SKETCHY

3 W. VA Dems to Skip Convention

Possibly due to GOP pressure to support Obama.

President Obama might take a clue that he is not popular in the mountain state. First 40 percent of West Virginia Democrats supported a felon over Obama, and now three top Democratic leaders running for reelection announced on Monday that they will skip the Democratic National Convention in September. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Nick Rahall will not be part of the delegation to formally vote to renominate Obama—possibly due to pressure from their Republican challengers, who have called for them to publicly support Obama, who is unpopular in the state. On Monday, Tomblin’s campaign said he had “serious problems” with both President Obama and Mitt Romney, and he said he felt his time was “best spent” in West Virginia during the four-day convention—an excuse the other two also used. A recent poll shows Romney has a 17-point lead over Obama in West Virginia.