Per capita, Morgan County must be the most civically active county in West Virginia.\u00a0Take this afternoon, for example.<\/p>\n
Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) came to the Fairfax Coffee House to do some retail politics.<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And while there was the usual glad handing, Manchin faced a swarm of citizens asking about fracking, his support for the Democratic ticket in West Virginia, and an alleged deal with Senator Max Baucus on abandoned mine funds.<\/p>\n<p>On the fundamental issue of whether he\u2019s supporting the Democratic ticket in West Virginia top to bottom, Manchin said \u201cI\u2019m supporting it as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Was he supporting President Obama over Governor Mitt Romney in the November election?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t gone that far yet,\u201d Manchin said.<\/p>\n<p>Democrat Howard Swint is running against Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito in the Second Congressional District.<\/p>\n<p>Swint opposes mountaintop removal, favors a Medicare for all single payer system, and favors increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Is Manchin supporting Swint over Capito?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHoward is a good man,\u201d Manchin says.<\/p>\n<p>Do you support him over Capito?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHoward is a good man,\u201d Manchin says again.<\/p>\n<p>But do you support him over Capito?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sticking with Howard,\u201d Manchin says. \u201cWould I vote for Howard? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A group of protesters from <a href=\"http:\/\/frackban.org\/\">Morgan Frack Ban<\/a> greeted Manchin outside the Fairfax Coffee House.<\/p>\n<p>They wanted assurances that Morgan County wouldn\u2019t be targeted by out of state natural gas frackers.<\/p>\n<p>Manchin wouldn\u2019t oblige.<\/p>\n<p>He said there are laws in place that regulate fracking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we can\u2019t say no to fracking,\u201d Morgan County resident John Webster told Manchin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe law is the law,\u201d Manchin responded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you going to help us change the law?\u201d Webster asked.<\/p>\n<p>Manchin says that the frackers have to live within the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you talked to your legislators down in Charleston?\u201d Manchin asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know that all of our legislators are for fracking, just like you and our President are,\u201d Webster shot back.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan County attorney Bill Carey asked Manchin about an alleged deal Manchin made with Montana Senator Max Baucus (D) <a href=\"http:\/\/m.missoulian.com\/news\/opinion\/columnists\/ochenski-wyoming-rightfully-angry-at-baucus-sleight-of-hand\/article_49cc90b8-c980-11e1-966b-0019bb2963f4.html\">to redirect funds from the Abandoned Mine Land trust to be used to build roads instead. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe heard that you made an arrangement, a deal recently with Baucus?\u201d Carey asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot that I know of,\u201d Manchin responded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have not worked out anything with Baucus recently?\u201d Carey said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t talked to Max,\u201d Manchin said. \u201cMike Enzi (R-Wyoming) is the guy I talked to. . .Mike Enzi never brought this to my attention. You\u2019re saying it\u2019s Max Baucus, not Mike Enzi?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Per capita, Morgan County must be the most civically active county in West Virginia.\u00a0Take this afternoon, for example. Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) came to the Fairfax Coffee House to do some retail politics. And while there was the usual … <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=307\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}