West Virginia Working Families has endorsed Lissa Lucas for WV House of Delegates in District 7.

WV Working Families is an organization that “fights for an economy that works for all of us, and a democracy in which every voice matters.”

Doubtless, that’s why they’ve chosen Lissa Lucas—because that’s what she’s all about, too.

“I’m a Working Families Democrat,” Lissa confirms…“and what that means is that I understand that our top priorities should be fighting for things that will help our families: higher wages, universal health care, tax cuts for middle class families, and debt-free higher ed or vocational school for our kids.”

Lissa ennumerates a long litany of actions that could improve things for working families: “We also need high-speed Internet and good roads to attract jobs. We deserve basic services like clean water and functioning sewer. We also deserve a government that puts families and working people first: we need to fully fund PEIA, pay our public employees and teachers, and stop pulling funding from our public schools. We need earned sick days, and clean elections that aren’t being purchased by corporations.”

What we don’t need, according to Lissa, is a government that is primarily focused on things like handing our property rights to corporations, or charging families for the damage corporations are doing to our roads. She says we also don’t need government officials who are so ashamed by their corporate campaign donations that they regard hearing them listed out as a personal attack.

“Have you tried driving on our roads recently? I shudder to think how much we pay in repairs because our bought legislators are afraid to raise severance tax to a level that will cover the damage done by extraction companies. It doesn’t have to be like this. We don’t have to balance all the damage done by these industries on the backs of working families.”

This is a sore spot for Lissa, who knows that the costs of the recent road bond hit rural working families the hardest. “Heck,” she says, “the Justice Road Bond costs the people of this district a lot, and we don’t even get any roads fixed from all those extra taxes and fees we pay. I’m proud that Ritchie County was smart enough to see through the misdirection of our governor and his cronies.”

She continues, “Just look at Auburn here in Ritchie County to see how little that bond has done for the folks out here. Right now, I’m told that the state is trying to ‘negotiate’ with EQT to get them to pay for the damage they’ve done to Route 74. I have a feeling the state wouldn’t be negotiating with you or me if we damaged our roads. But there’s a different system of justice for the ruling corporate kleptocracy than there is for regular people. What would happen, do you think, if we took $32K of taxpayer money for a sofa, or walked off with an expensive antique—even if we returned it when caught?”

“We have to change the way this state functions,” Lissa says, “and I believe Ritchie and Pleasants Counties can set the example, and HOLLER FROM THE HOLLERS by voting for representatives that will work for us, for a change.”