News Releases

Sunday August 15, 2010

Key Oliverio Funder in Pelosi Inner Circle Stands With
Obama on Ground Zero Project

CAMERON – GOP congressional nominee David McKinley today challenged his opponent in the November 2 general election to explain his position on a proposed ground zero mosque.

McKinley called on State Senator Mike Oliverio to affirm or reject the comments of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen that he stands behind President Obama’s support for the project at the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City that killed 3,000.

“Candy, I agree with the president,” the Maryland Democrat told CNN host Candy Crowley on "State of the Union."

Oliverio, according to records on file with the Federal Election Commission, has taken campaign contributions from two political committees controlled by Van Hollen. McKinley has already made an issue of the fact that Van Hollen last year led a Washington rally against coal.

“You are judged by the company you keep,” McKinley said of Oliverio’s ties to one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top lieutenants. He noted that Van Hollen’s participation in the anti-coal rally followed a proclamation by Pelosi to convert the power plant at the U.S. Capitol from coal to an alternative energy source.

McKinley issued the challenge at a gathering today of campaign supporters in Marshall County.

Thursday, August 11, 2010

MORGANTOWN – First District congressional nominee David McKinley has earned the endorsement of West Virginians for Life in the November 2 general election.

The political action committee of West Virginians for Life is affiliated with the National Right to Life Committee and, according to a statement from the organization, “through both education and legislation works to build a society where all human life is respected, from conception until natural death.”

“We appreciate the work David McKinley has done in the past to help pass pro-life legislation to benefit the families of West Virginia,” said Karen Cross, President of West Virginians for Life. “We commend him for his commitment to life.”
McKinley said he is proud to have been endorsed by West Virginians for Life in all of his previous political campaigns, including those that spanned his 14 years in the West Virginia legislature.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

West Virginia Congressional nominee David McKinley will address a regional coal industry dinner on “Obama’s War on Coal”

Nominee to Congress Questions Opponent Taking Contributions from Leading Coal Foe on Capitol Hill

Standing up to the Obama administration’s War on Coal will be the centerpiece of David McKinley’s agenda to grow West Virginia jobs, the Republican nominee for the First District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives said this evening.

At a gathering of the regional Coal Operators’ Suppliers Committee here, McKinley said he is especially troubled by President Obama’s crack down on coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called interstate rule issued last month, he explained, will cost $3 billion a year, drive up utility bills for business and household consumers and force many generating plants to fold.

“Our mines put more than 80,000 West Virginians to work, and coal provides half the nation’s electricity. It is the most affordable energy source available,” said McKinley, noting that every mining job creates ten additional in the workforce, such as the those among the suppliers group gathered just across the river from McKinley’s West Virginia home. “Obama will destroy our coal industry. He must be stopped.”

McKinley also faulted the Obama administration for its scheme to lower coal’s contribution to overall electric power grid in the U.S. He vowed to fight any revival of cap-and-trade and limit “the E.P.A.’s regulatory overreach” over C02 and water quality.

“The Obama energy policies are shortchanging jobs in the Mountain State and make no economic sense whatsoever,” McKinley declared, pointing to recent Congressional Budget Office figures which show that federal subsidies for ethanol to shift the energy mix away from carbon “cost taxpayers an outrageous $754 a metric ton.”

Drawing a contrast to his rival in the November 2 general election, McKinley noted that his Democratic opponent “is being bankrolled by one of the leading opponents in Congress of coal,” U.S. Representative Chris Van Hollen (Md.). Two political committees controlled by Van Hollen contributed to the campaign of State Sen. Mike Oliverio.

“Van Hollen is one of [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s top lieutenants,” McKinley exclaimed. “They share a coal-killing Capitol Hill agenda that will bring West Virginia to its knees.”

Van Hollen led an anti-coal rally in Washington last year, soon after Pelosi issued a proclamation to convert the power plant at the U.S. Capitol from coal to natural gas.

“My opponent is judged by the company he keeps,” said McKinley. “One wonders what strings are attached to that campaign cash from a national voice against coal.”

- 30 -