ShareThisBy JEROME L. SHERMAN
Monday, November 13, 2006
Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator in American history, hopes to win another six-year term Tuesday, just a few weeks shy of his 89th birthday.
Are his West Virginia constituents concerned about the Democrat's advancing age? Not really _ at least not in this southern corner of the Mountain State.
"I look at him as being younger," said Earl Hager, 97, who spent two decades in the House of Delegates and is the elder statesman of Logan County Democrats. "He's one of the smartest people in the Senate."
Indeed, West Virginia as a whole has grayed since Byrd first took office in 1958. It now trails just Florida and Pennsylvania in the percentage of residents 65 and older, and it has weathered years of population decline and job losses in key industries such as coal mining and steel.
Byrd's seniority and clout in the Senate have kept billions of dollars in federal money flowing here, bringing roads, bridges and research facilities, many bearing his name.
"The general sense is that much of the economic development that has taken place in West Virginia is due to his efforts," said Neil Berch, a professor of political science at West Virginia University. "It's hard for an opponent to overcome that."
John Raese, a Republican businessman from Morgantown, is trying.
"(Mr. Byrd) has accomplished nothing more than making the state dependent on his handouts, which makes him more politically powerful," said Gary Abernathy, Raese's spokesman.
That doesn't seem to bother many West Virginians, especially the Democrats who have controlled the state Legislature for decades.
In 2001, they named him West Virginian of the 20th century. A larger-than-life bronze statue of Byrd stands in the upper rotunda of the state Capitol in Charleston. The entrance of the nearby state history museum features a glass showcase with Byrd's fiddle, on loan from the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. A DVD player loops footage of the senator's performances.
For the most part, Raese, 56, hasn't discussed Byrd's age, although he told the Charleston Daily Mail that the senator's frail appearance made him a poor job candidate.
In September, a Senate doctor said Byrd was healthy enough to serve.
Raese, whose campaign has spent about $2 million, has run advertisements on Byrd's claim that his prowess with federal purse strings makes him the state's "Big Daddy."
"West Virginia needs to be represented by someone who believes in the private sector, growing jobs, rather than being dependent on pork from Sen. Byrd," Abernathy said.
If Democrats win control of Congress Tuesday, Byrd again could become chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. He has held a seat on the committee for almost his entire tenure in Washington, and it has helped him become a one-man "billion-dollar" industry for West Virginia.
Some of his projects include the FBI's criminal identification center in Clarksburg and the new Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Center at Marshall University.
"When Byrd started, West Virginia was a third-world country," said Nick Casey, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "I dare say that, if you didn't have a guy like Byrd, we'd be off the scale on the bottom."
If he wins, Byrd is eager to continue his service for the people of Appalachia.
Would the senator consider running for yet another term in 2012?
"Oh, yeah!" he said.
