Chris Dorst | Gazette-Mail file photo
By: Rick Steelhammer, Staff Writer | Posted: May 9, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
A Monday morning canvass of Tuesday’s primary election voting results in Kanawha County could change the outcome of several state, county and city races.
By: Jeff Jenkins | Posted: May 9, 2018 at 4:33 p.m. | Source: WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There are some political newcomers who have advanced to the November General Election in state Senate races including a 30-year pastor and a community and economic development professional.
Rollan Roberts
Dr. Rollan Roberts defeated Raleigh County Senator Lynne Arvon in Tuesday’s Republican primary in the 9th Senatorial District. Roberts is the longtime pastor at Victory Baptist Church in Beaver. He placed his name in the running when Gov. Jim Justice was looking for a quick replacement for now former Senator Jeff Mullins at the beginning of the last legislative session. Arvon was appointed. Roberts then decided to run against her.
He was successful Tuesday in the three counties that make up the district, Raleigh, Wyoming and McDowell counties. It was close. He won by less than 400 votes but Roberts said he didn’t have to fight name recognition problems.
“I’m a different kind of candidate. I’m not having to tell people who I am. I’ve been here for 30 years at Victory (Baptist Church), running the Christian school and our Christian school serves about four counties every year,” he said.
Terrell Ellis
Terrell Ellis, owner of Terrell Ellis and Associates, is a single mother of four grown children who has been active in Kanawha Valley communities for years but has never run for political office. She finished in first place in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the 17th Senatorial District over two other candidates, including Mary Ann Claytor who won a statewide primary two years ago.
Ellis told MetroNews Wednesday her community involvement over the years was a good building block for her campaign.
“Being from South Hills (Charleston), which is a real strong neighborhood in the district, certainly was very helpful. But I’ve also worked a lot in the Clendenin area, I’m known in South Charleston for some of the economic development work I’m doing and I’m known in the Upper Kanawha Valley,” Ellis said.
Ellis also had a good ground game. She and her volunteers knocked on nearly 8,000 doors in the district.
Del. Bill Hamilton
Longtime Delegate Bill Hamilton won every county in the 11th Senatorial District GOP primary against incumbent Senator Robert Karnes. Karnes called the impact of the teachers strike a bump in the road, Hamilton said.
“I knew better because they were still active in my campaign and they will continue to do so in the fall,” Hamilton said Wednesday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Hamilton said Karnes went negative two weeks before the election and it wasn’t received well.
“They tainted me as a liberal,” Hamilton said. “You know, if I was liberal I might have won Upshur County one time but the second time I ran they would have booted me out.”
Hamilton has a strong rating from both labor and business which he said gives him broad support. He’ll face Pocahontas County attorney Laura Finch, a Democrat, in the fall election.
Ellis considers herself a moderate Democrat.
“I happen to be pro-economic development, I’m pro-business,” she said. “I just happen to think you can do all of that without affecting working families.”
She’ll face 17th District Senator Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, in the fall. Ellis said she’ll begin knocking on doors again in a few days.
Roberts’ fall opponent is former state senator, former delegate Bill Wooton, a Democrat from Raleigh County. Roberts said they know each other.
“We are really on different ends of the spectrum–so people will have a distinct choice to make when it comes to Nov. 6,” he said.
Seventeen of the Senate’s 34 seats will be up for election and there will be challenged races in each one.
The award-winning native of Pratt, W.Va, took over as head of the news division of MetroNews in August 2000. Jeff can be reached at jjenkins@wvradio.com and Twitter @JeffJenkinsMN.
By: Phil Kabler, Statehouse Reporter | Posted: May 8, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Among contested House of Delegate primaries of local interest Tuesday, Dean Jeffries and David “Woody” Holmes won nominations for seats held by two long-serving delegates in the House.
Jeffries, an Elkview insurance agent prevailed in a three-person race for the Republican nomination for the 40th District seat held by House Speaker Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, for nearly 20 years. Armstead opted not to seek re-election.
Jeffries, who billed himself as a Christian conservative Republican, and had endorsements from Armstead and the Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee, had 894 votes (53 percent), defeating lawyer Kenneth Tawney, who had 542 votes (32 percent). Ron Shamblin, a longtime union crane operator, who broke with the GOP over recent votes to repeal the state’s prevailing wage law and to enact right-to-work, finished third with 267 votes.
Jeffries faces Melissa Riggs Huffman, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, in November’s general election.
In the 39th District, a Republican stronghold seat held for years by Delegate Ron Walters, R-Kanawha, until his sudden, forced resignation in March, David “Woody” Holmes prevailed in the Democrat primary, in what he hopes will be the first step in an effort to “flip” the longtime GOP seat.
Holmes, a union pipefitter and son of the late longtime state senator and Senate clerk Darrell Holmes, defeated Alex Urban, a West Virginia University law student, by a 641-578 margin.
He will face Delegate Sharon Malcolm, R-Kanawha, in the general election. Malcolm, who was appointed to the House on March 23 to replace Walters, is a retired state employee who was the first woman to serve as assistant doorkeeper in the House and assistant sergeant-at-arms in the Senate. She was unopposed in the Republican primary.
