Roman Prezioso won’t run for re-election



Roman Prezioso

State Senator Roman Prezioso, Class of 1967, who went from Jackson Street to the State Legislature where he has served for more than three decades, announced that he won’t run again when his term ends next year.

Roman is the Minority Leader for the Democratic Party in the West Virginia Senate. He has been in the State Senate since 1996 after serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1988 to 1996.

Roman and wife Deborah live in Fairmont. Roman’s sister, Marie Prezioso, lives in Charleston.

Roman’s parents were Amelia Ann Yerace Prezioso and Roman Prezioso, Sr., who ran Prezioso Grocery at the top of Jackson Street. Amelia was famous for her canned peppers, which she grew, canned and sold for decades.

 

She is the mother of State Sen. Roman Prezioso, Jr., Class of 1967, who lives in Fairmont with wife Deborah, and Marie Prezioso of Charleston.

 

Monongah’s Preziosos include Lavania Serge Prezioso, Josephine Prezioso Westfall of Monongah, Bea Prezioso Mangino of Michigan, Brulina Prezioso Sweeney of Vienna, Barbara Prezioso Vozniak (married to  Mitch Vozniak) of Monongah, Marie Prezioso of Charleston, Eugene Prezioso and wife Pat of Michigan and Dr. Ronald Pearse and wife Julia of Fairmont (his branch changed the name from Prezioso to Pearse).

 

For more details, go to http://wvmetronews.com/2019/11/04/after-30-years-in-w-va-legislature-roman-prezioso-announces-he-wont-run-again/?fbclid=IwAR3H5Qj3FCVZ2iCMkLY8xD0uNcKPPXl7Qzln9PhmxjXNHDIPB322Q9_X7p8

Manchin bill taxpayers for fundraiser flight?

James Manchin, the U.S. Senator from West Virginia by way of Farmington, is accused of charging taxpayers for his flight to California where his fundraiser brought in $99,900 for his reelection campaign.

The complaint to the Senate Ethics Committeee came from the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), which espouses causes from the right.

Manchin’s office told the Washington Free Beacon after publication of its initial report that the purpose of the trip was half for official business and half for fundraising, and that travel costs were split accordingly.

His office maintained that it is in compliance with ethics rules, but said it is unable to say what the official business on the trip was or provide details on how the costs were split.

Manchin’s travel expense was disclosed in the Secretary of the Senate’s report on Senate expenditures, which shows he spent $1,515.65 on four flights, three between West Virginia and Washington, D.C., and the one from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh.

Manchin’s office declined to say how much of the $1,515.65 was for the flight from Los Angeles.

Manchin came to the Senate in 2010 after being West Virginia governor.

Read and decide for yourself by going to https://www.nrsc.org/press-releases/manchin-hot-water-taxpayer-funded-trip-cali-2018-06-29/

Teachers’ foe trounced in GOP primary

Republican state Sen. Robert Karnes, who strongly opposed West Virginia teachers’ attempts to get a pay raise and more money for school facilities, was routed in the Republican primary in District 11 (Upshur County) by Delegate Bill Hamilton, 5,787 to 3,749.

Hamilton supported the teachers’ walkout that started an uprising of teachers in several other states. $10,000 of his $53,850 campaign donations came from organized labor.

Karnes had said before the election that “I don’t think (the teachers walkout) will have any significant effect” on the election. He began his State Senate tenure in 2015.

Karnes is a 1987 Poca High graduate.

Michael Angelucci

Another Angelucci winner

Marion County Rescue Squad Chief of Operations Michael Angelucci, a North Marion High graduate, was one of three Democrats winning nomination for the West Virginia House of Delegates District 50. 

They will face Republican nominees Guy Ward and Phil Mallow, who were unopposed in the primary.

Michael lives in Farmington. 

His grandfather and Julie Angelucci, Class of 1953, who quarterbacked Monongah High to the 1952 state football title, were brothers. 

Julie lives in Severna Park, Maryland with wife Stella Kootsikas Angelucci.

Angelucci Trucking was in Marion County for three decades till it was dissolved by Mark and Michael Angelucci in 1986. 

Brother Mark is with the Fairmont Fire Department.

