Rahall vs. Wolfe, Part 1

An article by reporter Curtis Johnson in The Herald-Dispatch on Tuesday described many of the challenges faced by Cabell County Sheriff Kim Wolfe as he attempts to win the seat in the House of Representatives held by Nick Rahall. Rahall was elected in 1976 when Ken Hechler, who had held the seat since Moses wandered in the desert, made an ill-timed run for governor.

One problem facing Wolfe is that incumbent Congressmen are hard to beat. As Marshall University political science professor Simon Perry noted, the best time to beat an incumbent Congressman is the first time he runs for re-election. After the first re-election, an incumbent is almost unbeatable, especially here in West Virginia.

There's another hurdle Wolfe faces. Rahall has learned at the feet of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, and he has learned well. Rahall has almost as many things named after him in Huntington as our senior senator does. I might be missing some, but right offhand I count four for Byrd and three for Rahall.

For Byrd: The Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing, the Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health, the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center, the Robert C. Byrd Bridge.

For Rahall: The Nick J. Rahall II Bridge, the Rahall Applachian Transportation Institute and the Rahall parking garage at Pullman Square.

It's hard to beat that kind of name recognition.

Rahall has built himself a reputation as a Congressman who can deliver the earmarks. Byrd calls himself the "Big Daddy." We just have to wait for Rahall to call himself the "Little Daddy."

If Wolfe has any consolation in this, he can look at the results from the election two years ago and see that Rahall didn't carry his home county. But Rahall had a big lead over his challenger then in the other traditionally Democratic counties. Wolfe will have to change a lot of minds if he is to unseat Rahall.

Maybe this year is not the year Wolfe really expects to challenge Rahall. Even if he loses, Wolfe still has his job as sheriff to fall back on. Two years from now, Wolfe will not be able to run for re-election because of term limits. If he can make a respectable showing this year, Wolfe will have built up some momentum that could come in handy in 2008.

The next presidential election should be a good one. For the first time since 1952, we will not have a sitting president or vice president in the race, unless Dick Cheney really surprises everyone. We don't know if Wolfe will be able to ride the presidential candidate's coattails, or if the presidential candidate will need to ride his.