supreme Court right now that have never picked a jury, never cross examined a witness, never presented an indictment, never ran a law office as a principal, never even argued a case as first chair in front of the Supreme Court they now sit on.” Douglas responds.

Richard:  So thanks for sharing your experience, which is important. So you’ve been doing family law, and do you support the idea of community marriage policies? Have you heard about that? Where in certain cities and jurisdictions, primarily cities, I believe, they would make a policy among the clergy that to get married, you have to have some counseling or some kind of a course. Do you think that’s a good idea, a bad idea?  Why or why not?

Well, now I’ve got to make clear, the cannon of judicial ethics say, I can’t comment on a case that may come in front of me… but I can comment on issues if there’s not a current case in front of the West Virginia Supreme Court.

Richard:  I was not talking about a case so much, just about the idea of community marriage policies.

Here’s my feeling on it. I’m going to be upfront with you about it, is, if you will, look in my history in 2005, I took a case to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and it was the first case involving same sex custody. In other words, it was a lesbian custody case, which I won against the biological grandfather.   It’s called Clifford K versus Smarr.

It was 2005.Nobody would take that case but me, I took it up lost it at the Circuit Court level, won it at the Supreme Court level.

Now, nobody thinks about those things. And here’s my position.  I’ve got a step son, I guess,  because I mean I’m not married, but my partner has a son that is openly gay and I went to his wedding.  I perform regularly, I’m the only family court judge that regularly performs gay weddings in Kanawha County, state of West Virginia.

My feeling is you shouldn’t have to be imposed, I am answering your question now, you shouldn’t have to impose additional obligations upon anyone that wants to enter into a non-tradition or gay marriage.  The Obergefell decision and the Windsor decision, that both came out of the United States Supreme Court says we don’t treat anybody differently.

I can remember when I got married, the first, when I got married in 1976, nobody made me go to any kind of counseling or anything. We just showed up, took the blood test went to the preacher and got it done.

I don’t think you should impose that on any group. Any particular group.”

Richard:  I see what you are saying.  So it’s not a legal Covenant, it’s among churches. So I was looking at their website, marriagesavers.com.  So I think it is, the churches agree. So if you choose to be married elsewhere, it has no effect.  I agree with you, it can’t be like legal ‘Hey, you want to get married, you must take this course.  No, but I think what it is, is that the churches in particular communities.  One, I think that’s been pretty successful is in Kansas City, Kansas.  They make some agreement, so presumably a same-sex couple, just wouldn’t go to any of those churches they would just go to a Justice of the Peace and do whatever they want, so I don’t think it would really affect that. You know what I’m saying?

Jim Douglas:  Right, well let me come back, then I see more clearly your question now.  Right now, I’m a member the Christ Church United Methodist in Charleston, and of course we have openly gay members and even teachers.  The issue that’s confronting us right now is
one, can there be gay clergy?

And, two, Can there be gay weddings within the church itself?  And there’s been quite a bit of fracturing even among three different views in the Methodist charge, and in our church, it’s been divisive. It hasn’t been decided and I think, you know I am Christian by religion, and I believe whenever Christ said, ‘Come unto me all’ that whomsoever comes, that then they come.  The churches shouldn’t impose that on anyone. If you want to be a member when Christ said whomsoever, he didn’t have an asterisk above the R and something in the footnotes.

Richard:  Well, that’s clear, a clear answer, I appreciate that.

Richard: To try to change a topic a little. What would be your view of the 2018 impeachment of the West Virginia Supreme Court? Do you think that the legislature overreached, or was it appropriate or just what’s your view on what was going on there? And since then?

“Well, no, we’ve had some fall out from there. I mean, of course the impeachments are over, but I think two things came out of this that are still with us. One is there has been a dilution of the separation of powers, by the case that was called Workman versus Carmichael, that’s where the impeachment proceedings against Justice Workman began. She filed suit, recused herself, so all the other justices, well, they weren’t sitting or they were recused, and she appointed five judges and they said, all right legislature, you can’t be doing this because of certain procedures,” Douglas said.

