From the Mid-Terms '06

 This is an op-ed I wrote in the midterm election of 2006 against former Rep. Alan Mollohan

            It’s a general assumption that as time passes, most things and places generally tend to get better.  Unless you have an infection or a neglected car, time is usually going to be good to you.  For example, let’s say twenty years; most areas are going to improve by leaps and bounds in twenty years.  As technology advances our lives are going to get better.  But one region comes to mind immediately to me, as one which over twenty years has not improved.

            Odds are if you’re reading this, then you live in that region.  Yes, I’m talking about Marion County.  The Census Bureau will tell you that the per capita income of Marion County is approximately $16,000.  If you take that figure and apply basic math to it, you will find that the average resident of Marion County makes about $7.75 an hour.  The good news is that means it doesn’t matter to us if the minimum wage goes up, we’re already making more than $7.50!  The bad news is that a per capita measurement of income is nothing more than an average, the middle ground.  The problem with this measurement comes when there are five or six really high-paid lawyers in this county who throw the whole thing way off course.  Odds are you don’t make $7.75 an hour if you’re reading this. 
            Now who do I really want to throw the blame at for this?  I want to blame everybody that I can blame by-god!  But I’m not going to.  The truth is, regardless of what frustrations many of us have towards our local government, none of them have been in office for twenty years.  One man has sat in his office and watched the economic hopes and dreams of a generation fall by the way-side.  One man has read the census bureau’s report every 10 years and found that the population of his state was falling more then any other state.  The man who has sat idly by and watched his so-called ‘constituents’ suffer while he profits, is Alan Mollohan. 
            I blame Alan Mollohan because this problem in Marion County is not isolated, Marion County is one of the luckier counties in the 1^st district, we’ve benefited to some small degree from the corruption of our representative, the non-profits that the FBI are now investigating reside in our county, they contribute to what little remains of our economy.  The fact of the matter is Mollohan has done nothing for us, and he’s done even less for the rest of the 1^st District!  He was elected because his father let him have the position!  Fellow Mountaineers, my brothers and sisters, do us all a favor on November 7^th, and show America once and for all:  West Virginia Votes for Progress, not for Patronage.  A vote against Alan Mollohan, is a vote for progress.

Stephen Sundahl,
VP of College Republicans
Fairmont State University