Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) Elected 2000, 3d term
Born:	Nov. 26, 1953, Glen Dale
Home:	Charleston
Education:	Duke U., B.S. 1975, U. of VA, M.Ed. 1976
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Charles)
Elected  Office:	WV House of Del., 1996-2000.
Professional Career:	Career counselor, WV State Col., 1976-78; Dir., Educ. Info. Center, WV Board of Regents, 1978-81.
DC Office	1431 LHOB20515, 202-225-2711; Fax: 202-225-7856; Web site: capito.house.gov
State Offices	Charleston, 304-925-5964; Martinsburg, 304-264-8810.
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Update: November 30, 2005
On October 3, 2005, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito announced she would not challenge Senator Robert Byrd in 2006.

Not all of West Virginia has been coal country, not all of its valleys are industrial hollows choked with workingmen's homes and small factories, and not all of its hills are scarred with strip mining wounds or piled with tailings. It's true that for miles you can see gentle hills and rugged mountains, stands of green trees and vistas stretching to far horizons. Yet over another hill you may find, amid scenery primeval and rural, sudden evidence of industrialization: a pulp mill or charcoal factory in a clearing scraped out of the forest; a small factory town, built close to a river in a cleft bordered with hills, its houses built in the same 1910s style as in the factory suburbs of Pittsburgh; the entrance to an underground coal mine or a mountaintop blasted open to allow surface mining. Large parts of this naturally beautiful state look as verdant and unchanged as they must have when George Washington was speculating in land here or taking the waters in Berkeley Springs, or when John Brown launched his assault on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859.

The 2d Congressional District of West Virginia is a central slice of the state, a belt of land from Berkeley Springs and Harper's Ferry in the Washington exurbs all the way west to the Ohio River town of Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha River (pronounced kaNAW) flows into the Ohio. It could easily take a full day to drive through this mountainous district that, if ironed out, would probably spread across the continent. The 2d District includes the few fast-growing parts of West Virginia--the eastern panhandle counties, which are part of the Washington, D.C., metro area and have become home to some city folks seeking a quieter life, plus chemical-producing Putnam County just west of Charleston, where Toyota built an engine plant. The major urban center here is Charleston, where on the banks of the Kanawha rises West Virginia's Capitol, built in 1932 and designed by Cass Gilbert with a dome higher than the U.S. Capitol and a chandelier with 10,000 pieces of cut glass. Charleston, with its two partisan newspapers, the Democratic Gazette and the Republican Daily Mail, is the center of the state's political culture. It also is a major industrial center, with coal in the hills all around and, downriver from the Capitol, huge petrochemical plants that convert coal tar into everyday products. This was a center of American high tech in the 1940s, when it produced all the nation's lucite, polyethylenes and nylon, as well as much of its artificial rubber and antifreeze. Today, the state boasts it is home to more polymer producers than any other place on the planet; the chemical industry makes products used in the manufacturing of cosmetics, detergents, shampoo, rubber, paints and coatings, fire retardants and agricultural products. Charleston is also West Virginia's professional center, with a few downtown skyscrapers and some affluent residential districts. But like much of the state, Kanawha County has continued to lose population since the 2000 Census. Politically, this is an ancestrally Democratic district now trending Republican in many, though not all, races; Berkeley County in the eastern panhandle votes like a Republican exurb. George W. Bush has carried the 2d District twice by comfortable margins, and it is the only district in the state to have elected a Republican House member in more than 20 years.

The congresswoman from the 2d District is Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican first elected in 2000. She grew up in northern West Virginia and in the Washington area, when her father, Arch Moore, served in the House from 1957-69. He was elected governor in 1968 and (over Jay Rockefeller) in 1972, and then again in 1984; later he was convicted and served three years in jail for fraud and extortion. Shelley Moore Capito graduated from Duke University and the University of Virginia, and is the first Cherry Blossom Princess elected to Congress. She worked for two years as a career counselor at West Virginia State College, and then was director of the state's Educational Information Center from 1978-81, when Rockefeller was governor. She served two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Her opportunity to follow in her father's footsteps came when Bob Wise, a Democratic congressman first elected in 1982, ran for governor in 2000. She benefited from a divisive Democratic primary that was won by Jim Humphreys, a trial lawyer, former state senator and ally of labor unions, who made a fortune in asbestos litigation and spent $3 million of his own money to win the Democratic nomination. Capito, who supported abortion rights, started as the underdog but Humphreys, who spent another $6 million in the general, proved to be a poor candidate. One of the few beneficiaries of George W. Bush's coattails that year, she won 48%-46%, with big margins in the eastern panhandle counties.

In the House, Capito 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 trade promotion authority. Capito helped to make the case for her party's prescription drug plan for seniors and against the Democratic alternative. On the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee she won approval of $44 million--one of the largest earmarks in the 2004 highway bill--to begin the expansion of busy U.S. 35 west of Charleston. A firm Bush ally in the war on terror, she secured House commendation for Army Private Jessica Lynch, a district native who was rescued from captivity at the start of the war in Iraq. But the Bush administration rejected her proposal to distribute Iraqi assets to the former POWs.

At home, Capito has settled comfortably into her seat. In 2002, Democrats gave her a big break by again nominating Humphreys, who won another bruising and expensive primary. Discouraged national Democrats gritted their teeth; a new team of national consultants could not change Humphrey's approach, and his 2002 campaign was even more ineffective than in 2000. Capito won 60%-40%, and ran strongly across the district. In 2004, her Democratic opponent was former television anchorman Erik Wells, but national Democrats abandoned interest in the district. The United Mine Workers endorsed Capito after praising her for blocking a Labor Department bid to weaken regulations on coal dust, and for legislation to protect medical benefits for retired miners, including 15,000 in West Virginia. Her victory margin fell to a still comfortable 57%-41%, including a virtually dead-even result in Kanawha County. Capito has said she does not regard her district as safe. But she looks now to be a well-positioned incumbent, with some potential as a statewide candidate. In early 2005, national Republicans were hoping she would challenge Senator Robert Byrd in 2006; she said she would make a decision on the Senate race in the fall.

Committees

• Rules (6th of 9 R): Rules & Organization of the House.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	30	0	38	18	80	50	90	72	70	84	--
2003	15	--	25	25	--	55	87	72	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	41%	--	57%		50%	--	50%
Social	47%	--	52%		40%	--	59%
Foreign	40%	--	58%		25%	--	68%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Shelley Moore Capito (R)	147,676	57%	$1,654,898
	Erik Wells (D)	106,131	41%	$77,410
	Other	3,218	1%
2004 primary	Shelley Moore Capito (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Shelley Moore Capito (R)	98,276	60%	$2,530,078
	Jim Humphreys (D)	65,400	40%	$8,150,237
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (48%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 151,019 (57%) Kerry (D) 112,418 (42%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 118,839 (54%) Gore (D) 96,524 (44%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Second District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 5
• District Size: 8,512 square miles
• Population in 2000: 602,243; 46.2% urban; 53.8% rural
• Median Household Income: $33,198; 14.8% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 28.9% blue collar; 55.1% white collar; 16.1% gray collar; 14.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 93.9% White, 3.6% Black, 0.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.9% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 0.8% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 14.7% USA, 11.7% German, 8.1% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.