“Now, it’s going to be strange to hear somebody in the judicial section say what I’m going to say.  It would sound like I’m actually in the legislature. But I think that the case that was overruled, to get to that point to stop the proceedings against Workmen were ill-advised, I think the legislature can’t be interfered with in their lawful execution of their constitutional duties. In fact the 10 years before that workman case in 2008, I think it is10 years, there was what was called the Clodges(spelling?) case, where there was an attempt made to make the legislature, it had to do with an expungement of a gentleman on a drug charge, and the expungement of his record, to have an expungement appear in the official record of the Senate and the house, and the Supreme Court said at that time in 2008,we can’t interfere with the legislature, if they want to do that, they want to do it. So the Workman case comes along and reverses that, and I think there’s been, as I said, a diminution of the separation of powers with regard to the legislature,” Douglas continued.

“I don’t think the legislature should’ve been limited on that. Now to hear a judge say that that’s trying to get on the Supreme Court is probably atypical, I would say.  The second thing that’s left out, that’s left on the impeachment process… In my mind the worst offense, to me was – and I’m speaking out, I know I might end up on the court with her – but that was Justice Walker outsourcing her opinions to be written outside of the Supreme Court, and paid for it. I like to think my experience, by George, I’ll write my own opinions”, Douglas added.

Richard: With the current whole COVID-19 thing, it seems like, throughout the nation, a lot of governors have put different restrictions in place, including Gov. Justice, and it seems like there’s a lot of constitutional issues about it. You were talking about separation of powers. The Governor said, you’ll stay home, don’t meet more than 25, don’t meet more than 5.  He makes up what I see as relatively random thinks like ‘Oh, there’s more than 20 cases; you are a Hot Spot.  Oh, oops, we forgot to consider population, no you’re not a Hot Spot.  I’m saying it seems like these issues are ripe for review in the courts, or whatever, or by the legislature, it seems almost really excessive. Do you have any thoughts on that kind of thing?

“Yeah, I sure do. First of all, of all that litany of things that you mentioned, there’s one thing that you didn’t include and was one that affected me the most, is moving the election from May 12 to June 9.  That is in the statute and nobody really approved that. Nobody really contested that. I mean as a lawyer. That came to my mind, man, maybe I should file something. Then I got to thinking. Well, somebody will make play on that that I don’t care whether or not poll workers are infected, but I agree with what you’re saying there on that particular issue,” Douglas said.

Richard: So are there no jury trials right now? They’re suspended until whenever?

“I think it’s July 7, might be off on that day. It’s in July. I know that and then grand juries are held off until about June 27.  That day I think is correct…. And of course you know in family law we don’t have juries and ours is confidential, but you know, we have a lot of witnesses that usually show up in custody matters and we have to deal with that. In my court room it would be hard to have two attorneys, two parties, a bailiff…” (There was a break in the connection) Douglas explained.

Richard: In West Virginia I’m concerned about the constitutional issues of the legislature, and sometimes they’re administrative rulings dealing with vaccine mandates, and things like that. It seems that could violate, or does constitutional rights – first, or fourth amendment. I don’t know if you are free to say anything about it or have any opinion, generally?

“Well, I don’t know. I don’t want to get in trouble, but let me just give you a pretty good hint. My mother was a school teacher, my partner’s a school teacher, I had three kids and the health of those kids meant everything to me, and I think also the health of kids that they go to school with are important too. So I think you can probably see where I’m going with this. I will say this, I will say this, I don’t think it’s a Fourth Amendment issue,” Douglas said.

Richard: I know you’re running against three other candidates in Division 2.  How would you differentiate yourself from the other candidates? Would you care to share anything about that?

“Sure, first of all, as I said, earlier, I’m the only one of the candidates that has substantial family law experience. I am the only one of the candidates in that division that has had, and is currently a family court judge experience.  I am the family court judge, and that’s what we need on the Supreme Court. That’s the first differentiation. And then my experience in practice of law has been more on the boots on the ground practical experience,” Doulas responded.

“And then the last thing that differentiates me, I’ve not sought any endorsements from anybody, anybody.  I have filled out their questionnaires, I’ve done at least one interview.  But my position is, on those endorsements, if somebody starts saying all those endorsements, is, you have to wonder as an average voter, what did they cost?  How are they going to be paid for in the future?  Don’t you think these special interests don’t expect payment?” Douglas stated.

Richard: I appreciate you coming on and I hope people will watch the interview, and other candidates’ interviews and be able to be well-informed.  So I do really thank you. Did you want to say anything else in closing about your candidacy?

