BREAKING: Obama Recovery Act Increases W.Va. Congressional Districts by Eight!
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With the U.S. Census ready to begin, Congressional redistricting is right around the corner. However, it seems the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has already added eight new Congressional districts in West Virginia.
Over a billion dollars has come to West Virginia thanks to the Recovery Act. $2,387,321 of that total is going towards eight fictional Congressional districts: the 54th, 9th, 4th, 6th, 12th, 13th, and 00. Here are the Recovery Act success stories for these districts (located at www.recovery.gov):
- Three jobs were created in the 54th, 9th, 6th and 12th Congressional districts, which received $1 million, $439,296, $208,117, and $191,795 in stimulus funding respectively.
- Two Jobs were created in the 13th Congressional District, which received $111,732 in stimulus funding.
- Zero jobs were created in the 4th and 00 Congressional districts, which received $429,296 and $6,587 in stimulus funding respectively.
Below is a screen grab from the Recovery.gov website (you can also click here to be taken directly to the date):
West Virginia Watchdog has been unable to reach the Congressional members in these “new” districts, nor is there any information listed about these districts on Congressional websites.
We’ve asked for comment from the current W.Va. Congressional delegation: Republican Shelley Moore Capito and Democrats Nick Rahall and Alan Mollohan. We also asked for comment for Gov. Joe Manchin. We’ll add those comments to this story as soon as we get them.
UPDATE 1: The phantom Congressional district mystery seems to be nationwide. Other state and national watchdogs are reporting similar stories, starting with Jim Scarantino at New Mexico Watchdog, which reported 10 additional Congressional districts.
Watchdog.org is collecting a running tally:
Kansas: 4
New Mexico: 10
UPDATE 2: The following statement is from Democrat Nick Rahall, who represents West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District:
“While I appreciate the optimism shown by Recovery.gov, I know the final say with Congressional redistricting will lay with the wisdom of the West Virginia Legislature.”
Ohio Watchdog is now reporting the addition of 10 Congressional districts to their state. Ohio only has 18 districts.
UPDATE 3: Jonathan Coffin, Spokesperson for Republican Shelley Moore Capito, the 2nd District Congresswoman, issued the following statement:
“For months folks across our state have been asking: ‘Where are the jobs?’ Well it now appears that the Administration’s answer is that they’re in congressional districts that don’t even exist.”
“The simple fact remains that the stimulus has utterly failed to live up to its billing as a jobs bill. Thousands of West Virginians have lost their jobs since the beginning of the year, and this stimulus package clearly isn’t working for them.”
Now add Minnesota to the list of states with phantom Congressional districts. The North Star state has a total of eight districts, but Tom Steward with the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota found an additional 11 districts receiving stimulus funding.
Still no word yet from Gov. Manchin. A message was left at the Washington D.C. office of 1st District Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., but no return phone call as of yet.
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Posted under Earmarks, Economy, Featured, Federal Government, Finances, Fraud, Legislation, News, Politics, Transparency, U.S. House of Representatives, West Virginia Governor, spending.
Tags: Alan Mollohan, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Democratic, Government, Nick Rahall, Shelley Moore Capito, United States, West Virginia
22 Comments For This Post So Far
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10:56 pm on November 16th, 2009
Way to go Steven! ( Remember what I told you about getting a new vest? It might not be a bad idea )…lol
Great work, keep it up! Let’s get rid of the waste and save West Virginia. We deserve better! Our highest employer is Walmart! Congratulations! Nice!
5:24 pm on November 18th, 2009
Funny! Good catch Steve. But seriously, the biggest problem with the stimulus is that it was far too small. It should have had the trillion dollars wasted in Iraq and the trillion dollars poured down a Wall Street (AIG, etc.) rathole added to it and then used to save homeowners from foreclosure directly, rebuild crumbling bridges and roads, cut the cost of higher education and job training as well as giving college student some debt relief from college loans – and, oh yeah, giving us all health care so we are not 37th in world health outcomes.
And Sandy’s web address is http://www.wvtea.org/ – say no more. The tea party crew would have a fig leaf of credibillity of fiscal issues if it had previously been in the streets protesting the massive bailouts of the wealthy – under the current system only risk gets socialized while profit is privatized. Instead they want to “take our country back” from chimeras of socialism/comunism/fascism. Please.