Ed Rabel was officially recognized and certified today by the West Virginia Office of the Secretary of State as the independent candidate for the United States House of Representatives from the state’s Second Congressional district.
With certification of the veteran CBS and NBC News correspondent, Rabel can formally begin his campaign for the office.
“I intend to take my case directly to the people in all 17 counties that comprise the district,” said Rabel after signing the official certificate of announcement required by the Secretary of State.
Rabel met the requirement to run as an independent by gathering from among registered voters in the district the 2,269 validated signatures required by law.
He and campaign workers spent the past few months collecting the signatures.
In this year’s general election in November, Rabel’s name will appear on the ballot as the independent candidate in the contest that includes a traditional Democrat and Republican.
“I announce my candidacy with a full and grateful heart, without reservation, and with only one obligation – the obligation to devote every effort of body, mind and spirit to lead West Virginia to a brand new future,” said Rabel. “I see a future no longer constrained by extractive industries that steal our patrimony, destroy our beautiful mountains, poison our water, sicken our people, and mock our citizens along the way.”
Rabel was born and reared in Kanawha County not far from Rabel Mountain where his paternal grandfather, Harry Rabel, and his great uncles and cousins tilled the land as farmers.
His maternal grandfather, Willy Metz, was a coal miner in Kanawha County. He died of injuries suffered in a mine cave-in.
Following his tenure as a news broadcaster on radio and TV in Charleston, Rabel distinguished himself as a five-time Emmy Award-winning war correspondent for both CBS and NBC, reporting from Vietnam, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Cuba to name just a few of the embattled countries to which he was assigned.
At CBS, he won an Emmy and the George Polk Award for his hour-long documentary recounting the murder by the military government of tens of thousands of Guatemala’s indigenous population.
At NBC, Rabel’s assignments encompassed four years as the network’s national security correspondent at the Pentagon.
Rabel also covered the civil rights struggle in America’s southland, highlighted by his on-camera interview with Martin Luther King just hours before King’s assassination in Memphis.
“I believe my vast experience as an eyewitness to and reporter of some of the most earth-shattering events in our recent past lends itself to my ability to lead as your Congressman,” Rabel said. “After 14-years of failed leadership by Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, the district needs strong, creative, and independent leadership. Neither of my opponents can offer that.”
Rabel acknowledged that he faces an uphill battle against his opponents who can count on hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of corporate dollars from entities like big coal and the Koch Brothers enterprises.
“Money doesn’t vote,” Rabel said. “People vote. And I’m banking on an independent surge to take me from my initial ten percent in the polls to be a serious contender in November.”
Instead of expensive television ads, Rabel intends to use less-expensive radio commercials that will differentiate him from his well-heeled opponents.
In one of his radio spots, Rabel says this:
“Unlike the Republican I oppose, a fella’ named Mooney, I was actually born here. Mooney is a carpetbagger from Maryland. And unlike the other fella’ on the ballot, the Democrat, Nick Casey, I’m not running to be the voice of the millionaires or the people who own and control corporations – the same corporations that steal our natural resources, poison our drinking water and blow up our beautiful mountains. When I go to Washington it’ll be to speak for folks like you – just regular West Virginians who want a fair shake.”
As his candidacy becomes more popular, Rabel believes his opponents will mount attacks including the old chestnut that he is nothing more than a spoiler.
Just such an argument appeared in a recent op-ed in the Charleston Gazette following a poll in which he got 10 percent of the vote, a surprising score for a relatively unknown independent in a three-way race.
To counter the charge, Rabel cites a recent Gallup poll showing at least two-thirds of those surveyed nationwide want a third choice, an independent not beholden to Wall Street – one willing to break the gridlock in Washington.
“This year is different,” Rabel said. “No longer will the tired, old spoiler argument work for the tired old party politicians.”