Posted on 01/14/2006 11:31:19 AM PST by Ma3lst0rm
Raese pressed to take on Byrd
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) are pressing John Raese, a West Virginia media mogul, to challenge Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) this year.
Raese is a former state Republican Party chairman who owns radio stations and a newspaper in the state. He ran for the Senate in 1984 and for governor in 1988, both times unsuccessfully.
NRSC spokesman Dan Ronayne said Raese had met with Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), the committee’s chairwoman. “We’re really excited about this guy, and we hope he gets in,” Ronayne said. Raese also met officials at the White House and the RNC.
Republicans are growing worried about West Virginia, with GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito having bowed out of the Senate race and the filing deadline less than three weeks away.
“The party is desperate for somebody to oppose Byrd, who could be vulnerable to the right candidate,” a West Virginia Republican official said.
Gary Abernathy, a former executive director of the state Republican Party, suggested it might not matter whom Republicans tap. “If Byrd’s beatable, it’s because he’s going to beat himself or because people decide he’s been there for too long,” he said.
Here is a bio of John Raese from the John L. Volk Foundation.
John R. Raese has been Chairman of the Board of the John L. Volk Foundation since its inception in 1998. He grew up knowing Volk architecture while visiting his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert C. Greer, who wintered in Palm Beach every year in their home on South Ocean Boulevard known as Casa Nana.* It was during the 1930's that John Volk became a family friend and was later commissioned by John Raese's mother, Mrs. Jane Greer Raese, to reconstruct and restore their home in Morgantown, West Virginia which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
John L. Volk went on to design a number of radio broadcasting stations in West Virginia for the Greer family, and today John R. Raese is Chairman of the Board of West Virginia Radio Corporation, which owns 15 radio stations as well as a 56-station network. He is President and CEO of Greer Industries, Inc., which produces steel and limestone and is Vice President of West Virginia Newspaper Publishing Company, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 30,000.
Chairman Raese is interested in preservation and government, loosing to Jay Rockefeller in a 1984 U.S. senatorial race by a very slim margin. He holds a board position at the Reeves Museum, a former family home which he has helped to restore, in Dover, Ohio. The Greer Mansion in Morgantown, West Virginia has also been restored under Raese's helm and converted into the corporate offices for Greer Industries, Inc.
He also supports a scholarship in memory of his father, R. A. "Dyke" Raese at West Virginia University, and under his direction, the Volk Foundation has established a scholarship program to benefit aspiring architectural students.
John and Elizabeth Raese with their two young daughters spend their time between Palm Beach, Florida and Morgantown, West Virginia, carrying on the same traditions as the generations before him.
* Casa Nana was designed by Addison Mizner in 1925, but in 1939 Volk made extensive changes to the building at 780 South County Road during the ownership of John's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Greer.
John L. Volk Foundation and its related symbols are trademarks of John L. Volk Foundation, Inc.. ©Copyright 2003 JohnL. Volk Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.
Raese is the CEO of Greer Industries.
http://www.greerindustries.com/index.html
I'd rather prefer the Iraqi Vet that is registered as a Republican to take Byrd on......The dem's are stacking their deck with Iraq War Vets, and the RNC are going to ignore their vets....big mistake.
Hiram Lewis IV, an Army National Guard Captain, Iraq War Veteran much better than a rich CEO in the mind of common people in WV.
http://www.hiramlewis.com/
the WV RNC is going to screw this one up big time if they chose the older CEO over the VET. West is wanting and is need of YOUNG Blood.
I agree entirely.
I wasn't too familiar with Lewis but he looks good to me.
http://www.hiramlewis.com/
I personally don't care who runs as long as they win and put the Byrd in his political coffin.
Here is a quote I found:
"I look at it like this; I am not running against Senator Byrd, I am running with him. I believe we both have the interests of West Virginians at heart. It is just that we disagree over the way to protect and serve those interests. Ultimately, it is up to West Virginia voters to decide who can best do the job. I believe I can."
I'm beginning to like this candidate more and more.
Does the vet have money to pay campaign staff and fund media buys? If not, you have to go with the CEO. If so, he is probably preferable.
But make no mistake. It is money that decides a senate race.
Well said. It's high time that the RNC recruit younger candidates.
While I'd love to Byrd sent packing, I remember John Raese as having the reputation for being a rather arrogant high-brow when he ran for Senate in '84 (I was at WVU at the time).
One story which will certainly get repeated was about Raese losing his temper with a journalist during an interview and him allegedly yelling "I buy and sell people like you everyday."
He seems to be making the right friends.
Hmmm, I wonder if he's already married. Ann Coulter would make a butt-kicker of a First Lady for West Virginia!
West Virginia is a good place to start a political career. I remember an all night diner where the uncle of the Gov A. James Manchine (now deceased) used to stop by. Politics in West Virginia especially in the Farmington Area where the Gov is from is very small town. It is still a lot about hand shaking. Someday the liberal stranglehold will be broken and WV will thrive.
"Someday the liberal stranglehold will be broken and WV will thrive."
Take heart, because in WV, it is. They woke up to the double-threats of Gore and Kerry, and they're waking up elsewhere, too.
Over here in WV, I have met Hiram Lewis in person and I agree he is a great candidate. He came within a mere fraction of a percent of beating an incumbent Democrat (of the McGraw dynasty) for Attorney General, when the Republicans also won for Secretary of State and Supreme Court! IF ONLY the state party had put a little money into these races instead of the massive errors the chairman made (now ex-chairman)...
I have had experience helping candidates run who get absolutely no help from the national Republican Party. I believe we will see that there will be much resentment at outsiders deciding for us that we need an arrogant millionaire (and helping fund him) instead of a younger, energetic Gulf War VETERAN who has been out there running.
Raese is good at what he does, running a newspaper chain, but he has been absent from state politics for almost 20 years. Forget it.
I was never more proud of my home state when it went Bush twice.
Whoever the Republican candidate is who takes on Byrd has to be self-financing because the RNC will never spend a penny trying to unseat a Democrat in WV. The ideal candidate to take on Byrd is self-financing and already has name recognition. I have no idea if either of these men fits the bill. If one of them starts with those two things, then he is at least in the race.
The guy has already been rejected by the voters in two state-wide elections and they expect him to beat Robert Byrd, who has probably already provided everyone in the state with their own bridge or road. What are they smoking?
I think it is experience. Lewis did come close to winning the AG race and lost by only 1%. The GOP is looking to take out Byrd but whoever is going to take it to the mat with Byrd had better be willing to fight hard. Raese has the benefit of money but Lewis has youth and the military experience and that is something that is worth its weight in gold in WV.
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