SHEPHERDSTOWN -- "Their whole goal is turn us against one another," said Jenny Thacker, the Democratic candidate for the District 100 seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, at James Rumsey Monument Park on Monday night.
She was joined at a picnic table by House of Delegates District 99 candidate Regina Dyer (D), House of Delegates District 98 candidate Marta Beck (D), House of Delegates District 97 candidate Lucia Valentine, House of Delegates District 96 candidate Lisa Cathro (D) and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Ace Parsi (D, WV-2).
"We are 'Candidates Against The Transmission Line' -- CATTLE, I guess. We certainly feel like it, with how we are being treated," Parsi said.
The event drew around 40 residents from Berkeley County and Jefferson County, who wanted to learn more about the proposed Valley Link North Transmission Line and what the candidates would do regarding it, if they were voted into office in the General Election this coming November. This gathering was necessary, according to Parsi, due to a lack of transparency about this project from the politicians that are currently in office.
"There's a lot of questions that come up, when there's no transparency," Parsi said, noting campaign contributions have been made to numerous West Virginia politicians in office, many of whom have signed non-disclosure agreements regarding the project. "If somebody's hiding something, you've got to ask why."
And ask 'why' they did, with most of those in attendance expressing concern over how the transmission line project, if allowed to go forward, would impact their lives and the lives of their neighbors.
"Our governor came into office, with this rolled up under his arm. I think the data centers and transmission lines go hand-in-hand, and I think a lot of it's purpose is to be used for nefarious purposes, against our citizens," said Sue Dimarino, of Martinsburg. "It is very nefarious, the way they are rolling back water rights and local rights, and trying to find ways to push through forever protected farmland, to get to these resources. We want to get this flipped, to be for the people and not against us."
Although the candidates said they opposed the Valley Link North Transmission Line, they agreed that they also categorically opposed any transmission line being built in West Virginia. To them, doing so would be allowing the state to -- as has often historically been the case -- be exploited for the financial gain of those outside of its borders. Yet, Shepherdstown resident John Doyle insisted this does not have to be a hopeless situation, if the right people are voted into power in the coming election.
"I was in the House of Delegates about 25 years ago, when we beat PATH," Doyle said, referring to the proposed 290-mile Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH). "We can beat this. But I will tell you, there is a significant difference, from then to now. Twenty-five years ago, every one of the representatives from Jefferson County was a Democrat."
According to Doyle, it was those Democrats mobilizing together that defeated PATH. Though the Eastern Panhandle's current Republican representatives could work together to achieve a similar result, they have thus far chosen not to do so, making it apparent to Doyle that the best chance for this project to be defeated, would be for the current representatives to be voted out of office and replaced with candidates from the opposing party.
"Every representative of Jefferson County in the West Virginia Legislature is a Republican," Doyle said. "We have to change that this fall, and if we do, we can get back in the same position that we were in before."