“Well, first of all, I thank you for being interested enough to contact me.  What I want do to the Supreme Court is bring practical experience, I wat to renew an allegiance to the predictability function of law. In other words, you follow precedence.  I think I want to bring to the Supreme Court too, an effort to lessen the spatial and geographical distance,” Douglas concluded.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Kris Raynes-WV Supreme Court Candidate-Division 2

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“I’m the only conservative candidate”, says Kris Raynes, who’s running for the Supreme Court of Appeals Division 2, as she appears on The Richard Urban Show on May 14 for a special edition for West Virginia elections 2020.

Asked to introduce herself, Raynes said: “My name is Kris Raynes. I live in Putnam County, W.V, and that’s where I was born and raised. I went to Marshall University and the University of Akron School of Law. I started my career in Akron, Ohio, at the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office where I stayed for six and a half years and gained a ton of experience.”

“In 2008, I went to Putnam County and that’s where I’ve been for the last 12 years. I try exclusively felonies. I do most of the violent felonies, a lot of the murders but my main focus is on child predators, child sex abuse, and child abuse cases. Those cases are the most dear to my heart because those victims are the most vulnerable, they can’t always speak out for themselves, and so getting justice for them is the most gratifying for me.”

So could you tell us the three main reasons why you decided to run for the Supreme Court of Appeals”, Richard asked?

“So seeing what happened in 2018 with the court was a very surreal experience,” Raynes said. “Like I told you, I went to law school outside of the state, and of course, the court scandal went nationwide news. So I would have people calling me or texting me from law school saying What’s going on with your court and I’m like, “I don’t know, we’re trying to eliminate one branch of government, I guess. And so anyway, I followed that because I am a real believer in separation of powers and I’m a constitutional constructionist which means I believe that each branch of government should check and balance the other.”

“And so I was seeing constitutional law at work during that era, and so when the opportunity came up for an empty seat on the court, which was Margaret Workman was retiring, I thought, well, and that might be a good option for me. I’ve spent 20 years as a career prosecutor. I’ve always thought maybe I would move on to the judiciary at some time and I thought that that right now was my time, Raynes continued.

“I was looking more at the information about the 2018 impeachment hearings. How do you view that,” Richard asks.

“So the court I felt that its hands were tied because it was following the law, but I believe that the law was wrong because the law was putting too much power into the judiciary branch being able to oversee its own budget and purchasing and things. That is something that no other state agency has the chance to do,” explained Raynes.

“I think that the court decided correctly as to the law, that was available to them at that time, however, I think that democracy went into action after that, and the voters solved that problem by passing the constitutional amendment to have the Legislature oversee the budget of the court, so that definitely put the power back into the separation of powers, the checks and balances that definitely re-instituted that. And so I think we have to applaud the voters for actually putting that back into their hands and the intent of the framers whenever they set up this three-branch government.”

“You mentioned you were prosecuting child sexual abuse cases. Are there a lot of cases like that? Talk a little about that in West Virginia. What can be done about that, Richard queries?

Raynes answered: “I had a discussion with my mother one time where she said it seems like there are more of those types of cases these days than when she was growing up. And I said, “Mom I don’t think there are. I just think that more people are telling now, and obviously with the internet, that also increases the level of predators’ reach to children. So that may have increased it a little bit, but just that’s such a family secret that people have kept in their families for so long and again, victims are so reluctant to come forward because number one, they are scared that they won’t be believed. They’re scared that they’ll be just run through the mill as far as being called a liar and everything that they’ve ever done being out in the open for everyone to see, but also then sometimes they don’t have family support.  In a lot of my cases the family sides with the abuser.

“Those cases are hard to prove, but not if you dig a lot of times, you’ll not have any signs of physical abuse because the abuse goes on for such a long time that the children have had time to heal or they’re just not going to show signs anymore. So you have to dig deep into their background and see how it’s affected them and who they’ve told and how consistent they’ve been with their disclosures. So these cases are intensive. It’s not like a case where somebody goes in and uses a stolen credit card and it’s on video, and I can take that to trial and play the video to the jury and say, there, I rest my case.”

“Something I’ve been working on with other people – the issue that in West Virginia we have this system where if your child has no vaccinations he or she is not allowed to go to school, Do you think that violates people’s first or fourth amendment rights, it seems most states have some kind of exemption. What do you think”, Richard asks?

“As a candidate for a judicial spot, we are also under the judicial ethics rules, which indicates that we cannot give opinions on any type of case that could come before the court. I’m sorry but I don’t want to judge the question. I just want to stay within the judicial ethics.”

