Frater Byrd Elected to Ninth Consecutive Term

CHARLESTON, W.VA. - Sen. Robert Byrd's (Alpha-Pi) old-fashioned demeanor, liberal stance in Iraq and overwhelming support in West Virgina earned him another victory.

An exit poll showed the 88-year-old Democrat Frater won the support of more than six in 10 voters statewide, crossing age, gender, income, religious and geographic lines.

But the man who has repeatedly taken the Senate floor to criticize the war in Iraq found some of his strongest support among the more than 50 percent of voters who disapprove of both Bush and the war.

While Democrats decidedly followed the party line Tuesday, Republicans were far more willing to cross over. Byrd also captured a majority of voters who consider themselves independent.

Republican challenger John Raese tried to make age an issue for the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, saying on the campaign trail that he was alarmed by Byrd's appearance and would not give him a job.

Dave Spence, 51, of Reedsville, said Byrd's age was "a huge factor" in his vote for Raese.

"He's 88 now. He'll be 94 when he gets out of office, and I think that's way too old," he said. "Imagine 88-year-old people flying airplanes and, you know, being policemen. It's just too old. There comes a time when a person needs to retire, and this is a great argument for term limits."

But a majority of voters didn't share that concern, and they overwhelmingly voted to give Byrd six more years in addition to the 48 he's already served.

Voters 65 and older were most likely to vote for Byrd, but he captured nearly as much support from those 64 and younger in a state with one of the nation's oldest populations.

"I think the comments he made in the last two years on the floor have been some of the best of his career," said Marc Weintraub, a 35-year-old attorney and city councilman in Charleston.

Raese, a wealthy Morgantown industrialist, found strong support among voters who label themselves conservative and among those who approve of both the war in Iraq and the way Bush is doing his job.

But Byrd's popularity and name recognition are virtually unbeatable in West Virginia.

In the last decade alone, he's brought more than $2.2 billion in federal funds to the state. It's difficult to travel more than a few miles without coming across something bearing his name -- a building, a road, a school, even a giant radio telescope.

At a dedication ceremony over the summer, he joked of his ability to secure what some would call pork.

"Yeah, man, you're looking at Big Daddy!" he said.

But for some voters, that's not enough.

Marty Jackson, a 53-year-old bank teller from Charleston, never thought she'd vote Republican. But she changed her mind after learning of Byrd's brief affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan when he was young.

"I think he's still connected," she said, her voice trailing off. "Once a Klan member . . ."

Since his brief stint in the Klu Klux Klan at 24, the NAACP's Congressional Report Card for the 108th Congress (spanning the 2003-2004 congressional session), Byrd was awarded with an approval rating of 100% for favoring the NAACP's position in all 33 bills presented to the United States Senate regarding issues of their concern. Only 16 other Senators of the same session matched this approval rating. In June 2005, Byrd proposed an additional $10 million in federal funding for the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, DC, remarking that "With the passage of time, we have come to learn that his Dream was the American Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently."

Similarly, Byrd received 67% rating from the ACLU for supporting rights-related legislation. Byrd also received a 65% vote rating from the League of Conservation Voters for his support of environmentally friendly legislation. Additionally, he received a "liberal" rating of 65.5% by the National Journal-higher than six other Democratic senators.

Adapted from the Charleston Daily Mail. If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.