As a teenager, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito’s daughter – Shelley Capito – took to the airwaves in a campaign ad for her mom.
In the ad, the younger Capito says “Mom works hard for more jobs, better schools and to protect Social Security. I think she works so hard because she wants my generation to stay in West Virginia.”
Young Capito graduated from Duke University in 2007.
And where does young Shelley end up working?
In New York City.
Where she worked to get Mayor Michael Bloomberg re-elected in 2009.
Yes, the same Michael Bloomberg who is spending $50 million in a campaign to move the country “beyond coal.”
Bloomberg is part of the “War on Coal” that Congresswoman Capito so vigorously attacks.
The young Capito is now working for Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign manager Bradley Tusk at Tusk Strategies in New York City.
Tusk Strategies did not return a call seeking to determine whether the consulting firm has Bloomberg’s Moving Beyond Coal Campaign as a client.
Howard Swint, Capito’s opponent in November’s election, wonders whether Congresswoman Capito will attack Mayor Bloomberg’s “war on coal.”
“Bloomberg’s ‘Moving Beyond Coal’ campaign explicitly states that its goal is to ‘end the coal era.’”
“It begins with the goal of retiring ‘one third of the nation’s coal fleet by 2020’ and cites “pollution from coal plants has been linked to asthma attacks, toxic mercury, and more.’”
“If Congresswoman Capito characterizes the EPA as ‘radical’ for simply enforcing the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, what does she have to say about Bloomberg’s campaign?” Swint asks.
“Is it okay for her daughter’s candidate to wage a ‘war on coal’?”
“Will Congresswoman Capito look the other way?”
Not that Swint disagrees with Bloomberg’s campaign.
“We should retire all coal fired power plants that do not meet environmental regulations – all those that do not have scrubbers,” Swint says. “If that turns out to be one third of the nation’s coal fleet, then so be it.”
“Until we live off the grid, we are part of the problem. But we can also be part of the solution. Solar and conservation are the North Stars for our nation’s energy solution.”
“Eventually, we have to move beyond all fossil fuels to renewables,” Swint says. “That’s the long term goal of energy independence. I absolutely believe that coal is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions and that coal pollution contributions to heart disease, cancer, stroke and respiratory illness.”