Richard asks about current issues with all the lock downs, and stay at home orders. “Do you think these kind of cases, not just here, but throughout the nation, it seems like they may come up to the courts. Is that something you would expect?”

“Absolutely!”  Raynes said. “I think that because the Supreme Court has also put in an emergency order for about the last four to six weeks. I can’t remember exactly when that went in, but for safety purposes, the courthouses have been open, but we’ve only been taking the most emergent cases, and we’ve only been doing those by video conferencing just trying to preserve everyone’s safety. So I think that we are going to see a giant backlog of cases, coming back whenever the courts open back up. So we’re going to have do our best to budget our time budgets or resources on that.”

Richard says, “I know you have three opponents in the division 2, so what makes you stand out? What would you like to share about that?”

“So it’s real easy to remember for me,” she responded. “I’m the sole conservative in this race I’ve been endorsed by the West Virginia State Republican party I’ve also been endorsed by West Virginians for Life, which is the Right to Life group and I’ve also been endorsed by the Associated Builders and Contractors.

“Would you like to share anything in conclusion for the viewers about your candidacy, or just anything you’d like to share to wrap things up, please, go right ahead”, Richard says.

“There are so many things I would like to share that I just can’t in interviews that I’m doing, short interviews.  I would like to welcome people to check out our website, which is raynesforjustice.com. My Facebook page is Kris Raynes for WV Supreme Court,” Raynes concluded.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Brooke Lunsford-Republican Candidate for WV Governor

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Brooke Lunsford, Republican candidate for governor of West Virginia, talked about his jobs program in a special West Virginia 2020 interview on the Richard Urban Show on May 9. Mr. Urban begins his show by asking Lunsford to introduce himself.”

“I am Brooke Lunsford. I am from Cabell County, which is in the western end of the state. I graduated from Marshall University. I went to college at West Virginia Tech,” Lundford said.

Richard asks “Could you tell us your three most important campaign platform points that you’d like to accomplish as a governor of West Virginia?”

“My number one thing is a jobs program that we developed through a non-profit that I founded and the job grant is for anybody that wants an opportunity to own their own business and it’s a business situation where we would teach them office procedures and things like that. The grant has already gone in to the Appalachian Regional Commission, which is responsible for taking care of this Appalachian regional poverty corridor. You have people that would love to have an opportunity maybe to learn some office procedures or maybe to learn about the insurance industry. We’ve got some great partners in this. My number one partner in the grant is Progressive Insurance,” Lunsford said.

Richard: “What do you think about things like some people have been advocating for removing the business inventory tax? Other candidates had talked about that. Is that a good tax? Why do we have that tax? And I understand, most states don’t have it. Should we get rid of that?”

“We should get rid of every tax. But here’s what happened when they brought it up this past time. And that’s why I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know if they flip a coin on what issues they’re going to bring up at the capitol. I don’t know how they derive what they’re doing but when they get this close to passing, they start looking around and all these counties start realizing how much money they’re going to be losing and they’re like, “Well hold up here, we can’t do this, we can’t eliminate this tax because the money, we can’t replace the whole in the budget.. I want to build tourism up to such an extent that we can get rid of a personal income tax right now,“ Lunsford explained.

Richard: “I wanted to ask you about what do you think about the constitutional issues like the governors locking down their states and that includes Gov. Justice. I think they way overstepped the constitutional bounds. What’s your take on that?”

“In my opinion, I would use this as a catalyst, as you said, to take the governors from all these states and say, “Look, federal has been overreaching, for a long time, we’re going to come together as states, Convention of States is out there trying to organize this kind of movement anyway, we’re going to come together as a state, we’re going to take the power back from the federal government. It doesn’t matter what it costs and what we’ve got to do,” Lunsford responded.

Richard: “I’m working on the issue of constitutional person freedom. Specifically, I’m very much concerned about West Virginia’s forced vaccination, meaning no vaccines, no school. I think that’s very wrong. People need to have a choice.”

“Well, that will be great to go either way on this but here’s your problem

When people come in with these kind of issues, I mean they’re going to fight and argue forever on this, you know, what I’m saying? It takes so much cooperation for this. And the thing is, it’s not like it’s gotta be the majority of the vote on some of this stuff to turn over some of these things. I mean, you gotta have two-thirds of the people to do this or three-fourths of the people to do that. And the problem with our state is that we can’t get two out of ten to agree on something,“ Lunsford said.

