The congresswoman from the 2nd District is Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican first elected in 2000. She is widely mentioned in West Virginia as a candidate for future higher office. Read More
The congresswoman from the 2nd District is Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican first elected in 2000. She is widely mentioned in West Virginia as a candidate for future higher office.
Capito grew up in northern West Virginia and in the Washington, D.C., area, when her father, Arch Moore, served in the House from 1957 to 1969. He was elected governor in 1968 and 1972, and then again in 1984. He later was convicted and served three years in jail for fraud and extortion. Capito graduated from Duke University and the University of Virginia, and was the first Cherry Blossom Princess elected to Congress. She worked for two years as a career counselor at West Virginia State University, and then was director of the state’s Educational Information Center from 1978 to 1981. She served two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
Her opportunity to follow in her father’s footsteps came when Democratic Rep. Bob Wise ran for governor in 2000. She benefited from a divisive Democratic primary that was won by Jim Humphreys, a former state senator and a lawyer who made a fortune in asbestos litigation. Capito, who supported abortion rights, started as the underdog, but Humphreys, who spent $6 million of his own money in the general election, proved to be a poor candidate. One of the few beneficiaries of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush’s coattails that year, she won 48%-46%, with big margins in the eastern panhandle counties.
In the House, Capito has a largely moderate voting record, though she has become more inclined to side with her party since President Barack Obama took office. She supported the State Children’s Health Insurance Program expansion in 2009 and a bill in 2010 extending unemployment benefits. She has received special attention from Republican leaders because of her precarious district. She was one of the few House Republicans to get a free pass to vote against the president’s position on free trade bills. After Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, Capito voted for five of the Democratic “Six for ‘06” agenda items.
In 2011, Capito took over as chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. She promised to focus on three areas: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s authority to unwind systemically vital institutions, the consumer protection bureau established in the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, and the tensions community banks face in tightening lending standards while making loans to small businesses. During conference negotiations on Dodd-Frank in 2010, she unsuccessfully sought to remove a $150 billion resolution fund to cover the cost of taking over a failing firm and to replace it with a streamlined bankruptcy process to ensure liquidation of companies. Her husband, Charles, is a longtime banking executive, something that has raised eyebrows among watchdog groups. She has said she makes her own decisions and told Esquire magazine in 2010, “No matter what your decisions are, no matter what your votes are, if you’re not playing by the rules you’re taking a big risk.”
Capito also has a seat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where she seeks to authorize highway projects for the state. After a deadly accident at the Sago mine in 2006, Capito joined the West Virginia delegation in supporting legislation to improve mine safety by requiring that coal miners be given communications and tracking equipment and two-hour reserves of oxygen. After the Senate passed the bill, she persuaded House Republican leaders to schedule it for the floor; Bush signed the bill into law in 2006. After the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners at her state’s Upper Big Branch Mine, she introduced her own mine safety bill and opposed the version that was brought to the floor (but failed to pass) in December, contending that it “imposes severe penalties on businesses, introduces dramatic regulatory changes and promotes unnecessary litigation.”
Democrats repeatedly have been frustrated in trying to defeat Capito. In 2002, Democrats gave her a big break by again nominating Humphreys, who won another expensive primary and then ran an even more ineffective campaign than the one two years earlier. Capito won 60%-40%. In 2006, she had a well-funded opponent in attorney Mike Callaghan, a former state Democratic Party chairman. In a year when Bush was a drag for many Republicans, Capito was unafraid to align herself with Bush on issues like energy policy. Capito outspent her opponent by nearly 4-to-1 and won 57%-43%. In 2008, longtime Byrd aide Anne Barth was her Democratic challenger and raised $1.2 million, including support from the United Mine Workers and EMILY’s List. Barth criticized Capito for her support of “big oil,” while Capito cited Barth’s backing from “anti-coal” politicians in Washington. Capito won, again by 57%-43%.
When Capito announced in July 2010 that she would not run in a special election for the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat, she deprived Republicans of their best candidate. She coasted to a sixth term in November, 68%-30%, against Democrat Virginia Lynch Graf, a former Catholic nun. Capito is considered a possible candidate for governor or for the U.S. Senate when Democrat Jay Rockefeller retires.
