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Third party spoiler in West Virginia?
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Race
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Oct 15, 2010 12:53am |
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| Category | Speculative |
| News Date | Friday, October 15, 2010 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In the seesawing West Virginia Senate race, Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin’s path to victory could be complicated by a little-known third-party candidate running to his political left.
In the CNN/Time poll released Wednesday, Manchin and Republican John Raese are tied, at 44 percent of the vote. But in the first public survey to include him, Mountain Party nominee Jesse Johnson, an environmental activist, drew 5 percent of the vote.
With a nonexistent margin between Raese and Manchin, the liberal Johnson could prove to be a spoiler for the Democratic nominee in the race for the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat.
“I think any fringe candidate on the left or the right has the potential to be a spoiler in a close election,” said Michael Plante, a West Virginia-based Democratic consultant. “But you have to think that to the extent that [Johnson] draws environmental votes or other progressive voters, one would normally assume those would go to the Democratic nominee.”
Running on a platform similar to that of nonagenarian and former Rep. Ken Hechler in the Democratic Senate primary earlier this year, Johnson is focused on stopping mountaintop removal — a controversial method of mining, which is perhaps the most dominant industry in the Mountain State. Though Johnson remains a longshot to win the Senate seat, his candidacy has attracted some support from the far left and from fellow environmental activists. |
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