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Richard: “What would you like to say in summary about why voters would vote for you, and what you’re presenting?”

“I think a lot of these guys that are running are probably going to have to be loyal to the people that put them there, which is their home town. So what I did to combat that is I’ve got a plan, I talk about it every day, to have something for every county. And the last thing I would share with you is a weekly 50-50 draw. It drives the hard shell Christians crazy, and I am a Christian. But what it does every time you go to a Friday night football game, they’re passing around a 50-50 drawing you go to a Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals baseball game, and they have a 50-50 draw, I called those people that do that and I said, “Hey you know what I’d like to do for West Virginia is I’d like for each of the 55 counties to have a weekly drawing where the winner has to be from the county and the rest of the money has to stay in the county.” Lunsford continued.

“You mean as a lottery of sorts?” Richard asked.

“It’s a lottery, but you know the lottery has ruined a lot more lives than it’s helped because the prize is too big and there’s not enough winners and it helps our state because I think about a third of our revenue comes from the lottery in the State of West Virginia. People want to gamble. So, I’m not for or against it on that ethics but I’m saying to you, Jefferson County is no different than Cabell County. We’ve got to learn to pool resources. Let’s all put in a dollar every week, let’s pool that. And just like in the insurance policy, we all pay in an auto premium, then all that money is pooled. Somebody has an accident, the money is there to pay for the accident, t’s no different than what a sweepstakes would do.”  Lunsford said.

But who would administer it? Isn’t that problematic?” said Richard.

“Any non-profit can administer it, that’s the thing about it, “Lunsford responded.

Richard:”So it would be just like a lottery. Pick a number thing?”

“Yeah, anybody can do it, but the tickets on the sweepstakes, can be sold through the internet,” Lunsford said.

Richard: “Okay,  Thank you for being on and we’ll make this available on our video and podcasts and try to help as many people as possible to hear what you’re saying.”

“Absolutely, and my number is 304-638-6563. I take calls, find me on Facebook, because I try to do a morning broadcast. I do Sunday school first every morning. Because for obvious reasons, I think Jesus is first because he won’t be co-equal with anything else. And then secondly, we try to do a campaign speech here where we talk a little bit about things. My website is Lundford4Governor.com.” Lunsford said in conclusion.

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Covid-19 Crisis West Virginia Politics

Is Governor Justice Moral Posturing?

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Allen Whitt is for First and Second Amendment Rights

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In an interview on the Richard Urban Show on May 7, 2020, Allen Whitt, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from West Virginia, says he’s for protecting first and second amendment rights.

In introducing himself, Mr. Whitt said he had been the President of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, for coming up on seven years now and “we defend faith, family and freedom within the state of West Virginia down at the capital at your local county courthouse; at your city council meeting.”

“I was honored to get to grow up in a strong family. On my grandfather’s dairy farm, I learned to milk cows.  From the time I was about three, one of my fondest memories is sitting on my grandmother’s lap as she milked the cow, and would squirt the cat in the face as she would come into the milking stall.”

When asked to spell out the most important platform points for his campaign, he said “Well in no particular order, the First Amendment that’s spelled out in the United States, Constitution, it unfortunately, because we live in a fallen world where man tends to look out for number one, we’d like to be able to think that we all put God first, others second and ourselves, third, but that’s just not reality. Most people are putting themselves first. It’s my needs and my wants above everybody else’s.  And so therefore we have to have a form of governing people, who have that mindset.”

“So what we’re dealing with, we’re left with so we have to make the best of not a great situation, and that is trying to put good people in office to help govern. And the thing that pops up on my radar very quickly is that the Constitution says that we’ve got the first amendment right of free speech, from the very first time that our Founding Fathers had to go in and make a change or make an edit to the constitution that very first amendment said we shall protect free speech, but the Second Amendment says, well, unfortunately, because we’re dealing with some people who put themselves first we need the Second Amendment, we’re gonna have to have the right to bear arms in order to protect the first amendment. So we’ve seen a resurgence as of late, especially in West Virginia with many of our counties even smaller burgs and towns, rising up in the last few months; I was able to participate in the very first one, down in Fort Gay, West Virginia, where a local city council says, Hey, we’re gonna become a sanctuary city for the Second Amendment, You shall not infringe upon the Second Amendment, in Fort Gay West Virginia.”

