The resignation of Senator Phil Puckett means there are no Democrats in the Virginia legislature west of Roanoke.
The area used to be a Democratic stronghold.
What happened?
Jack Kennedy — Wise County’s clerk of circuit court and a former Democratic member of the General Assembly — said coal has transformed the politics of the region.
“It’s growing much more anti-regulation, anti-anything to do with energy other than coal,” he said. “People are generally fearful of the changing economic climate.”
Voters in the areas he used to represent, Kennedy said, have watched coal lose prominence in many ideas for the future of the country’s energy — with the policies of President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency looming largest among them.
National Democrats appear solely interested in crippling current jobs - without a plan to replace them.
Local Democrats have disappeared from the scene due to that.
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