For as much as he loathes and publicly slams WVU, he sure does like the money they pay him.
Haymaker Forest in Morgantown
- Thread starter rog1187
- Start date
Boparc is a mess but that isnt because of Mylan park. MYLAN park recognized a huge issue with ball fields in the country and built facilities to help remedy it.
My favorite from him was in a council meeting he declared himself one of Morgantows wealthy people (he may be I have no clue) but went on to chastize people who own property for not paying more taxes.
This was after one of the ladies from senior monogalians speaking and explaining that a lot of older citizens in the city bought their homes 40+ years ago for values significantly more than they are woth now but these people are now on fixed incomes with little extra ti pay more taxes so the only solution for them is to move if they can sell and how bad an idea it was to force out the foundational members of the community.
He ignored it all. Just a dick.
The provincialism that he and some others on the city council constantly prattle on about is just utter nonsense. I don't know him personally, but he sounds ignorant on a lot of issues and his attitude does nothing but grate on people from what I have observed. Not a good way to build alliances, especially when you're trying to buy stuff with a shrinking tax base. Although I'm not a Morgantown resident, so I shouldn't be allowed to say anything.
He is from NYC and he cant understand why people dont recognize his brilliance.
Lol, this guy @dave @rog1187
Morgantown City Council colleagues urge deputy mayor Brazaitis to be “civil”
Ben Conley, The Dominion PostJuly 26, 2018 8:16 am
Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis reacts during Tuesday July 24's Morgantown city council meeting.
MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Councilor Ron Dulaney, addressing a series of inflammatory remarks from Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis, cautioned his colleague, “We’ve got to stop throwing grenades.”
Brazaitis has taken shots at WVU, the Monongalia County Commission, the Mylan Park Foundation and a number of individuals since the city’s focus pivoted from trying to purchase the Haymaker Forest to funding improvements for the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners (BOPARC).
He called the development of a $40-plus million track and aquatic center at Mylan Park a “tragedy” because it is being developed outside city limits. An English professor at WVU, Brazaitis said his employer is “gutting this town.” He called for an ethics review of former Morgantown mayor and BOPARC member, Ron Justice, who is currently the Mylan Park Foundation president. Brazaitis also claimed county residents don’t pay their fair share for using BOPARC facilities.
He claimed to be speaking in “Biblical terms” during a recent BOPARC meeting, during which he said the city’s parks were being pulled down by “wolves.”
During the council member reports late Tuesday night, several councilors addressed the seemingly daily flow of rhetoric.
Dulaney said he vowed to champion consensus-building when he ran for council, leaving him to rethink his vote for Brazaitis to return for another year as deputy mayor.
“The honest answer is that was a mistake. If I had to vote again, I would have voted otherwise,” Dulaney said, citing the public jabs Brazaitis has made on Facebook and during a recent town hall.
“I do not believe in antagonistic politics, and I would beg my colleague to be assertive, to speak up, but can we please be respectful when we’re working with other folks,” Dulaney said.
Councilor Rachel Fetty said the current environment makes it difficult for other council members to be heard on issues important to constituents.
“We’re making it hard on each other, and I’d like us to stop doing that. If we can try a little bit harder to be a little more careful about what we say, I think that would be helpful,” Fetty said, “I would like to be heard, too.”
Councilor Ryan Wallace said he welcomes “difficult, intense conversations” both in public forums and online.
“I’m all for that,” he said. “But the more civil we can keep it, the better, because it’s not productive if it’s uncivil.”
For his part, Brazaitis said he’s not angry or vitriolic, but he’s also not willing to back down. While he conceded the situation is far different, he asked what might have resulted had historic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. shrank from criticism
“ ‘You are not being civil’ is a phrase the powerful often use to shame and quiet the powerless,” Brazaitis said. “Had Martin Luther King Jr. been ‘civil’ in the ways white Americans in the 1950s wanted him to be civil, he would simply have shut up, and African Americans would still be drinking at separate-but-equal, water fountains.”
Brazaitis said that as a “white, male, heterosexual who is wealthy” he has an “extraordinary moral obligation” to aid the less fortunate.
“There’s nothing civil about gutting BOPARC and leaving us with $38 million in capital needs. BOPARC is broke. We can’t pay those needs off right now. We cannot,” Brazaitis said.
“WVU should be paying them, and I’ve asked WVU to pay them. I’ll continue to ask them to pay. There’s nothing civil about leaving BOPARC in that strait.”
