Puckett, Light Battle Over Black Lung Benefits

By Jason Johnson | Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 | Politics

In a race that is increasingly centered on coal, incumbent Sen. Phil Puckett has accused his Republican challenger, Adam Light, of wanting to privatize Black Lung benefits.  The ad was hard-hitting and emotional, coming as it does for a longtime coal miner who is suffering from this devastating respiratory disease.

Adam Light alleges that the Puckett campaign misconstrued his words in the ad and is firing back with a hard-hitting ad of his own in which he emphatically states that he does support Black Lung benefits.  The attack from Sen. Puckett–who earlier vowed to run a positive campaign–is, according to Light, a sign of his desperation.

Sen. Puckett’s desperation was, ironically, also noted today by the Republican Party of Virginia in an email:

Last week, James Carville told President Obama it was time to panic, as Obama’s approval numbers in Virginia tank and Governor McDonnell’s remain sky high.

Now, after more than three years of faithfully toeing the party line and helping elect him in 2008, Democrat Phillip Puckett – realizing that his loyal support of President Obama was toxic to his re-election chances – said yesterday that he would not support his party’s leader for another term.

This bombshell came from an interview with Bristol-Johnson City-Kingsport CBS affiliate WJHL-TV in which Sen. Puckett lamented that the candidate who famously vowed in 2008 to “bankrupt coal” isn’t a coal-friendly president after all:

“It’s very clear to me that the administration does not support the coal industry in a way that’s beneficial to our area. So, I don’t plan to support President Obama for re-election.”

This is quite a sea-change from 2008 when Sen. Puckett was encouraging his fellow southwestern Virginia Democrats to support then-Sen. Obama and downplaying charges that Obama was anti-coal.

Either Sen. Puckett was also suffering from Hope-and-Change fever in 2008 and didn’t want to believe his own ears when then-Sen. Obama said he would “bankrupt coal” or the Light campaign and RPV are right: Sen. Puckett is desperate.

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