Former Peace Corps Staffer Jay Rockefeller seeking fourth term as West Virginia Senator
Read and comment on this story from The Parkersburg News on Former Peace Corps Staffer Jay Rockefeller who is seeking a fourth term as West Virginia Senator.
Rockefeller, 65, came to West Virginia in 1964 as a VISTA volunteer in Emmons. He graduated from Harvard in 1961 with a degree in Far Eastern languages and history, studied Japanese at International Christian University in Tokyo and was operations director for the Peace Corps' Philippines program.
Rockefeller is one of four Senators along with the late Paul Wellstone, Russ Fiengold, and Paul Sarbanes who voted against the Gaddi Vasquez nomination for Peace Corps Director in the Foreign Relations Committee. He is a close friend of Founding Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver.
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Incumbent Jay Rockefeller seeking fourth term
By JESSE MANCINI
About the only thing in common the candidates for U.S. Senate have is their first name. Republican Jay Wolfe, a native of Parkersburg, is running against incumbent Democrat Jay Rockefeller, who is seeking a fourth term in the upper chamber.
Rockefeller, 65, a member of the Rockefeller oil family, came to West Virginia in 1964 as a VISTA volunteer in Emmons. He graduated from Harvard in 1961 with a degree in Far Eastern languages and history, studied Japanese at International Christian University in Tokyo and was operations director for the Peace Corps' Philippines program.
He was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1966 and secretary of state in 1968. He ran for governor in 1972 against Arch Moore and lost, at which time he became president of West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Rockefeller again ran for governor in 1976, won, and was re-elected to a second term in 1980. Rockefeller successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990 and 1996.
Rockefeller chairs the Senate veterans affairs committee, the health care subcommittee on finance and the aviation subcommittee on commerce, science and trade. He also is a member of the intelligence committee.
The junior senator from West Virginia supports a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit, small business tax reductions and tax credits to encourage the expansion of broadband to invigorate the economy.
''I am also working to make investment capital more available to our entrepreneurs through the West Virginia Capital Connection, and I'm actively working to bring additional investment into our manufacturing sector through the Discover the REAL West Virginia Foundation, which I created in 1988,'' Rockefeller said. ''This summer I brought a number of overseas chemical and polymer companies to the Mid-Ohio Valley to look at sites for expansion. I also fight hard for fair trade laws and enforcement so our chemical and steel industries can continue to compete in the global marketplace.''
Rockefeller believes the United States has a duty to prevent Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction.
''I voted in support of the Iraq resolution in order to strengthen America's hand in negotiating a resolution to the problems Iraq poses. I believe the president should use all means necessary to first try and resolve this crisis diplomatically and peacefully. This includes building an international coalition through the United Nations to compel Saddam Hussein to disarm,'' Rockefeller said. ''If the United Nations is not successful, then the United States has a responsibility to take action in order to prevent Hussein from using his weapons of mass destruction on Americans or even his own neighbors.''
A bevy of issues is motivation to run for the U.S. Senate, from education and the economy to prescription drug coverage for senior citizens and veterans benefits, Rockefeller said.
''I am fighting for West Virginia working families and the values they stand for,'' he said.
Wolfe, 47, is a partner in the Wolfe-Furner Insurance Agency in Clarksburg. He ran for the state Senate in 1986 from Harrison County and defeated the incumbent Democrat of 16 years and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1988 and was defeated by Bob Byrd.
He was born in Parkersburg where his parents, Donald and the late Emogene, owned Wolfe Camper Sales on DuPont Road. He graduated from Parkersburg South High School in 1973.
There he met Mollie Butler, his high school sweetheart, and they married. Wolfe attended Marshall University for three years and graduated from Glenville State College in 1977 in business management.
He worked for Nationwide Insurance after college and his wife was a school teacher in Lincoln and Wood counties. Wolfe moved to Elkins and Bridgeport while in management with Nationwide.
Wolfe built two motels and purchased an insurance agency in Weston. He merged the agency with Charles Furner in 1990.
He is a member of Local 580 of the American Federation of Musicians, a member of the National Rifle Association and is a member of the Gideons International and Clarksburg Baptist Church. He is a deacon and Sunday school teacher at the church.
''I would get the economy moving through tax reductions in the short run. When taxes are lowered there is greater incentive for business to create more jobs and increase pay for existing jobs,'' Wolfe said. ''In the long run, the greatest contribution that I can make to the people of West Virginia and the United States is to move our nation toward fundamental tax reform.''
Wolfe supports abolishing the income tax and replacing it with a national retail sales tax. Employees would no longer have federal taxes withheld from paychecks and consumer spending would increase, he said.
''Our manufacturing sector would become the industrial giant it once was because of increased demand. We would remove all the hidden layers of payroll and income taxes buried in all manufactured goods and reduce tax compliance costs causing prices to fall,'' he said. ''April 15 would be just another spring day.''
A senator's responsibility is not to micro-management military or intelligence agencies, he said.
''That is the role of the commander-in-chief,'' Wolfe said. ''I would vote to give the president authority to proceed with war after careful consideration of all the intelligence data gathered and then let him make the decision of when and how to carry out the mission.''
Duty, responsibility and Rockefeller's record are motivation to run, Wolfe said.
''I have watched for too long as Sen. Rockefeller has misrepresented the people of West Virginia in the U.S. Senate,'' Wolfe said. ''He voted for every tax increase, including raising taxes on social security benefits, that the Clinton Administration proposed in 1993. I would not have done so.
'' He voted against tax reductions last year. I would have voted for them,'' Wolfe said. ''He has voted to erode our right to keep and bear arms and has earned a grade of 'F' with the National Rifle Association. I will not cave into the left's demands to disarm us and have earned a grade of 'A' with the NRA.''
Rockefeller is pro-abortion and supports partial birth abortion, Wolfe said. Wolfe is against abortion.
''Sen. Rockefeller voted against the Boy Scouts in favor of the radical homosexuals,'' Wolfe said. ''The man does not represent our values and I offer myself as an alternative to his extreme liberal idealology.''
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