CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On Friday, John Raese, a Republican Morgantown businessman challenging Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in the Nov. 6 election, said he will begin an advertising campaign Monday focusing on Manchin's voting record.
Raese said Manchin's voting record in the Senate is "far to the left" and that Manchin voted 99 percent of the time with President Obama.
The Congressional Quarterly and the National Journal disagree. Both major political publications, which analyze Washington politics in detail, place Manchin in the middle of the national political spectrum.
Fiona Conroy, Manchin's campaign manager, said, "This is exactly what we expect from John Raese: lies and distortions. As the people of West Virginia know, Joe Manchin doesn't hesitate to respectfully disagree with either political party when he thinks they're wrong or work with them when they're right.
"Joe Manchin is right in the middle, and independent observers say he is one of the most -- if not the most -- bipartisan senators in Washington," Conroy told The Charleston Gazette.
In February, the National Journal published a vote-rating table that ranked Manchin as the Senate's 48th most liberal member, placing him right in the middle of the legislative body's 100 members.
The five most liberal senators were: Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Journal said.
The National Journal publishes the widely used Almanac of American Politics every two years.
Earlier this year, Congressional Quarterly Roll Call published an analysis of Senate votes showing the two Democratic senators who voted most frequently against Democratic Party-backed legislation in 2012, on 10 different occasions, were Sens. Manchin and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., voted against the Democratic majority once during the same period, according to the Roll Call analysis.
A Congressional Quarterly analysis of all Senate votes cast in 2011 showed Nelson and Manchin were the two Democrats most likely to dissent from the policies of Obama and the Democratic Party that year.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On Friday, John Raese, a Republican Morgantown businessman challenging Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in the Nov. 6 election, said he will begin an advertising campaign Monday focusing on Manchin's voting record.
Raese said Manchin's voting record in the Senate is "far to the left" and that Manchin voted 99 percent of the time with President Obama.
The Congressional Quarterly and the National Journal disagree. Both major political publications, which analyze Washington politics in detail, place Manchin in the middle of the national political spectrum.
Fiona Conroy, Manchin's campaign manager, said, "This is exactly what we expect from John Raese: lies and distortions. As the people of West Virginia know, Joe Manchin doesn't hesitate to respectfully disagree with either political party when he thinks they're wrong or work with them when they're right.
"Joe Manchin is right in the middle, and independent observers say he is one of the most -- if not the most -- bipartisan senators in Washington," Conroy told The Charleston Gazette.
In February, the National Journal published a vote-rating table that ranked Manchin as the Senate's 48th most liberal member, placing him right in the middle of the legislative body's 100 members.
The five most liberal senators were: Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Journal said.
The National Journal publishes the widely used Almanac of American Politics every two years.
Earlier this year, Congressional Quarterly Roll Call published an analysis of Senate votes showing the two Democratic senators who voted most frequently against Democratic Party-backed legislation in 2012, on 10 different occasions, were Sens. Manchin and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., voted against the Democratic majority once during the same period, according to the Roll Call analysis.
A Congressional Quarterly analysis of all Senate votes cast in 2011 showed Nelson and Manchin were the two Democrats most likely to dissent from the policies of Obama and the Democratic Party that year.
Manchin supported Democratic Party positions 75 percent of the time, while Nelson supported them in 71 percent of the votes.
Open Congress, a website of the non-partisan nonprofit Participatory Politics Organization, analyzed the 2011 and 2012 votes of all senators. It then listed the Republican and Democratic senators that each Senate member voted with least, and most, frequently.
Manchin voted least often with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Manchin voted most frequently with Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Scott Brown, R-Mass.
"That's what his record shows," Conroy added. "That's why publications like the National Journal and Congressional Quarterly rank him right in the middle.
"You can't be any more in the middle than Joe Manchin -- and that's exactly how problems in America need to be fixed, with both sides coming to the middle."
Last week Raese said he believes the Nov. 6 election "may be the most important election in the history of the state."
John Raese for Senate issued a press release Friday stating: "The policies Joe Manchin and Barack Obama are implementing are not working. Obamacare, the failed stimulus and the never-ending bailouts are only making things worse ... .
"Four more years of Barack Obama and Joe Manchin will mean the end of coal, more debt, less jobs and higher unemployment."
Raese lost his three previous races for the U.S. Senate to: Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in 1984; the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., in 2006; and Manchin in 2010.
Raese also lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in 1988 to then-incumbent Gov. Arch Moore, who lost the general election that year.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.
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