Mayor Bill Kawecki said nobody on council is questioning the deputy mayor’s passion or civic mindedness, just his choice of words.
“We, as a council, share many of your goals. The difficulty I think we have is the way, sometimes, you translate those goals into public comment,” Kawecki said. “That’s the majority of our disagreement.”
Morgantown City Council colleagues urge deputy mayor Brazaitis to be “civil”
Ben Conley, The Dominion PostJuly 26, 2018 8:16 am
Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis reacts during Tuesday July 24's Morgantown city council meeting.
MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Councilor Ron Dulaney, addressing a series of inflammatory remarks from Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis, cautioned his colleague, “We’ve got to stop throwing grenades.”
Brazaitis has taken shots at WVU, the Monongalia County Commission, the Mylan Park Foundation and a number of individuals since the city’s focus pivoted from trying to purchase the Haymaker Forest to funding improvements for the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners (BOPARC).
He called the development of a $40-plus million track and aquatic center at Mylan Park a “tragedy” because it is being developed outside city limits. An English professor at WVU, Brazaitis said his employer is “gutting this town.” He called for an ethics review of former Morgantown mayor and BOPARC member, Ron Justice, who is currently the Mylan Park Foundation president. Brazaitis also claimed county residents don’t pay their fair share for using BOPARC facilities.
He claimed to be speaking in “Biblical terms” during a recent BOPARC meeting, during which he said the city’s parks were being pulled down by “wolves.”
During the council member reports late Tuesday night, several councilors addressed the seemingly daily flow of rhetoric.
Dulaney said he vowed to champion consensus-building when he ran for council, leaving him to rethink his vote for Brazaitis to return for another year as deputy mayor.
“The honest answer is that was a mistake. If I had to vote again, I would have voted otherwise,” Dulaney said, citing the public jabs Brazaitis has made on Facebook and during a recent town hall.
“I do not believe in antagonistic politics, and I would beg my colleague to be assertive, to speak up, but can we please be respectful when we’re working with other folks,” Dulaney said.
Councilor Rachel Fetty said the current environment makes it difficult for other council members to be heard on issues important to constituents.
“We’re making it hard on each other, and I’d like us to stop doing that. If we can try a little bit harder to be a little more careful about what we say, I think that would be helpful,” Fetty said, “I would like to be heard, too.”
Councilor Ryan Wallace said he welcomes “difficult, intense conversations” both in public forums and online.
“I’m all for that,” he said. “But the more civil we can keep it, the better, because it’s not productive if it’s uncivil.”
For his part, Brazaitis said he’s not angry or vitriolic, but he’s also not willing to back down. While he conceded the situation is far different, he asked what might have resulted had historic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. shrank from criticism
“ ‘You are not being civil’ is a phrase the powerful often use to shame and quiet the powerless,” Brazaitis said. “Had Martin Luther King Jr. been ‘civil’ in the ways white Americans in the 1950s wanted him to be civil, he would simply have shut up, and African Americans would still be drinking at separate-but-equal, water fountains.”
Brazaitis said that as a “white, male, heterosexual who is wealthy” he has an “extraordinary moral obligation” to aid the less fortunate.
“There’s nothing civil about gutting BOPARC and leaving us with $38 million in capital needs. BOPARC is broke. We can’t pay those needs off right now. We cannot,” Brazaitis said.
“WVU should be paying them, and I’ve asked WVU to pay them. I’ll continue to ask them to pay. There’s nothing civil about leaving BOPARC in that strait.”
Mayor Bill Kawecki said nobody on council is questioning the deputy mayor’s passion or civic mindedness, just his choice of words.
“We, as a council, share many of your goals. The difficulty I think we have is the way, sometimes, you translate those goals into public comment,” Kawecki said. “That’s the majority of our disagreement.”
Oh he was up and at it early his morning with a DP article that was titled at the top of the page "Can they rein in Brazaitis?"...he posted a pic of the article and then simply said "no".Lol, this guy @dave @rog1187
Morgantown City Council colleagues urge deputy mayor Brazaitis to be “civil”
Ben Conley, The Dominion PostJuly 26, 2018 8:16 am
Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis reacts during Tuesday July 24's Morgantown city council meeting.
MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Councilor Ron Dulaney, addressing a series of inflammatory remarks from Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis, cautioned his colleague, “We’ve got to stop throwing grenades.”
Brazaitis has taken shots at WVU, the Monongalia County Commission, the Mylan Park Foundation and a number of individuals since the city’s focus pivoted from trying to purchase the Haymaker Forest to funding improvements for the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners (BOPARC).
