On May 23, The Tarrance Group released a poll for U.S. House, 2nd district of West Virginia. The results: Republican Alex Mooney 39%, Democrat Nick Casey 29%, independent Ed Rabel 10%, Libertarian Davy Jones 3%, undecided 19%.
Rabel is a well-known native of West Virginia who was a television network reporter for overseas news for 34 years. He appeared on CBS 1965-1985 and NBC 1985-1998. His autobiography, “Lies, Wars and Other Misadventures” was published in 2012. If he gets 10% in the November 2012 election, that will be the best showing for a non-major party candidate for U.S. House in West Virginia, who had opponents from both major parties, since 1976. In 1976 independent candidate Ken Hechler had placed a close second, with 36.7% for U.S. House in West Virginia’s 4th district. Here is Rabel’s campaign web page.
Rabel had intended to run in 2014 as a Mountain Party candidate, but then early this year he had decided to run as an independent instead. He would probably do better if West Virginia did not have a straight-ticket device. Thanks to Michael for the link to the poll.
I don’t understand why Rabel would give up his Mountain Party slot with it’s automatic ballot access. Now he has to collect tons of petition signatures to get on the ballot. Any word on his progress?
Mr. Rabel was a guest on Occupy The Microphone. You can hear it here.