Will Shelley Moore-Capito continue to be more moderate than Jay Rockefeller?

[Adam Griffin]

Of all the 2014 Senate races in which there was a party switch AND in which the newly-elected Senator was previously in the U.S. House (Capito, Cassidy, Cotton, Daines, Gardner), Shelley Moore-Capito is the only one who maintains a "moderate" DWNOMINATE score, and in fact, has a score closer to the center than Rockefeller did on the Liberal-Conservative Axis:

Rockefeller: -0.38
Moore-Capito: 0.26



Article

Now that she is in the U.S. Senate (and with the apparently imminent and irreversible shift of WV away from Democrats), will there be more pressure applied to her to take a shift to the right?

[hopper]

She will be in 0.3 0.4 territory I think. She will still be more moderate than Cassidy. I don't see her making a hard move to the right.

[ElectionsGuy]

I don't know, but she will be one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, along with Murkowski.

[badgate]

I don't have high hopes.

[Boston Bread]

The house has almost no moderates but the senate still has some. If that was here score in the house I'd be the minority here say it's more likely her next score will continue to be moderate.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Yes. I don't see what she has to worry about at this point.

Plus WV is hardly a state that is against minimum wage, infrastructure, education, etc etc the things she is likely to be a moderate on. One are where she is not a moderate based on her house record is i... (didn't actually mention it. )

She should vote her state and remain connected to the voters (ie don't go Pat Roberts). She does that, she will get 65%-70% of the vote in 2020.

[NewYorkExpress]

If she plans on serving more than one term, she won't be.

Moore Capito is alone among this classes GOP Senator-Elects in that she already was a moderate. She got lucky dodging a serious challenge this year, and as West Virginia moves further right, she'll need to as well, especially in regards to immigration and minimum wage, and she can't vote for anything Joe Manchin votes for as well.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

If she plans on serving more than one term, she won't be.

Moore Capito is alone among this classes GOP Senator-Elects in that she already was a moderate. She got lucky dodging a serious challenge this year, and as West Virginia moves further right, she'll need to as well, especially in regards to immigration and minimum wage, and she can't vote for anything Joe Manchin votes for as well.

I have a hard time seeing her losing a primary for voting for a minimum wage increase. Several PA Republicans in similar terrain have survived, even with a long standing Party apparatus attracting opposition from the base (Specter!!!). Many of the Reps have been quite fine indeed (Dent for instance who now has a gerrymandered seat by the way).

Remember also that any registration gains would be amongst Conservative Democrats use to the pro-Labor approach of Byrd and the boys.

[Boston Bread]

WV is not a place where the GOP tries to be pure. She was unscathed in the primary.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

WV is not a place where the GOP tries to be pure. She was unscathed in the primary.

WV was traditionally Democrat. That's not true any more.

[Person Man]

She' moderate across the board and there is a reason why West Virginia is now almost as Republican as the Big Oil states out west despite being so moderate on the minimum wage and unions (which though have had a success or two now and again, will probably be extinct in one or two more political cycles).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

She will move to the right, but she won't be too far away from Susan Collins in the end.