Eleven Tucker County volunteers associated with WV Highlands Indivisible hosted a town hall meeting at the Tucker County Courthouse on August 10, 2017.
Congressman David McKinley, his wife, Mary, and his field representative, Wendy Madden, met with Robin McClintock, Marilyn Shoenfeld, Cory Chase, Jeanne Odom, Jackie Burns, Diane Beall, Elaine George, Thisbe Cooper, Richard Spence, Jim Odom, and John Cooper for 1 ½ hours to discuss current issues of concern to Tucker County residents. The volunteers were able to secure more than 400 signatures over the Memorial Day Weekend on a petition seeking the meeting with the 1st Congressional representative.
Congressman McKinley agreed to come to Tucker County to meet with these constituents. The volunteer group would have preferred having a larger and public meeting, but given the recent violence in the shooting of a Congressman in Alexandria, Virginia, they agreed to the Congressman’s request to meet with a smaller number of participants in a secure facility such as the courthouse annex.
The conversation at the meeting covered a number of current political issues including the following:
- Several options to improve the Affordable Care Act including replacing insurance companies from the exchange with a single payer plan similar to Medicare and Medicaid, protecting Medicaid benefits for Tucker County citizens, continued Medicaid funding for local health care facilities including Cortland Acres, and protecting the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIPS).
- The creation of new jobs and expansion of wind, solar, and other renewable energy related jobs and research as worldwide demand for coal diminishes.
- The risk of nuclear war given the increasingly threatening dialogue this week between Kim Jong-Un of North Korea and President Trump.
- The possibility of Adopting a proposed Constitutional Amendment to overturn the 5-4 decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission which gave corporations the green light to spend unlimited sums on ads and other political tools, calling for the election or defeat of individual candidates.
- Adopting legislation to appoint Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, as Special Prosecutor should President Trump or his subordinates terminate him, without cause, in his capacity as Special Counsel heading the current criminal probe into Russian interference into the presidential election of 2016– and any complicity in that interference by the Trump campaign team and/or the White House.
- Assuring net neutrality in regulation of internet service providers.
- Obtaining increased research grants at West Virginia University from federal funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to put it on an equal plane with Pitt, Penn State, and Virginia Tech.
- Climate change.
- Bringing new jobs, infrastructure and broadband to Tucker County to complement the completion of Corridor H. 10. Bipartisan cooperation to resolve the gridlock in Congress.
The discussion was spirited, and the Congressman and the volunteer group did not come to agreement on a number of the issues. However, both sides were respectful and professional throughout the discussions, and they did agree that having the dialogue and conversation about the disputed issues was beneficial.
On a positive note, Congressman McKinley did say that “Medicaid is sacred” and that he thought it “would be foolish to take away health care.” There was also unanimity among the participants about efforts to promote the expansion of research at West Virginia University and the need to create jobs and secure broadband. The participants found the meeting to be meaningful and useful in the exchange of ideas between a Congressman and the constituents he represents.
