LOOKING BACK – Senate President Craig Blair said he is pleased with the foundations he helped lay during his tenure leading the state Senate for nearly four years. -- Steven Allen Adams

CHARLESTON – Despite losing his Republican primary in May, West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair is thankful for the opportunity afforded him by his colleagues to lead the legislative body for nearly four years.

“You can see the smile in my face,” said Blair, R-Berkeley, sitting behind the desk in his office earlier this week at the State Capitol Building during his final legislative interim meetings. “I am blessed by the fact that I got to preside as Senate president and lieutenant governor over West Virginia’s greatest time of prosperity. Wow.”

Blair is wrapping up his public service career after nearly 20 years in the state Legislature. He spent eight years in the House of Delegates representing Berkeley County after first being elected in 2002 and serving until 2010.

Two years later, Blair was elected to the Senate representing the 15th District, coming in during the final two years of the Democratic majority. After the 2014 elections, the 34-member Senate was split 17-17 until a party switch by a Democratic member gave the Republicans a one-seat majority in 2015.

Blair rose up the ranks of the Republican caucus, becoming chairman of the Senate Government Organization Committee under former Mercer County Senate President Bill Cole. When former Jackson County Sen. Mitch Carmichael became Senate president in 2017, Blair took the gavel of the powerful Finance Committee.

When Carmichael lost his GOP primary in June 2020, Blair’s colleagues elevated him as the next Senate president. The president presides over floor sessions during regular and special legislative sessions. The president also picks the Senate leadership team and committee chairs and makes committee assignments.

“I spent eight years in the House of Delegates in the minority, two years in the Senate in the minority, then the rest of the time in the majority with Bill Cole, (Mitch) Carmichael, then myself,” Blair said. “Oh my golly, I’ve been blessed.”

Blair co-chairs the Joint Committee on Government and Finance with House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay. This interim committee manages the day-to-day operations of the Legislature, such as the Commission on Special Investigations, the Legislature’s government auditing arms, rule-making review and more.

As Senate president, Blair holds the honorary title of lieutenant governor. Under the state Constitution, should a governor resign, be removed from office or die, the Senate president would act as governor until a new chief executive is elected.

Blair said that during his tenure he was most proud of helping create the circumstances that have led to multiple economic development projects coming to fruition, such as the Nucor steel mill in Mason County, the BHE Renewables titanium melt facility in Jackson County, and the Form Energy grid battery project in Weirton.

Beginning with his time a Senate Finance Committee chairman, Blair helped develop and implement maintaining a flat general revenue budget, keeping state government spending relatively the same over a period of years. This allowed lawmakers to monitor tax revenues to determine when the state could begin making tax cuts, such as the 2023 tax reform package that reduced personal income tax rates by 21.25%, as well the 4% and 2% cuts going into effect next month.

“We were able to cut taxes,” Blair said. “We were able to take care of deferred maintenance and attract businesses, the largest investment in history with Nucor. The list goes on and on.”

The flatline budget, combined with the Department of Revenue publishing artificially low tax revenue estimates, led to the state ending the last several fiscal years with record-breaking tax revenue surpluses. Blair said the additional tax collections allowed the state to reinvest those funds into multiple pay raises for public employees, secondary road maintenance and pulling down more federal broadband expansion investment.

“Our roads are better in this state than they’ve ever been, and you can’t go anywhere and not see that work being taken care of,” Blair said. “We just got done working on the deal where we’re going to draw down the $1.2 billion of federal dollars to be able to have fiber on the polls everywhere. That is a game changer from that standpoint.”

Blair also took pride in overseeing the redistricting of West Virginia’s 17 senatorial districts in 2021 after the last U.S. Census. While the new maps resulted in the loss of both Republican and Democratic incumbents, Blair said the fact that the lines were not challenged in court is a sign of the fairness he brought to the process.

“(Redistricting) was probably the toughest thing I had to deal with,” Blair said. “It was a matter of self-preservation for each of them…When we got done with the redistricting, we gained seats afterwards, yet there was no lawsuit. That is unheard of. That just goes to show that we did the right things by working together.”

Blair said he took the most pride in how the entire Senate Republican caucus worked together under his leadership. While some focus on the bills that pass narrowly or have the most division, the majority of bills pass the Senate by wide margins.

“It’s been a privilege to be able to come in here every morning … sitting down with our entire caucus and discussing each morning like a board of directors for the State of West Virginia,” Blair said. “That’s why (you’ve) seen such little floor debate… This was a machine, and we moved at the speed of business, not at speed the government.”

But Blair was defeated in May by Hedgesville attorney and West Virginia National Guard officer Tom Willis in a hotly contested and negative campaign, which saw millions of dollars in outside spending by dark money groups.

“There comes a time when life says to either step back or you tell yourself to,” Blair said. “In this case, the voters told me to step back and I’m happy to do that. I am not disappointed in any way. I am blessed beyond belief.”

Blair said he has no regrets about not getting any specific bill or proposal through the Senate during his tenure. But he would have liked to see support for making changes to the state’s unemployment program to incentivize people returning to work or the ability for lawmakers to make changes to tangible personal property taxes on machinery, equipment and inventory.

“When you got really, really low unemployment like we do right now in the state, that’s the time where you change it. We wanted to make it so that you got more money in the beginning of unemployment but it taper it off over the time period,” Blair said. “Right now, we’re one of the worst when it comes to unemployment and we need to address that.

“If you fix that and the personal property tax on equipment machinery and inventory, there is no reason that any business would not locate in West Virginia, unless it was topography,” he continued. “When something fails to get across the finish line, you can always go back, reevaluate where you’re at and attempt to do it again and maybe listen to other strategies.”

The Senate Republican caucus voted Sunday night to name Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee Chairman Randy Smith, R-Tucker, as its nominee for Senate president, which will be voted on by all 34 members of the Senate when it gavels in Wednesday, Jan. 8. Blair offered some advice to his successor.

“You’re not a dictator, and build on the foundations that have been built before you. Do not think about tearing down stuff, but think about building,” Blair said. “You keep building the structure, rebuilding West Virginia, to where everybody would be proud to live here and raise a family … but you can’t come in and dictate your will.

“Your job as the Senate president is to facilitate the will of the body and educate that body on knowing what they’re voting on,” he continued. “If you do that, you’ll be successful. If (you) come in and believe that you’re going to run your agenda over top of everybody else, you will fail.”

Blair said he is planning to head back to the private sector. He wants to use his experiences over the last several years recruiting new businesses and economic development projects as the state’s No. 2 elected official and continue those recruitment efforts as a private citizen.

Blair is leaving with optimism about West Virginia’s potential and future. He hopes the foundations he helped lay during his tenure will help future lawmakers and the incoming administration of Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey.

“We’ve got to be able to believe in ourselves be able to dream, and then follow through with those dreams,” Blair said. “The world is ours if we’re willing to take it and not allow the world to dictate to us on who we are. We must dictate to ourselves who we are and then build on that. We are pulling ourselves up like West Virginians do, and it’s working. It’s undeniable that it’s working. The future is very bright in front of us.

“You lay the groundwork so that those after you can actually do it easier and have a better outcome, so that you’re not always climbing uphill,” Blair continued. “Sometimes it’s fun to sort of walk downhill and enjoy the prosperity from that.”

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)