He called the development of a $40-plus million track and aquatic center at Mylan Park a “tragedy” because it is being developed outside city limits. An English professor at WVU, Brazaitis said his employer is “gutting this town.” He called for an ethics review of former Morgantown mayor and BOPARC member, Ron Justice, who is currently the Mylan Park Foundation president. Brazaitis also claimed county residents don’t pay their fair share for using BOPARC facilities.
He claimed to be speaking in “Biblical terms” during a recent BOPARC meeting, during which he said the city’s parks were being pulled down by “wolves.”
During the council member reports late Tuesday night, several councilors addressed the seemingly daily flow of rhetoric.
Dulaney said he vowed to champion consensus-building when he ran for council, leaving him to rethink his vote for Brazaitis to return for another year as deputy mayor.
“The honest answer is that was a mistake. If I had to vote again, I would have voted otherwise,” Dulaney said, citing the public jabs Brazaitis has made on Facebook and during a recent town hall.
“I do not believe in antagonistic politics, and I would beg my colleague to be assertive, to speak up, but can we please be respectful when we’re working with other folks,” Dulaney said.
Councilor Rachel Fetty said the current environment makes it difficult for other council members to be heard on issues important to constituents.
“We’re making it hard on each other, and I’d like us to stop doing that. If we can try a little bit harder to be a little more careful about what we say, I think that would be helpful,” Fetty said, “I would like to be heard, too.”
Councilor Ryan Wallace said he welcomes “difficult, intense conversations” both in public forums and online.
“I’m all for that,” he said. “But the more civil we can keep it, the better, because it’s not productive if it’s uncivil.”
For his part, Brazaitis said he’s not angry or vitriolic, but he’s also not willing to back down. While he conceded the situation is far different, he asked what might have resulted had historic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. shrank from criticism
“ ‘You are not being civil’ is a phrase the powerful often use to shame and quiet the powerless,” Brazaitis said. “Had Martin Luther King Jr. been ‘civil’ in the ways white Americans in the 1950s wanted him to be civil, he would simply have shut up, and African Americans would still be drinking at separate-but-equal, water fountains.”
Brazaitis said that as a “white, male, heterosexual who is wealthy” he has an “extraordinary moral obligation” to aid the less fortunate.
“There’s nothing civil about gutting BOPARC and leaving us with $38 million in capital needs. BOPARC is broke. We can’t pay those needs off right now. We cannot,” Brazaitis said.
“WVU should be paying them, and I’ve asked WVU to pay them. I’ll continue to ask them to pay. There’s nothing civil about leaving BOPARC in that strait.”
Mayor Bill Kawecki said nobody on council is questioning the deputy mayor’s passion or civic mindedness, just his choice of words.
“We, as a council, share many of your goals. The difficulty I think we have is the way, sometimes, you translate those goals into public comment,” Kawecki said. “That’s the majority of our disagreement.”
I don't know if he's trolling or if he actually thinks he's getting something accomplished with his shenanigans. He posted a copy of a letter that he sent to Gee about how WVU is hurting Morgantown.
And several parties respond to his diatribes.
https://www.dominionpost.com/2018/0...comments-criticism-by-deputy-mayor-brazaitis/
WVU, Mylan Park Foundation respond to comments, criticism by Deputy Mayor Brazaitis
Ben Conley, The Dominion PostJuly 28, 2018 3:23 pm
Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis reacts during July 24's Morgantown city council meeting.
MORGANTOWN — It’s no coincidence, according to Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust President Stephen Farmer, that an explosion of development at Mylan Park has run parallel to the deterioration of Morgantown’s recreation facilities.
The responsibility, he explained, doesn’t lie with WVU, the county or Mylan Park, but more than a decade of apathy on the part of city leadership.
“For a representative of the city to be claiming right now that these constituencies have not supported the city of Morgantown, I’ve been authorized by the trustees to say that, in our view, is ridiculous,” Farmer told The Dominion Post.
Farmer was joined by Mylan Park Foundation President and WVU State and Local Government Relations Specialist Ron Justice and Rob Alsop, WVU’s vice president for strategic initiatives, in responding to comments shared online and in public meetings by Morgantown Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis.
Brazaitis has called the development of a $45 million track and aquatic center at Mylan Park a “tragedy” because it is being developed outside city limits and has accused Justice of steering it away from the city and to the privately owned Mylan Park. An English professor at WVU, Brazaitis said his employer is “gutting this town.”