Meanwhile, in two multi-candidate House district races in Kanawha County — the 35th Republican and the 36th Democrat — the last-place finishers in their respective primaries were the proverbial odd men out.
In the 35th Republican primary, Delegates Moore Capito, Eric Nelson, and Charlotte Lane won nominations, along with Ed Burgess, while Bill Johnston finished fifth in the four-member district.
In the 36th Democratic primary, Delegates Larry Rowe and Andrew Robinson were nominated, along with Amanda Estep-Burton, while Clint Casto and James Elam were eliminated.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1220 or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.
By: Rick Steelhammer, Staff Writer | Posted: May 8, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Thanks to voter approval of Gov. Jim Justice’s $1.6 billion Roads to Prosperity initiative and the Legislature’s approval of a $1 billion bond issue for highway construction last June, more than 30 road improvement projects could get underway this year in Kanawha County.
Gazette-Mail file photo
Posted: May 6, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
According to unofficial totals from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office, more than 68,000 people voted early for Tuesday’s primary election.
Of the 68,391 early and absentee ballots reported to the office, 34,996 were submitted by Democrats; 22,679 by Republicans; 35 by members of the Mountain Party; 206 by members of other political parties; and 10,475 by voters who aren’t members of any political party.
Some counties use methods other than the State Voter Registration System handled by the Secretary of State’s office, so the final early voting totals may be higher. For example, Monroe County only had 36 early votes recorded in the unofficial tally, while Upshur County had 39.
Kanawha County had the most early votes recorded. The Secretary of State’s office put the number at 6,809, but Kanawha County officials said in a news release Sunday afternoon that the total was 6,569.
Of those, Kanawha officials said, more than 2,000 cast their ballots at the five satellite early voting locations throughout the county. That included 689 at the Cross Lanes sheriff’s detachment, 506 at the Elkview sheriff’s detachment, 392 at the Sissonville Public Library, 352 at the Belle Town Hall and 207 at the Marmet Town Hall.
The Kanawha news release called the early voting turnout a success and said the numbers exceeded expectations.
“I want to thank County Clerk Vera McCormick, her dedicated staff, and our excellent poll workers,” Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said in the release. “Early Community Voting required a tremendous amount of effort and would not have been possible without the hard work of so many.”
Early voting began April 25 and ended Saturday. The primary election is Tuesday; polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
By: Lacie Pierson, Courts Reporter | Posted: May 4, 2015 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
With one more day left in the early voting period this election cycle, a little more than 50,000 West Virginians have taken advantage of the extra time to cast their ballots.
CLENDENIN, W.Va. – The Town of Clendenin is currently in the process of developing a comprehensive plan. The purpose of a comprehensive plan is to identify issues and concerns of residents that are negatively affecting the quality of life for those that live and work in Clendenin. The plan will include a detailed action plan outlining specific steps that Town government and other partners can take to address the identified issues and concerns. The plan will also be the foundation for future growth and development in the Town.
By: Ashley Bishop | Posted: May 3, 2018 | Source: WCHSTV
As many people still wait for their water settlement checks to come, which are expected now in late June, thousands of people who receive government assistance may have to repay their settlement back to the government. (WCHS/WVAH)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — Not all people who were impacted when MCHM spilled into the Kanawha River will be getting a payout from the water crisis settlement. (more…)
Christy DeMuth with WVU Law facilitates public meeting for Clendenin Planning Commission. Photo Credit: Mark Burdette
CLENDENIN, W.Va. – On Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 6:00 PM, the Clendenin Planning Commission, facilitated by WVU Law, hosted an open house immediately following their monthly meeting at the Clendenin Recreation building. WVU Law’s Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic, headed by Christy Burnside DeMuth, set up displays to obtain public input concerning the Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Clendenin that they have been working on over the past few months. According to DeMuth, they have completed similar Comprehensive Plans for various towns in West Virginia, including Fayetteville, Dunbar, Elkins, and others. (more…)
Kanawha County officials say more than 1,800 turned out to cast ballots in the first week of early voting in Kanawha County at the six offered locations, with the bulk of those at the Voter’s Registration Office. (WCHS/WVAH)
By: Jeff Morris | Posted: April 27, 2018 | Source: WVAH
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — More than 1,800 turned out to cast ballots in the first week of early voting in Kanawha County at the six offered locations, with the bulk of those at the Voter’s Registration Office.
Early voting in West Virginia kicked off Wednesday and runs through May 5.
A news release from the Kanawha County Commission provided a breakdown of early voting numbers in the county as of 4:30 p.m.:
* Belle Town Hall, 114
* Cross Lanes Sheriff’s Detachment, 210
* Elkview Sheriff’s Detachment, 160
* Marmet Town Hall, 53
* Sissonville Library, 108
* Voter’s Registration Office, 1,172
Commissioners said they hoped the convenience of the multiple locations throughout the county would increase voters’ presence.
“I believe the citizens that live outside the city limits of Charleston will appreciate being able to vote in their community and not have to drive to Charleston to early vote,” Commission President Kent Carper said.
Carper said he believes the high turnout for Charleston is due to a great interest in the city of Charleston election.
All six voting locations will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 28, and Saturday, May 5.
