And speaking of the Governor's race, Patience and I met John Perdue over the weekend at one of his town hall meetings in Shepherdstown. He had some interesting ideas when I questioned him about his utility rate increase "moratorium." Yes, he knows that's not the complete answer and that power company pork, imprudent expenditures and sloppy accounting needs to end... or at least he does now :-) He also said he wants to overhaul the WV-PSC. He was shocked to learn that the commissioners have ties to the industry and that needs to end (ok, we laughed here, couldn't help it!) He would also like to increase the number of commissioners and have them represent different areas of the state, instead of our current Charleston good ol' boy crew. I can't quote him exactly, but he thinks PATH was a stupid idea and is glad it was stopped (of course we told him it's merely been turned into a zombie-project). He favors strong regulation on Marcellus shale drilling that both protects landowners and brings real cash benefits to our state. He went on a lovely anti-corporate rant and said that out-of-state corporate dominance in Charleston needs to end. Interesting... I should have tried pasting a StopPATH sticker on his lapel just to see if he'd rip it out of my hand, like Manchin did that time he ended up wearing it in his palm in front of the TV cameras. That would have been the real test...
Hope to see you all Friday night!