In response to a question about the constitutionality of COVID-19 lock downs ordered by governors. Mr.  Whitt answered “Well, we do have a Supreme Court precedent that allows governors, very specifically in times of quarantine to be able to restrict movement of state citizens. Now the President of the United States doesn’t have it, but in 1826 or 1828, I forget which date, we had a case in Pennsylvania, specifically about quarantines, and that case still looms large, so much so that they actually have a concept called the quarantine effect when something is challenged on the constitutional level, it has to work its way up to your local state courts and the federal district courts. And then all the way, hopefully the Supreme Court will take it up. So, this quarantine effect, basically means that, if a Governor puts a quarantine into place by the time someone who can challenge its constitutionality, the quarantine will likely have already been lifted.  And so, most people don’t bother to follow through with the years of court cases that it would take”

I’d say during the last two decades, there have been a lot of assaults on the constitutional rights, Mr. Urban said, and I know that really recently, there was a bill to defund NSA. So my short question is, if you are elected, would you vote to defund such action like the NSA activity, surveillance activity which collects basic data on everything everybody does?

Mr. Whitt replied, “Oh, I’m gonna be absolutely on the side of defunding. Any criminal behavior in the name of the government. Our founding fathers {wrote] what I think is the second greatest document ever written behind the Holy Bible, the United States Constitution. This thing is absolutely brilliant. And it’s only been changed just 20 or some times in its history, but they could not have envisioned the technological accomplishments that digitally the society has now brought to bear. Now, virtually every American is surveiled in some way. There will be government officials that will probably watch this broadcast just to see if we’re saying anything too radical and that’s gotta stop.”

 “Okay, at another related question. And this has to do with the issue of forced vaccination, which on the state level, I guess you’re aware, there’s the issue of mandating vaccines for school attendance and on the national level, especially now with a COVID-19 we’re hearing talk of having to have a card saying, you’re immunized. Would you support or oppose what I call forced vaccination?” Mr. Urban asked.

“I’ve never been the kind of the person that would just go along with the flow. I’m always a why person, I need to understand why you’re having me do this, and there certainly can be an argument made for, listen, we have known pathogens, measles and mumps and some of those types of things, that vaccinations certainly helped to defend us against but we have to look at it from a bigger perspective.  Individual Freedom is, is what makes America, America. You don’t get to have individual freedom in countries like China. Matter of fact, in China they have this expression that goes something like your creativity and individuality is causing me problems.  Well, that’s antithetical to Americanism, which is, hey, I came, our ancestors, our forefathers, came to this country to live freely and it’ll be up to me to take care of me, it’ll be up to me to defend myself against bears and against ruffians and against pathogens, and so I’m a big believer in individual freedom on these types of things, but I do know that with freedom comes responsibility and that’s what we call Liberty. Absolute freedom is anarchy and I’m not for that.  And Liberty is kind of freedom with some guide rails on it.  So I would look very carefully at anything where the government is forcing the entire populations, to engage in, and vaccination as being one of those.”

In 1986, there was the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that has basically removed liability for pharmacy companies, from being sued and instead we have the so-called vaccine court. The intention of the law was originally that would have the vaccine Court, which has given out more than 42 billion of compensation for injury, so there’s no question that vaccines can and do injure kill, but the point about it is that there’s been a proliferation of vaccines due to the removal of liability, and that resulted from changes made through an amendment to that bill, and also a 2011 Supreme Court decision. So, the short question is, Would you support putting in the ability again to for parents or people who are injured to sue pharmaceutical companies?

Mr. Whitt: “I would, especially in scenarios or maybe just limited to scenarios where in order to access public funds like to attend a public school, you’re basically boxed into a scenario where you’re gonna have to get your child this specific vaccinations. Yeah, if there’s injury where you’ve been forced basically into a scenario where you had no other choice but to vaccinate then, sure, I would vote for that amendment.”

Mr. Whitt summarized: “We must defend small business owners, right?

First. Personal rights to free speech, freedom to be able to operate their businesses, according to their belief structures. That’s how America was founded. And right now, we have got a Senator in place that’s not willing to take the lead on any of that. As a matter of fact she’s on the wrong side of these issues.

Two. You sound like you’re a conservative guy, Richard, that you’re up on the issues you’re probably very astute and you run a media company there, and where you’re trying to spread the word to voters. You know what. That makes you a little suspicious sounding to the government and the liberals in all likelihood. And so, you’re gonna, at some point, hopefully, you won’t, but perhaps at some point you’re gonna need to defend yourself through the Second Amendment, and you maybe own firearms. I don’t know.”

