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It's a new poll, but the numbers are much the same. An automated telephone survey conducted last month found 51 percent of potential West Virginia voters would pick Rep. Shelley Moore Capito over Secretary of State Natalie Tennant in the race for retiring U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller's seat. The poll found 34 percent of potential voters would support Tennant, while 15 percent are not sure who would get their vote. Pennsylvania-based Republican polling firm Harper Polling conducted the survey, which included 640 likely voters. The poll has a 3.9 percent margin of error. In a question directed only to potential...

Mark Murray writes: The Charleston Daily Mail (WV) reports that GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito won't run in the special election for Robert Byrd's Senate seat, side-stepping what would have been a competitive contest against Gov. Joe Manchin (D), who is running for the seat.

West Virginia's state legislature has approved a plan to hold a special election to fill the seat of the late US Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia). Governor Joe Manchin (D), who is likely to be one of the candidates in that special election, signed the measure after a compromise was worked out by state lawmakers. The primary election will be held on August 28 and the vote for Senator Byrd's successor will take place as part of the congressional mid-term elections on November 2.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito said today she will not challenge Sen. Robert Byrd next year for a U.S. Senate seat, but instead will try to keep her high-profile position in the House of Representatives.

Arch Moore, the 82-year-old two-time Republican Governor of West Virginia, is quietly urging his daughter, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, to challenge Democrat Robert Byrd, senior member of the U.S. Senate, for re-election.

Capito said she will announce her decision this fall, but she has some concerns about what might occur if she wins the U.S. Senate seat. "My husband Charlie will become a member of the spouses' club," she said. "I don't think I want him out with (former president and current senatorial husband) Bill Clinton on a Friday night."

An RMS Strategies Poll released today reports that 46 percent of 401 registered voters in West Virginia would vote for Byrd if the election were held now. A total of 43 percent picked Capito, R-W.Va., though she has not announced her intention to run.

THE VULNERABLE BOBBY BYRD By Michelle Malkin   ·   June 03, 2005 04:03 PM Lots of political blogs buzzing about new poll results showing that Sen. Robert Byrd's re-election bid won't be smooth sailing: A new poll shows Sen. Robert Byrd and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito would run neck and neck in a possible campaign for the Senate seat now held by Byrd. An RMS Strategies Poll released today reports that 46 percent of 401 registered voters in West Virginia would vote for Byrd if the election were held now. A total of 43 percent picked Capito, R-W.Va., though she has...

A poll commissioned by the National Republican Senate Campaign Committee shows that Sen. Robert Byrd could be facing a close reelection race in his home state of West Virginia, where he'll be seeking an unprecedented ninth term next year. The poll shows Byrd in the lead, but not by much - with prospective GOP candidate, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito closing to within 10 points - 52 to 42 percent. For a Democratic icon like Byrd, that's too close for comfort. More troubling still for the top Democrat: Moore Capito's stellar performance comes despite the fact the she's has yet to...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)--The Bush administration has extended a program that provides prescription drug benefits to 50,000 retired coal miners and miners' widows through Medicare. President Bush signed an administrative order Thursday keeping the pilot program going beyond its scheduled June 30 expiration until December 2005, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said. Under the plan, the Department of Health and Human Services will increase its Medicare reimbursement to the miners' health care fund by $190 million, said Dr. Larry Fields of the federal agency. The additional funding also boosts the government's share of the beneficiaries' drug costs from 34 percent...

<p>HUNTINGTON -- President Bush took West Virginia in the 2000 general election, the first nonincumbent Republican presidential contender to do so since Herbert Hoover in 1928.</p> <p>At the same time, fellow Republican Shelley Moore Capito -- the first Republican member of Congress from the Mountain State in 18 years -- defeated Democrat Jim Humphreys for the 2nd District congressional seat that Bob Wise gave up to run for governor.</p>