Just who is State Senator Donna Boley?

Ok, another issue I've recently had some reason to look into, is just who is State Senator Donna Boley? On another blog, I took issue with someone claiming Mrs. Boley was some sort of super senator. In fact, my exact words (before they were deleted by the blog administrator - in a cowardly act of censorship, the likes of which you won't see here) were that Mrs. Boley was quite possibly the DUMBEST member of the State Legislature. My opinion comes from actually dealing with Mrs. Boley on several occasions. So, let's look at her a bit closer at who she really is, shall we?

According to her bio, she's a "businessperson," and a "bookkeeper." And she went to a community college for one year. Not much of a resume. She didn't graduate from college. No listing of actual businesses she's run. Evidently, some people think that just being elected to the State Senate is conclusive evidence that someone is "smart." To those people, I say: Please. Go educate yourself. For the sake of the rest of us, please go learn something before you can do any more damage to society.

We know Senator Sprouse is an engineer, with a degree from Penn State, and owns a string of Curves outlets. Senator Mike Oliverio sells insurance, a graduate of West Virginia University and is in the army reserves. Boley doesn't list anything of the sort. Hell, does Boley even HAVE a job outside being a state senator?

Being elected to ANY office means exactly one thing, and one thing only. You got more votes than the other guy. Hell, there are some people who lose elections to candidates that are actually DEAD. And I mean "dead" as "in-the-ground/wormfood" dead. Ask John Ashcroft how that works. He'll tell you all about it. To assert that by simply being a state senator, you are somehow "smart" is absolutely one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And, to assert that Mrs. Boley is somehow special because she was the only republican in the State Senate for a period of time, is equally a dumb comment. Hell, Boley's district is one of the few places where a republican has a shot of winning a senate seat. Pleasants County is much more republican than most other counties in West Virginia, and Wood County is almost split 50-50 on registered democrats and republicans, and votes quite conservatively. Both counties are in Boley's district. And Boley's district has been that way for quite some time. So let's just quit with the automatic imparting of intelligence to a republican who gets elected from that district. If she won from Mingo or Logan or Wyoming County as a Republican, then maybe we can talk about how smart she is. But in one of the best districts for republicans (if not THE best) in the state? Let's hold off with her Mensa application for a while.

And lastly, you have to also figure in who's actually voting for her. The same electorate who elected our current State Auditor, because his father was the preceding State Auditor, and just happened to have the same name. But the more telling thing is this. The same electorate elected his father, because he simply had the same name as the State Auditor who preceded him. And they weren't even related. They just both happened to have the same name, Glen Gainer. But in West Virginia, with our edjumacated electorate, that's all it takes to win an election, having the same name as the guy before you. So, let's not judge someone's intelligence on their ability to get elected. Hell, our current State Auditor was a tractor salesman before his dad decided to not seek re-election.