Eastern Panhandle politics now shaping West Virginia

[theHandpuppet]

The Times West Virginian
August 3, 2014
Eastern Panhandle politics now shaping West Virginia
By Jonathan Mattise Associated Press
Sun Aug 03, 2014

(excerpt)
MARTINSBURG —
...Voters like Price are indicative of the growing political muscle of the Eastern Panhandle, a wedge of land in the northeast that juts in between Maryland and Virginia. While the rest of the state collectively shrinks, the D.C. bedroom community region — hundreds of miles away from the state’s traditional power bases — is younger, better educated and growing.

In a historically Democratic state tilting further right, the Panhandle’s growth could help determine the tipping point. Many of those new residents have rebuked the traditional parties. Voters who aren’t Republicans or Democrats almost doubled in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the last decade, and now make up about one-third of the electorate.

In 2012, the region produced the state’s first Republican attorney general in eight decades, Jefferson County resident Patrick Morrisey. He is also the Panhandle’s first Board of Public Works statewide officeholder.

“They want people who are willing to take on the establishment,” Morrisey said. “They have that independence, and they want to see that fresh blood that’s not been part of the state power structure for decades.” ....

- See more at: http://www.timeswv.com/westvirginia/x864259680/Eastern-Panhandle-politics-now-shaping-West-Virginia#sthash.qqazM9yJ.dpuf

[Champion Jack]

1. Morrisey is a teabagger

If this is progress count me out.