Colbert rips Don Blankenship

Talk show host/comedian Stephen Colbert savaged Don Blankenship on his CBS show, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the successor to David Letterman.

Colbert had plenty of ammunition to work with.

Blankenship is the former chief executive of the Massey Energy Company where an explosion in the Upper Big Branch coal mine killed 29 men in 2010. Massey was cited for hundreds of violations while Blankenship was its CEO.

In 2016 Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison, the maximum allowed by law, for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards that contributed to the Upper Big Branch calamity, the deadliest mine toll in 40 years.

Blankenship attacked fellow Republican, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, because McConnell’s wife’s father is a “wealthy China person.” McConnell’s wife is Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, whose father is James S.C. Chao, the founder of The Foremost Group, a shipping and trading company.

Previously, Blankenship admired China’s state-controlled economy and expressed an interest in gaining Chinese citizenship.

Blankenship says McConnell isn’t falling in line deeply enough with President Trump’s foreign policy.

Establishment Republicans do not want Blankenship to win the primary in West Virginia. A super PAC with ties to McConnell has spent nearly $745,000 on TV and digital ads to oppose him.

While running in West Virginia, Blankenship’s primary residence is a $2.4 million villa near Las Vegas. As he says, he’s lived in West Virginia most of his life. 

The Marshall University graduate was born in Stopover, Kentucky, was reared in Delorme, West Virginia and graduated from Matewan High School not far from Williamson.

Incumbent Senator Joe Manchin, of the Farmington family, is running for reelection and has been photographed alongside President Trump over some GOP-favored issues in the aftermath of Trump winning in West Virginia so handily.

Despite those moves, Trump blasted Manchin in White Sulphur Springs this month while flanked by Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-WV, and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — candidates in the Republican Senate primary —  for opposing Republican plans to overhaul the tax code and repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

To watch Colbert’s savaging of Blankenship, go to

https://www.facebook.com/colbertlateshow/videos/1386970548114359/

State Senate committee takes axe to WVU, public broadcasting

The West Virgina Senate’s Finance Committee budget bill, spearheaded by the Republicans, would cut funding to WVU by 15%. This is on top of $29 million in state funding since 2011.

WVU President E. Gordon Gee issued a plea to West Virginians to contact their state senators and oppose the draconian drop in state funding.

The bill also reduces state funding for public broadcasting to zero. Zilch. Nada.

From the current $4.6 million.

The State Legislature’s session ends Saturday.

Mine safety gutting?

A bill in the West Virginia Senate would gut mine safety regulations, the Charleston Daily Mail reports.

Violations no longer would result in fines.

The laws and regulations were imposed after thousands of deaths of coal miners.

To read the story, click on wv-senate-bill-eliminates-mine-safety-enforcement  

Murray hosts Trump

Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump will attend a private fundraiser hosted by Bob Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, on Tuesday, June 28 in Wheeling.

It’s by invitation only. If you don’t have a bundle of cash to throw at Trump’s campaign, don’t bother trying to get in.

No-solution costs taxpayers $455,000 … so far

So far NOT coming up with a budget during the special State Legislature session has cost West Virginia taxpayers $455,000.

Five lawmakers gave their $1,800 paychecks back: Delegates Ron Walters (R-39^th District), Matthew Rohrbach (R-17^th District, Cabell, Wayne counties), Andrew Byrd (D-35^th District, Kanawha county), Doug Reynolds (D-17^th District), and Sen. Chris Walters (R-8^th District, Putnam, Kanawha counties). 

Everyone else kept the $1,800 check for not finding a solution.

Hillary: I want to help coal miners get other jobs

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, stung by her remark that “we’re putting a lot coal miners out of business,” explained it this way in a letter to Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia:

"I wanted to make the point that we have already seen a long-term decline in American coal jobs and a recent wave of bankruptcies as a result of a changing energy market -- and we need to do more to support the workers and families facing these challenges."

Clinton touted her plan released last year to put $30 billion toward protecting the health benefits of coal miners and their families because “we don’t want to forget those people.”

"I will focus my team and my Administration on bringing jobs to Appalachia, especially jobs producing the carbon capture technology we need for the future," she wrote.