He’s called for an ethics review of Justice, who previously served as Morgantown’s mayor and a longtime member of the city’s Board of Parks and Recreation Commission (BOPARC). Brazaitis has also said county residents don’t pay their fair share for using BOPARC facilities, and, referencing the Book of Matthew, claimed the city’s facilities are being torn down “thanks to the wolves in our midst.”
The flurry of rhetoric has come in the month or so since the city’s focus pivoted from trying to purchase the Haymaker Forest to funding improvements for BOPARC facilities, which, according to some estimates, need between $30 million and $40 million worth of attention. Brazaitis has asked WVU to provide that money.
Farmer said while Justice served as mayor and Dan Boroff was Morgantown’s city manager, the charitable trust provided more than $10 million for city projects, several of which involved BOPARC. That changed when Boroff left the post in 2010.
“Since Dan Boroff left as city manager, until most recently, the city of Morgantown did not make one request for a project from the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust. They never came to us. They never asked anything at all, Farmer said.
“And during that same period of time, while the city of Morgantown and its leaders were just watching, people with energy, ideas and vision created other things, like Mylan Park. Mylan Park came and made presentations and we invested in things out there.”
Farmer said the situation is reminiscent of an old saying — Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen and some people wake up and say ‘what happened.’
“And while everybody around, the Mark Nesselroads, the Ron Justices, the Gordon Gees and everybody around has been making things happen, the city of Morgantown is just waking up and going ‘what happened.’ ”
Farmer went on to say “I can tell you the trust’s experience with the city of Morgantown and with its city managers post-Dan Boroff has been non-existent, and that’s what I think the dialogue and conversation should be about right now, not why Mylan Park became Mylan Park,” he said. “If there wasn’t a need for Mylan Park there wouldn’t be a Mylan Park, now would there?”
He said it was also during this stretch that the city watched the Hazel Ruby McQuain Riverfront Park “deteriorate into a shameful state” out of “total benign neglect.”
Farmer said it was Justice who connected former City Manager Jeff Mikorski and current City Manager Paul Brake with the foundation and convinced WVU to pay for plans to redevelop the park and riverfront and program the updated venue once complete.
The charitable trust provided the city $4.1 million for the riverfront redevelopment.
“So if the city of Morgantown is going to stand up now and say they’ve somehow been victimized by any of these other constituencies, that’s not my experience. My experience is they have been watching,” he said, adding, “Those are not opinions I’m telling you. Those are facts.”
Justice also addressed the claim that the track and aquatic facility under construction in Mylan Park was intentionally steered away from the city.
WVU provided $15 million for the project as did the charitable trust. The Mylan Park Foundation is financing the remaining $15 million.
Justice noted the project has been more than four years in the making and the result of more than 18 months of work by an ad-hoc committee formed from a range of community leaders following a February 2014 leadership forum with former WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck.
Justice said that at the time Luck said the group had about a year to pull together a joint WVU/community facility before WVU would invest its $15 million on its own project.
The first site identified was in Morgantown’s White Park, in the city’s 1st Ward. Mylan Park was also identified as a possible location.
Once word got out, Justice said, feedback against the city site started coming in.
“We went to Jeff [Mikorski] and said ‘Hey, this is a great project. What we don’t want is for it to be a controversial project. Do you think, right now, you have four council votes to take 20 acres up there and put it into a non-profit, give it away and figure out a way to finance it to move forward,’ ” Justice said.
“And he said, ‘My honest answer is no.’ That’s all, at that point in time, the committee needed to hear” given the timing issues expressed by Luck, who’d promised the Big 12 WVU would upgrade its swimming and diving facilities.
Justice said his experience as a member of BOPARC is that the city found partners to create or acquire new facilities without ever identifying a way to fund them going forward.
He also noted that after Boroff left, annual funding of the park system’s capital improvement needs dropped way off. BOPARC was also asked at that time to begin repaying the city for materials, like road salt, and was taken off the city’s paving and maintenance budget. That, when added to the city’s lack of cooperation with the charitable trust, left BOPARC struggling to keep up.
Justice said he’s encouraged by the direction Brake is taking with BOPARC, increasing capital improvement and operational contributions and bringing the parks back under city road maintenance.
“The thing that’s unfortunate in all of this, and this is just my opinion. There is no denying there are facilities that need help, but we have a great park system. You won’t go anywhere, in any city park system, and find Dorsey’s Knob … Where else can you go with a rail trail system like this community has,” Justice said, asking why city officials didn’t pick up the telephone before stepping to the microphone.
