In nearly seven months of campaigning for the 2nd Congressional District seat, Martinsburg mortgage broker Marc Savitt said he's crossed paths with Rep. Alex Mooney exactly once, at a Lincoln Day dinner in Jefferson County.
"In my opinion, he's not doing his job," Savitt, who's challenging Mooney in the Republican primary, told Gazette-Mail editors Wednesday. He echoed the comments of Democratic challengers for the U.S. House seat; they described Mooney as an absent congressman earlier this week.
Savitt said that even in the Eastern Panhandle, constituents complain they cannot get in touch with Mooney and that his district office in Martinsburg is frequently closed.
"How do you know how to best represent your district if you're not talking to people in your district?" Savitt said. He believes Mooney is using the congressional seat as a stepping-stone to higher office.
"The people of the 2nd Congressional District deserve a congressman who's going to be there, who's going to be accessible," Savitt said.
Mooney did not attend Wednesday's interview, citing duties in Washington.
Savitt said Mooney used the same excuse when he missed President Barack Obama's visit to Charleston to discuss opioid drug abuse in October, and missed the groundbreaking for the Proctor and Gamble manufacturing plant near Martinsburg in September.
However, Savitt contended that Mooney had no problem missing votes in Congress in February while campaigning for presidential candidate Ted Cruz in Iowa.
Savitt said he absolutely would have attended Obama's visit to Charleston, noting, "Whether you like the president or not, you have an obligation to your district."
Savitt said he has owned a mortgage company in Martinsburg for nearly 31 years and a house there for five years. Until last summer, his primary residence was across the state line in Frederick County, Virginia.
"I didn't move to West Virginia to run for office. I moved to West Virginia to downsize," Savitt said. He and his wife no longer needed a large house with eight acres of property now that their children are grown, he said.
This is Savitt's second run for Congress. He said he was "roped into" running in the Virginia 10th Congressional District Republican primary in 2014, but did little fundraising after quickly concluding he had no hope of winning the race. He finished last in a field of six.
"I looked at it as a learning experience," he said of that campaign.
Savitt said he was quite surprised when Mooney, a former congressional aide who moved to West Virginia in 2013, won his election, and said people have told him he'd be running for re-election had he opted to run in the W.Va. 2nd rather than the 10th Congressional district.
Savitt said he has a lot of experience dealing with Congress, having served as president of two national mortgage associations. He said he testified before Congress at least three times on mortgage reforms that were incorporated into the Dodd-Frank Act after the housing bubble of 2007 set off the recession.
"I've seen a lot of waste, fraud and abuse in Washington," he said of his experience.
Savitt said he sees Congress locked in gridlock because the right and left refuse to compromise.
"If we don't compromise, nothing is ever going to get done," said Savitt, who said he would work with Democrats to move legislation forward.
Savitt said his primary goals would be to rein in what he sees as bloated federal agencies that have usurped authority from Congress; promote job creation in the state by making the state more attractive to business, in part, by assuring residents have training and skills to be employable; and fighting the national drug epidemic with expansion of drug courts that provide treatment instead of incarceration for abusers.
Savitt said he believes the federal government should be required to have a balanced budget. He also believes there is a "war on coal" in the form of tougher environmental regulations imposed by the Obama administration, but also supports expansion of alternate and renewable energy resources to help assure the U.S.'s energy independence.
He said he's afraid many elected officials simply don't have a clue about what to do.
"There's a lot of smart people in this state, but nobody puts them in the same room," Savitt said. "If you put a lot of smart people in the same room ...then we're going to get things done."
Early voting in the primary began Wednesday and continues through May 7. Election Day is May 10.
Reach Phil Kabler at
philk@wvgazettemail.com,
304 348-1220, or follow
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