Manchin endorsed Clinton early in her campaign.

Trump’s #1 support: West Virginia

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a higher level of support in West Virginia than in any other state.

Trump’s support ranges from 45% in West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District (a region that stretches from Parkersburg to Morgantown and Wheeling) to 41 percent in the 2nd Congressional District (the Kanawha Valley to the Eastern Panhandle) to 36 percent in the 3rd District (Southern West Virginia).

Trump’s best state was West Virginia, followed by New York. Trump also had strong support in other states in the Appalachian region and among Gulf Coast states.

Trump’s weakest support came from Utah.

 West Virginia’s primary is May 10, later than most states.

Least effective West Virginia Congressman serves Marion County

Congressman David McKinley is the most ineffective member from West Virginia, according to InsideGov.com ratings.

McKinley represents the 1^st district, which includes Marion County and goes from the Northern Panhandle to Parkersburg to the Eastern Panhandle to Morgantown.

Rep. David McKinley

The ratings are based on the number of bills sponsored that at least get through committee. McKinley has sponsored 68 bills and 7% made it through committee.

But that doesn’t get him close to the 35 most ineffective, many of whom have had NO bills get through committee, but he is last among West Virginia’s delegation in Congress, based on these ratings. There are 435 members of Congress, so obviously you have to push through the crowd to get noticed.

The list includes only members of Congress who have served at least one full term and does not include bills introduced in the 114th Congress, since they still have time to get passed.

Only four men have represented the 1^st district since 1953: Bob Mollohan (D) (1953–1957), former Governor Arch Moore, Jr. (R) (1957–1969), Bob Mollohan again (1969–1983), Alan Mollohan (1983–2011) and Purdue graduate and civil engineer McKinley (R) (2011-present).

Fiscal conservative McKinley was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1981 to 1994, and he was chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party from 1990 to 1994. He lost to Cecil Underwood in the 1996 Republican gubernatorial primary. Underwood won the governor race in that general election. McKinley is a seventh-generation resident of Wheeling.

According to a Gallup poll, public approval of Congress has fallen to near-record lows. On average, 34% of the population approves of a given Congress. The current 114th Congress has a 17% approval rating.

According to GovTrack.us, the last two Congresses have enacted fewer laws than any other Congress since 1947. And the 114th Congress may surpass them all in terms of doing nothing.

Same Manchin tie-ins, different titles

Larry Puccio and Frank Jezioro continue to be joined at the hip with Joe Manchin, just changing titles.

West Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Larry Puccio is resigning as state party chairman to become chairman of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin's political action committee, Country Roads PAC.

Previously, Puccio was chief of staff when Manchin was governor, before Farmington Joe changed his title to U.S. Senator.

A bill introduced in the West Virginia Legislature Jan. 19 would prohibit political party chairmen from serving as lobbyists, which both Puccio and West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas do. They would grandfathered in the bill, which means they could do both but their successors could not.

Manchin also named West Virginia's former Division of Natural Resources Director Frank Jezioro to be his liaison to Sportsmen and Natural Resources. 

Again, joined at the hip despite a title change. Jezioro, DNR director since 2005, retired from that job last month.

State Senator chameleon does it again

Sen. Daniel Hall of Wyoming, who switches party affiliation more often than some people change their underwear, did it again to break a tie in the State Senate and put the Republicans in control, 18-16, for the first time since 1933.

Daniel Hall, a Democrat
turned Republican turned
Democrat turned Republican.
For now.

Hall switched the day after the Nov. 4 elections when he ran as a Democrat.

When he first registered to vote, it was as a Democrat. He switched to Republican and  ran for the House of Delegates in 2006 and lost. He switched back to the Democratic party and won elections to the House of Delegates and the State Senate.

Republicans also have a 64-36 control of the House of Delegates. For the first time since 1931, the GOP is in charge of both chambers.

Why be such a political chameleon? 

In 2013, Hall explained:  "Both parties, on a national level, do not represent what West Virginians believe in. I'm not a party guy; I'm there to try to do what's right for my district, and I think the general public, the citizens, they almost always vote for the candidate."

If the voters are upset with his decision, Hall said they can vote him out in two more years.

Then he can run again, but with which party?