MORGANTOWN — The Dominion Post met with candidates for the House of Delegates 50th District to hear their views on various issues.
For logistics reasons, the Democrats and Republicans attended separate meetings; unaffiliated candidate Jon Dodds was unable to attend for work reasons and is set to be interviewed at a later date.
Today’s report features the three Democrats.
Incumbent Mike Caputo is seeking his 12th term. A Rivesville resident, he’s a third-generation coal miner and union official, serving as United Mine Workers of America International District 31 Vice President.
Caputo said he makes a point to make himself accessible to all constituents of any party. “I think the public deserves that.”
Incumbent Linda Longstreth is seeking her eighth term. A Fairmont resident, veteran and educator, she notes that she is one of the few female delegates [the current count is 13 Republicans and two Democrats].
As such, while she attends to a variety of issues — infrastructure, jobs, youth, seniors, veterans — she said she also feels it important to support women and their issues. “I think it’s one of my jobs to do that, because I understand, as a woman, their issues.”
Challenger Michael Angelucci lives in Farmington and trained as a paramedic. He serves on the Marion County Rescue Squad as an administrator and chief of operations.
“I want to take that compassion of helping people to Charleston,” he said.
Each candidate listed three top priorities.
Angelucci cited first taking care of public employees. He mentioned a family member who works for Child Protective Services and makes only $24,000 a year — with a bachelor’s degree. “That’s shameful, that that’s how we’re treating our state employees.”
His other two are revitalizing the economy — to grow jobs and keep young people here — and tackling the opioid epidemic.
Caputo also is concerned about what he termed the “public employee crisis.” In order to recruit and retain teachers, he said, “You have to pay for that.”
Seniors need to have their Social Security income exempted from state income tax, he said. [Republican and Democrat versions of a bill to do this both died in committee last session, one of the spending measures set aside to fund the state employee raise packages.]
He also wants to make sure veteran programs are fully funded and running.
Longstreth also wants to continue work to address the opioid problem. “We need rehab. We need more places across the state for rehab.” It’s wrong to simply put people in jail and then let them back out on the street to offend again or overdose.
The economy — business growth, jobs, adequate public employee pay — are on her radar. Low teacher pay has classrooms staffed with unqualified babysitters, she said. “I don’t know where we’re going to go, unless we end up being a retirement state.”
Many veterans not being taken care of, but there are only two VA hospitals in the state, she said. We need more satellite offices and more physicians.
On the topic of roads, all three complained that the road bond isn’t doing what the governor and the administration promised: Freeing up Road Fund dollars for secondary road maintenance and repairs.
“That quite frankly has just not happened,” Caputo said. Eight of 10 calls he receives are about road problems. “That’s very troubling to me.” He believes part of the problem is that the administration underestimated the costs of the projects intended to be funded by bond money.
Longstreth cited the promises made that the bond would bring a flood of new jobs. Instead, secondary roads are still seeing no benefit. “The money is not being dispersed in the way it should. … I think we’re all disturbed by that.”
Angelucci said, “Our state is never going to move forward until we start increasing our population, increasing our businesses. And we can’t do that if we have bad roads.” Low teacher pay and lack of broadband access are additional barriers to growth.
All three also voiced their support for moving forward with the state’s medical cannabis program. As previously reported, during the last session, when a bill to expand the program was in the works, state Treasurer John Perdue informed the governor and legislators that his office was unwilling to accept any revenue from the program because medical cannabis is not federally legal.
A last-minute attempt to fix that problem on the session’s last day failed. The bill, as revised by the Senate, said the treasurer may designate a credit union for banking functions necessary for the program and to receive state funds from the program. However, the fix created a fatal technical error by citing a code section that doesn’t exist.
It came to the House with the fatal error and former House Speaker Tim Armstead assured the bill’s death by letting it sit for more than five hours and refusing to bring it to the floor for amendment and a vote.
Angelucci said, “I think we need to push forward with it in West Virginia. … I think the fact that we have that, and it’s readily available and we’re not using it is sickening.”
He wouldn’t support recreational use until we see how the medical program works, he said. And we should be able to see how other states are handling the banking issue.
Caputo was blunt in assigning blame: “There is one reason why we don’t have medical cannabis ironed out today, and that is Tim Armstead.”
He related a story he’d also related on the House floor, about a friend with cancer. “He said the only thing that gave him any relief, which would let him rest, which would let him eat, was marijuana.”
His daughter bought it off the street. “There’s something wrong with that picture. … Why are we ignoring that? Why are we dragging our feet?”
Longstreth cited the fear, cited by some Legislators who oppose the program, that medical cannabis opens the door to recreational use and widespread abuse of marijuana and then other drugs.
“The reality of it is nothing’s going to go out of hand when you have regulation,” she said. There’s no reason to hold it back from someone who needs it. Medical use and recreational use are two different matters.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp
Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