Alsop agreed.
“With all the assets we have in this community, there’s no reason we can’t solve some of these challenges and move forward. We got a lot of things going on and we’re very fortunate with many of the circumstances we have, which is maybe the most unfortunate thing about this episode,” he said.
It would seem so. I'm sure another hissy fit will be thrown within the next day or so.
From the sounds of it, most on council are getting tired of his baloney, too.
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They are all begging for him and Wendall to stfu. Best part of this is seeing how much Wallace, Fetty and Dulaney actually want to serve the city by watching them cringe with everyone else at Mark and his mouth.
You'd think at some point they might speak out against Mark and his constant ramblings?
Oh come on, they have free concerts there all the time. Like the homeless woman belting out Whitney Houston underneath the Westover Bridge the last time I took a walk down through there.
Who is this guy's actual constituency? Is there a group of people out there rooting him on?
Seems like the type who's loathed by people who even agree with what he's trying to accomplish.
Toni Christini.
Every post he makes on facebook gets a reply from Toni. Every story the DP does about his latest council meeting gets a quote from Toni. I have no idea what Toni Christini is but it loves it some Marky Mak and the Flunky Bunch.
There is a Friends of Haymaker forest page on facebook and I think that is his whole constituency.
I really thought Toni was a made up account, but he showed up at City Council the other night.
Fvkcing Friends if Haymaker - it’s a private group but they want everyone to join and discuss Haymaker. It’s probably just all the idiots that live right next to it.
Ive had a few rounds with christini on facebook. He has a lot of ideas but he doesnt understand how things are designed, built or planned.
That interview was a total disaster. Mark was embarrassing. Least he has a Harvard education lol
They better post today's show so I can listen to it. Too hard to miss a train wreck.
He's going to be a write-in candidate to run against Manchin...his cat supports this.
He wanted to get an apartment with the male radio host (can't think of his name) so they can experience what it's like to live in Morgantown.
He didn't answer any question.
Nuttier than a bag of acorns
Did he also claim to have invented the question mark?
Now I definitely have to listen.
I wonder what his supporters think after listening to him this morning? He doesn’t sound stable right now after not getting his way with haymaker. His wife can’t be supporting his decisions at this point lol
Very entertaining but really embarrassing to see this guy crash. Today’s show was great
he said they kicked Ron Justice off BOPARC and then another City Council member emailed in to say that was an outright lie. Maybe they're going to start coming more against this guy's antics.
you know he says he's the VP of the Mason Dixon Figure Skating Club and they asked about where the President of that organization stood on his actions lately about the ice rink...he never mentioned her name but just said she supported it but was too busy to speak out on her own (or something like that). A quick Google search and I couldn't find a name for the President of that club.
We should just start a daily "WTF is Brazaitis saying now?" thread
Brazaitis stages write-in Senate bid as ‘a real Democrat’
POSTED BY WAJR STAFF ON AUGUST 6, 2018 IN LOCAL NEWS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mark Brazaitis, whose first stint as a Morgantown City Councilor has been marked by spats with Monongalia County Commissioners and WVU, plans to stage a write-in candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
It’s another unconventional twist in a race between Democrat incumbent Joe Manchin and Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey. GOP primary third-place finisher Don Blankenship now hopes to appear on the November ballot as the Constitution Party candidate, though the legality of that maneuver is dubious under the state’s “sore loser law.”
Brazaitis calls for progressive measures and doesn’t consider the 70-year-old Manchin “a real Democrat.”
“I will be the first write-in candidate to win a seat in the U.S. Senate from West Virginia because, as a real Democrat, I will be running against two (and maybe three) Republicans. West Virginia needs a real Democrat in the Senate,” he said.
His platform includes calls for a $700 billion bill “to revive Appalachia” with infrastructure improvements, incentivized organic farms, renewable energy sites and wide-scale production of marijuana.
“Is $700 billion too large a number? Hardly. It is the same dollar figure as the 2018 annual budget of the U.S. Department of Defense, absent the additional $61 billion Congress handed over to big fat-cat defense contractors,” Brazaitis said.
The West Virginia University professor and fiction author also pitched his so-called Empower our Empowers Act, in which the U.S. government would grant $50,000 in reparations to any man, woman, or child in the region who “over the last 80 years, has gone to a doctor for treatment of an illness related to their service in the fossil-fuel industry.”
