Democrats, like mining, may never fully recover in Appalachia

I think this is a pretty fair assessment of why Democrats have been bleeding the Appalachian vote.

Democrats, like mining, may never fully recover in Appalachia
Manuel Quiñones, E&E reporter
Greenwire: Friday, October 17, 2014

WHITESBURG, Ky. -- Sitting at his desk in the Letcher County Courthouse in this Appalachian community of about 2,000 people, Judge Executive Jim Ward frets over the county's finances.

The sharp downturn in eastern Kentucky coal mining has kicked thousands of workers off the job and slashed severance tax revenues by $3 million during the county's last spending cycle out of an $11 million budget.

"It has devastated our region, our county," Ward said during a recent interview. "We are in survival mode," he said of a county with an unemployment rate above 11 percent, and asked, "What do you do? How do you survive, without making drastic cuts, without having to shut down basic services?"

"We've been looking at other avenues and diversifying somewhat, but still the jobs that are coming here now are not going to be the high-paying jobs like the mining jobs."....

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