Category: WV Elections 2020

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.

Tags Richard Ojeda, US Senate-WV

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Jody Murphy-Democratic Candidate for West Virginia Governor

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 21, 2020
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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.

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

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

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 21, 2020
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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.

Tags WV Commissioner of Agriculture

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

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

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 21, 2020
No Comments on Interview with Charles Robert Sheedy Sr-Republican Candidate for WV Governor

https://youtu.be/S2rm3OBh0kQ

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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.

Tags WV Governor Election Contest

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

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

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 19, 2020
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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.

Tags WV Commissioner of Agriculture

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

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

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 18, 2020
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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.

Tags Richie Robb, WV US Senate Election

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

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

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 15, 2020
1 Comment on Interview with Jim Douglas-Candidate for WV Supreme Court of Appeals-Division 2

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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.

Tags Jim Douglas, WV Supreme Court of Appeals

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

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

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 14, 2020
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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.

Tags Kris Raynes, WV Supreme Court of Appeals

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Brooke Lunsford-Republican Candidate for WV Governor

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 9, 2020
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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.

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.

Tags Brooke Lunsford, WV Governor Election Contest

West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Allen Whitt is for First and Second Amendment Rights

Post author By Richard Urban
Post date May 7, 2020
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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.”