The Charleston Gazette - Democrats Boost Tennant at Annual Dinner

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By David Gutman

West Virginia Democratic leaders touted workers' issues, social programs and issues like the minimum wage as reasons to favor their candidates in the upcoming election at the party's annual fundraising dinner at the Charleston Civic Center Saturday night.

They also took pains to distinguish themselves from the national Democratic Party.

"What is a West Virginia Democrat?" asked state party Chairman Larry Puccio. "A Democrat that puts West Virginia first, always. It's a Democrat that supports working men and women in this state and in this country."

Rep. Nick J. Rahall touted the Democratic Party as the one that "created Social Security and Medicare and it is the Democratic Party that will preserve Social Security and Medicare.

"There was a time when if you were a coal miner you were at the mercy of the company. You lived in the company house, you bought all your needs at the company store, paid with the company scrip," Rahall said. "It is the Democratic Party that changed that."

The keynote speaker at the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner was former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Panetta, a longtime Washington official who has served many roles, noted that he and Rahall entered Congress together as freshmen in 1976.

Panetta also worked in the Nixon administration, before switching parties to serve as a congressman from California for 16 years. He was chief of staff for President Bill Clinton and director of the CIA under President Obama before becoming secretary of defense.

Panetta last week published a book highly critical of Obama and his foreign policy. In it, he faults Obama for not moving last year to arm moderate rebels in Syria and for not pushing harder to secure a deal in 2011 to leave U.S. forces in Iraq.

On Saturday he outlined the list of foreign threats that the U.S. currently faces, from Afghanistan and the possibility of terrorists getting a nuclear weapon in Pakistan, to ISIL, Boko Haram in Africa, Vladimir Putin's aggression in Russia, cyber attacks and even North Korea.

"Who the hell knows what's going on in North Korea," said Panetta. "They can't even find their leader. He might be somewhere with Dennis Rodman."

He, like every featured speaker, save one, did not mention Obama by name Saturday night, but he did offer subtle criticism of his former boss.

"In our democracy, we govern either by leadership or by crisis," Panetta said. "If leadership is not there, make no mistake about it, we will govern by crisis and right now we largely govern by crisis."

He said that in 50 years in government he has never seen it as bad as it is now and blamed Republicans and the Tea Party, "whose only goal is to tear down government, not to strengthen it."

The state's most prominent Democrats, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, have been almost entirely absent from the campaign trail this fall, but all spoke Saturday about the importance of electing Democrats in November, particularly Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who is running for Senate.

"She'll be independent, she'll be fighting for West Virginia," Manchin said of Tennant. "We're just a little bit different at times from the Washington Democrats, we're West Virginia Democrats.

Rockefeller, who is retiring when his term expires in January, introduced Tennant, who is running to replace him.

He described her as a "doer" and praised her intensity. In a campaign that is quickly becoming more aggressive, Rockefeller did not have kind words for Tennant's opponent, Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.

"I have known Shelley Capito a long time," he said. "I don't see evidence of the seriousness about policy. I see seriousness about wanting to get elected, but I don't see seriousness about what would you do when you get there.

"I'm not alone," Rockefeller continued. "You go to Washington, you ask anybody to describe Shelley. The standard response is that she's nice, she's pleasant, she doesn't rock the boat. Ask them to name an accomplishment that she has and you are met by a very deafening silence."

He criticized her for voting against equal pay laws, like the Lily Ledbetter Act; for voting against the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Act and for voting against raises to the minimum wage.

Capito's campaign sent a statement in response.

"Shelley Moore Capito ran for Congress to make a difference, like when she passed the MINER Act, the most significant update of mine safety laws since the 1970s," campaign spokeswoman Amy Graham wrote. "She didn't run to have her name on every bill or building."

Without mentioning Capito by name, Tennant drew a distinction by promising not to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program, as Capito has voted to do.

She spoke after a video which featured former employees of Century Aluminum in Ravenswood praising her for working to try to get their health benefits restored after the plant closed.

"I have been on the picket lines with Century Aluminum retirees, marched through the streets with the UMWA and IBEW, and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the rain with Patriot retirees," Tennant said. "We are West Virginia Democrats, we are not simply the party of West Virginia, we are the party of West Virginians."

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