.The response to candidates filing during an off year election has been encouraging. This county is making a return to a two-party system and means that voters want a choice and candidates are not happy with the decisions being made by the current officials.
……….I was blown away by the number of candidates filing for the Board of Education. Since the State has taken over the school system, the Board has been rendered impotent. They will no longer be able to make decisions on financial issues or staffing. There are 11 candidates filed for 3 seats. Incumbents filed include Ed Fields and Jim Horstman from Clay District and Jack Crow from Butler. One of the names that surprised me was former Sheriff and Educator Jeff Woofter. During his tenure at Oak Glen,Woofter raised concerns about the land purchased for Weirton Elementary School. The land was owned by Board legal counsel, the late Bill Fahey, and the Board paid above market value. Woofter wrote letters to the editor pointing out it was a conflict for the Board to be purchasing this large track of land from their own attorney, especially above market value. Woofter left Hancock County and subsequently became Superintendent of Barbour County downstate. He and his wife, MaryAnn returned to Hancock a few years ago.
.….What do I take into consideration when casting my vote? The late Sam Love was a long-term delegate versed in the workings of the legislature and how to get the peoples’ vote. He often shared advice with me. His number 1 rule: always return a call. This was back when there were no cell phones, texts or e-mail, only a landline phone. He said your vote is not always going to be in agreement with your constituents, but they would always remember if you responded to them. He was right and I would come back to my office with stacks of messages to return calls in the morning and after a floor session. I called them all back.Remember when you go to cast your vote if the candidate has been responsive to you?
…………The Democratic Executive Committee has worked hard to fill the ticket. One of the most surprising candidates is Quincy Wilson for House of Delegates. A standout football player at Weir High and at WVU, Wilson’s most recent post was as Weir High’s head football coach. He will challenge incumbent Pat McGeehan who now has become a force in leadership after being House Majority Leader. Does that make a difference? It sure does. I offer as example the fact that McGeehan was able to get the House to suspend the rule that a bill is read three consecutive day to get the bill providing rescue funds to the Hancock County School Board though in one day. The bill is now in the Senate where it has yet to clear Senate Education and onto Senate Finance. Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman, who resigned her leadership position as Chair of Health and Human Services, is the sponsor of the companion bill and has been working hard to get the legislation through. Her colleague, Sen. Ryan Weld, has not promoted a fast track policy rather saying there are parts of the bill which may need some tweaking.
.……Do you feel that your delegate or senator’s ability to get bills through by negotiating and knowing the rules should be a consideration when casting your vote?. How productive is it to have a delegate down there who agrees with you in principle but is not able to get a bill through? It’s not and I value a representative who is able to get things done when I cast my vote.
…….They say there are two things you never want to observe: how sausage is made and how your laws are made. They’re right and being a legislator is not for the faint of heart. ‘ Wheel and deal’ has became an unfavorable term, but I’m here to tell you it got quite a few much- needed bills passed and I’m not ashamed to say I did some of it when I was in the House.
…….High drama sometimes accompanied the process the last night of the session and the last few hours were televised by PBS. Add that to the fact that Delegate Earnie Kuhn, a coalminer from Boone County, used to bring his homemade moonshine, or hooch as it was called to celebrate the end of the session. The hooch was disguised in white styrofoam cups and could be seen in most legislators’ hands. Not all of us imbibed preferring to have a clear head when voting. Most did partake and awoke the next morning to see what bills they had passed.
……..Governor Cecil Underwood hated gambling, but he liked the money it brought in. A bill to use lottery revenue to gold leaf the capitol dome was introduced. . Delegates who knew knew that opening the section of the code that dealt with anything, gambling especially, was not a good idea because it left it open to amend any thing into it. Cecil, however, thought that delegates would not dare mess with his bill. He was wrong. I had been the sponsor of a bill that increased the bet limit on the video lottery machines and allowed the images of four cherries on the spinning wheels. It also allowed for coin drop. I was on the Finance Committee and the bill had made it that far and died. It was in the last half hour of the session when realizing an opportunity, my video lottery bill was amended into the gold leaf dome bill in Finance Committee. When the amended bill made it the floor, the anti gamers, most of whom were Republicans challenged whether the amendment was germane to the original legislation. The clock was ticking and the speaker quickly ruled it germane. House Republicans quickly climbed up on their chairs taking a Weirton Steel tin can bank with them yelling “gambling NO, gambling No while clanging on their banks. The Speaker ruled it germane.
.…It is a scene that I cannot even 24 years later adequately describe. A delegate from Ohio County, Gil White, ran up to me and said “promise me there are no table games or riverboat gambling in your amendment?” I gave my word. White turned around and signaled a thumbs up to his fellow Republicans meaning it was OK to vote for the bill.
……At around 11:59 p.m. the bill passed and we adjourned sine die (without recall)for another year. There were years were I drug my tired body out of the Capital depressed that I had not been able to get a bill I cared about passed. That year, I literally bounced as I left. I had finally played hardball with the boys…..and won! And, it didn’t hurt that one of those boys was the Governor .