In his Universities are Universities Act, Brazaitis criticized his employer for “greed” and called for a suspension on public-private partnerships in publicly funded institutions of higher learning across the country. “Universities should not be rogue Fortune 500 companies,” he said.
A 10-percent raise for all teachers is another tenet of Brazaitis’ write-in platform, along with universal health care, a $15 minimum wage, full funding of Planned Parenthood and a ban on assault weapons.
Story by Allan Taylor
POSTED BY WAJR STAFF ON AUGUST 6, 2018 IN LOCAL NEWS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mark Brazaitis, whose first stint as a Morgantown City Councilor has been marked by spats with Monongalia County Commissioners and WVU, plans to stage a write-in candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
It’s another unconventional twist in a race between Democrat incumbent Joe Manchin and Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey. GOP primary third-place finisher Don Blankenship now hopes to appear on the November ballot as the Constitution Party candidate, though the legality of that maneuver is dubious under the state’s “sore loser law.”
Brazaitis calls for progressive measures and doesn’t consider the 70-year-old Manchin “a real Democrat.”
“I will be the first write-in candidate to win a seat in the U.S. Senate from West Virginia because, as a real Democrat, I will be running against two (and maybe three) Republicans. West Virginia needs a real Democrat in the Senate,” he said.
His platform includes calls for a $700 billion bill “to revive Appalachia” with infrastructure improvements, incentivized organic farms, renewable energy sites and wide-scale production of marijuana.
“Is $700 billion too large a number? Hardly. It is the same dollar figure as the 2018 annual budget of the U.S. Department of Defense, absent the additional $61 billion Congress handed over to big fat-cat defense contractors,” Brazaitis said.
The West Virginia University professor and fiction author also pitched his so-called Empower our Empowers Act, in which the U.S. government would grant $50,000 in reparations to any man, woman, or child in the region who “over the last 80 years, has gone to a doctor for treatment of an illness related to their service in the fossil-fuel industry.”
In his Universities are Universities Act, Brazaitis criticized his employer for “greed” and called for a suspension on public-private partnerships in publicly funded institutions of higher learning across the country. “Universities should not be rogue Fortune 500 companies,” he said.
A 10-percent raise for all teachers is another tenet of Brazaitis’ write-in platform, along with universal health care, a $15 minimum wage, full funding of Planned Parenthood and a ban on assault weapons.
Story by Allan Taylor
Scary things is that the libtards on the board would vote for him.We should just start a daily "WTF is Brazaitis saying now?" thread
Brazaitis stages write-in Senate bid as ‘a real Democrat’
POSTED BY WAJR STAFF ON AUGUST 6, 2018 IN LOCAL NEWS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mark Brazaitis, whose first stint as a Morgantown City Councilor has been marked by spats with Monongalia County Commissioners and WVU, plans to stage a write-in candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
It’s another unconventional twist in a race between Democrat incumbent Joe Manchin and Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey. GOP primary third-place finisher Don Blankenship now hopes to appear on the November ballot as the Constitution Party candidate, though the legality of that maneuver is dubious under the state’s “sore loser law.”
Brazaitis calls for progressive measures and doesn’t consider the 70-year-old Manchin “a real Democrat.”
“I will be the first write-in candidate to win a seat in the U.S. Senate from West Virginia because, as a real Democrat, I will be running against two (and maybe three) Republicans. West Virginia needs a real Democrat in the Senate,” he said.
His platform includes calls for a $700 billion bill “to revive Appalachia” with infrastructure improvements, incentivized organic farms, renewable energy sites and wide-scale production of marijuana.
“Is $700 billion too large a number? Hardly. It is the same dollar figure as the 2018 annual budget of the U.S. Department of Defense, absent the additional $61 billion Congress handed over to big fat-cat defense contractors,” Brazaitis said.
The West Virginia University professor and fiction author also pitched his so-called Empower our Empowers Act, in which the U.S. government would grant $50,000 in reparations to any man, woman, or child in the region who “over the last 80 years, has gone to a doctor for treatment of an illness related to their service in the fossil-fuel industry.”
In his Universities are Universities Act, Brazaitis criticized his employer for “greed” and called for a suspension on public-private partnerships in publicly funded institutions of higher learning across the country. “Universities should not be rogue Fortune 500 companies,” he said.
A 10-percent raise for all teachers is another tenet of Brazaitis’ write-in platform, along with universal health care, a $15 minimum wage, full funding of Planned Parenthood and a ban on assault weapons.
Story by Allan Taylor