Is there anything more cool than doing cool things for free?
Hey kids! Mojo here! I hope someday you can enjoy your life as much as I love mine! Let's start with flying! As you probably know, I'm a pilot! That means I can fly airplanes! I just got back from flying to Puerto Rico and Florida and some other places! Everybody thinks it's way cool that I fly myself places! What's even way cooler is that I don't have to pay for it! You do! Well, at least your parents do! How does that work? Easy! I'm the governor! So just about everything I do is called "official business!" And when you do "official business," you get to use tax dollars to pay for it! Can you think of anything that you do that qualifies as "official business?" Me neither! You have to be grown up to do "official business!" Another one of my favorite things is riding motorcycles! I have my own motorcycle! And sometimes I ride it to places where I have to do "official business!" And everybody knows that riding a motorcycle makes you way cool, too! In fact, most people who work for me tell me they think I'm probably the coolest governor in the world! Me too! A lot of people call me "Elvis" because I'm so cool! But shoot, even Elvis had to pay his own way! So that makes me cooler than Elvis! And you know what you are when you're even cooler than Elvis? Right! Super Elvis! Life is good!
< NEW! Search the Republican Gazette archives!
Abernathy Strategies
New for 2007-08
RepublicanGazette
Monday, June 18, 2007
Submissions welcome
The Republican Gazette welcomes Emails to the Editor and press releases. All submitted items must include the name and contact information for the author of the article, and all articles will only be published with the author's name included. Thank you for reading and participating in The Republican Gazette, another of West Virginia's most biased publications.
All opinions are those of The Republican Gazette and its editor, Gary Abernathy, except letters or commentary signed by others, and do not reflect the views of anyone else, including clients of Abernathy Strategies.
---
The Penn Gaming sale: What did they know, when did they know it?
As two separate Eastern Panhandle legislators noted late last week, it looks like Jefferson County voters made the right decision when they voted down the table games referendum.
Their comments were in regard to the sale of Penn National Gaming, a sale that was announced mere days after the June 9 table games vote.
"If you can't trust them on this, what else can't we trust them on?" one legislator asked.
Penn National Gaming, owner of Charles Town Race Track in Jefferson County, announced late last week it was selling out to Fortress Investment Group and Centerbridge Partners for $6.1 billion in cash.
The fact that the sale was only revealed a few days after the table games vote was a clear example to many of the manipulation that has been a staple of the gambling industry's push for table games in West Virginia.
The questions it raises are obvious -- who knew, what did they know, and when did they know it?
Penn Gaming officials have obviously known for quite some time this deal was on the table -- you don't put together a $6.1 billion deal in three or four days -- but they chose to keep quiet until after the June 9 vote. Did Gov. Joe Manchin know about the sale? Did any other public officials know? What lawmakers own stock in Penn Gaming?
If the governor or any other elected leaders knew about the pending sale but kept mum, it constitutes an outrageous dereliction of duty.
If they did not know, they should be as outraged as anyone, and launch an immediate investigation into how and why the sale came to be put together without letting the public know prior to the June 9 vote.
Certainly, announcing the sale prior to the vote would have made defeat even more certain. In fact, it may have even derailed it legally, since the table games legislation was written with very clear language about ownership of the tracks in the four counties.
And while the sale is already lucrative to stockholders, it undoubtedly would have been even more so had the table games referendum passed, given the added value Penn would have accrued if table games could be offered at its Charles Town track.
The latest turn of events makes even more hypocritical the fury being expressed in some political circles, including, reportedly, in the governor's mansion.
The notion that Gov. Joe Manchin's only interest in signing the table games legislation was so voters could have the "right" to choose for themselves was belied in recent days by his private livid outbursts directed at Jefferson County voters who defeated it, and the legislators who campaigned against the measure.
It's not difficult to understand the governor's disappointment. The 35 percent tax levied on table games was largely targeted toward state debt retirement, and since Jefferson County would have supplied the bulk of those tax receipts, the defeat there is a crushing blow to future state budget plans -- forcing the Manchin administration to revisit its revenue expectations for at least the next three years.
As voters in Hancock and Kanawha counties prepare to vote on table games, they should be asking themselves if any surprises are in store for them a few days after election day.
Change in signature causes concern
Recent news reports have noted that a drastic change has occurred in regard to the signature of Sen. Robert C. Byrd over the course of a year, leading to speculation about the health of the Senator. Indeed, the Republican Gazette's own examination raises questions as well. Below is a sample of the signature of the Senator from a year ago, followed by a sample in 2007, then followed by a predicted sample of the signature in 2008 if the rate of deterioration continues. The change is indeed dramatic.
2006 signature
2007 signature
Anticipated 2008 signature
Announcement of sale just days after table games vote raises questions
Scott Finn's homage to West Virginia
Scott Finn is a former reporter for The Charleston Gazette who now toils for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. But The Gazette recently published an essay Finn wrote about West Virginia, and I highly recommend it to you.
GOP continues mayor wins
The Republican Party continued its success in mayoral races last week when Carolyn Rader was elected the new mayor of Ripley.
Her win followed recent victories by Danny Jones in Charleston and, less predictably, Frank Mullens in South Charleston.
Ironically, the biggest news
item from the Ripley election was the fact that city recorder Bill Casto was overwhelmingly re-elected -- even though he died the day before.
New Mayor Rader was scheduled to be on Hoppy Kercheval's show today to discuss that situation.
Also recently elected, by the way, was Republican Ron Stone as the mayor of Winfield.