Richard: “I am a firearms owner.”

Mr. Whitt continues: “Well, most certainly, you shouldn’t have your firearms removed from you because of this broadcast, because of your views, because of controversial statements perhaps you might have made, or your guests might have made and the ability for law enforcement to come over and without any due process take your firearms because someone has watched your show and raised what we know as a red flag. Those things must never happen in this country.

And my opponent Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, just as in the fall, it was after that terrible shooting out in El Paso with the Walmart and a lot of people perished. Sen. Capito was asked by a reporter, hey are we gonna pass more gun restrictions? What about Red Flag laws, where people can raise a red flag? Sen. Caputo said “We’re gonna get back as quick as we can, and we’re gonna take a really hard look at that.”

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Civil Liberties Covid-19 Crisis Vaccine Choice West Virginia Politics

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Vaccine Choice West Virginia Politics

Vaccine Choice for West Virginia

West Virginia is one of only three states that does not allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for children attending school.

When there is a danger of injury, there must be freedom of choice.  Would you be comfortable with your doctor if he or she made it mandatory for you to accept their suggestions for any medicine, test, or procedure that he or she recommended?  In the same light, parents must be free to make informed choices based on the potential risks versus the benefits of any given vaccine.

Vaccines are not held to the same standards as other drugs that are on the market.  There are no tests done versus placebos. Testing is often done by the same companies that make the vaccines.  Why is this allowed? Vaccines are recommended for age groups for which they have never been tested.

Continue reading “Vaccine Choice for West Virginia”
Categories
Religious Freedom West Virginia Politics

Tom Takubo Does Not Care about the Health and Well Being of West Virginia Children and Adults

Tom Takubo is a West Virginia State Senator representing District 17, which includes Kanawha County and Charleston, WV.  He was electied in 2014 and is currently Chair of the Health and Human Resources Committee.  Due to his lack of concern for the well-being of West Virginia youth and adults, he needs to be ejected from his position by the voters on November 6th, 2018.

According to committee staff, Senator Takubo thinks that the current vaccine mandate, requring 45 doses of 14 different vaccines for school attendance is a good system and does not need to be changed.   This is in spite of the fact that only West Virginia, Mississippi and California do not allow religious or conscientious exemptions for vaccinations.  This is also in spite of the fact that there have been thousands of serious adverse reactions requiring hospitaliztion and hundreds of deaths from vaccines:  https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/richard-s-blog/296-west-virginia-required-vaccines-adverse-reactions-or-death.  The number of serious injuries and deaths from vaccines is generally many times more than the numbers of serious injuries and deaths before the vaccines were introduced.   West Virginia is a cash cow for big pharmaceutical companies, as there is no need to advertise for vaccines, as the state does all of the dirty work for the pharmaceutical companies by mandating 45 does of 14 different vaccines.  These vaccines are recognized as “inherently unsafe” by the vaccine court set up under the 1986 vaccine safety law.

Although my wife and I were in Charleston for three days during the legislative session, we could not schedule an appointment with Senator Takubo.  In fact, we were not even able to intercept him in the hallways of the State Capitol.  As a doctor and member of the American Medical Association (AMA), Senator Takubo has a severe conflict of interest when it comes to vaccine choice.  The AMA does not support the right of parents to opt out of any vaccination for religious or conscientious reasons.  As such, it is extremely callous and conflicted of Senator Takubo to block vaccine choice legislation as head of the Health Committee, as he has done in both the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions.

Recently, Senator Takubo has claimed that he would allow vaccine choice legislation to come to the Senate floor for a vote.  This is a vacuous and calculated ploy.  If that is the case, why did he assiduously block just exactly that legislation in the 2017 and 2018 sessions?

Furthermore, Takubo claims that West Virginia is healthier than other states due to the vaccine mandates.   That is false.  In overall health, West Virgina ranks 46th.  For instance, in infant mortality, West Virgina ranks 41st (https://www.statista.com/statistics/252064/us-infant-mortality-rate-by-ethnicity-2011/).

Clearly, Tom Takubo needs to be shown the exit door by the voters of Kanawha County.  Hopefully, in the future, a more freedom and liberty minded Republican Senator will be elected from Kanawha county in District 17.  In the meantime, I would urge voters to choose the lesser of two evils and vote for his opponent, Terrell Ellis.