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Much as with any contest, a situation is never any good if everything is one-sided. It might be nice to see your favorite team always win, but, at some point, it is sure to get repetitive and just expected. Where is the fun in going to a game if you know the outcome?
The same can be said for politics.
At one point, West Virginia leaned heavily in favor of Democrats. I can remember a time here in the Northern Panhandle where you might see only two or three registered Republicans on the entire ballot. Now, that trend has reversed and the state leans heavily in favor of Republicans and you might see only a couple of Democrats on the ballot.
We are definitely gearing up for the 2024 election, and we've already seen campaign announcements from several candidates, especially in the races of governor and U.S. senator.
Another big announcement, with local implications, is set to come Monday. I've been hearing rumors of this announcement for a while now, so it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction it gets.
To date, it has primarily been members of the Republican party stepping forward. In fact, of the 88 pre-candidacy filings listed in the Secretary of State's Office as of this writing, only 10 are registered as Democrats for their races. Of those, four have declared for House of Delegates races, and one in the state Senate (none for our area). The rest are "undeclared."
Ultimately, I don't care much about who wins a political race, primarily because I have to deal with them either way. I don't get the choice of ignoring a politician because of their party affiliation. Secondly, the older I get the less impressed I've become with anything any politicians do because those who get the attention are the ones who jump out in front of cameras and spout off a bunch on nonsense while never really accomplishing anything. Plus, it more and more seems the focus is on fighting the battles of the parties over ever doing any work to solve the problems of their constituents.
There are those few exceptions, of course, but we don't hear much about those.
Government works best when there are multiple views represented under the dome. If one side gains too much power, not only are they able to push through whatever they want with little discussion (and quickly), but there also is the potential to completely close out members of the opposition party.
Beyond that, if voters already know one side is definitely going to take every seat on the ballot, they probably aren't going to be willing to vote. Why bother making the effort, right?
We're going to see several offices going on the ballot next year. The City of Weirton, as a result of rescheduling its elections, will see the mayor and all seven council seats go before residents. While that election is "non-partisan" you still don't often see more than a couple of candidates sign up for each office. I've already heard tell of a couple of possibilities for mayor, but wouldn't it be great to see some big competition up and down the ballot? The same is true for school board, where there will be seats up for grabs in both of our counties.
In the partisan races, we need to see quality candidates from both the Republicans and Democrats step up. Hancock County had a commission race with three Republicans and no Democrats last year. Our House of Delegates seats only had one person from each of the two major parties. At least the local state Senate races had some meaning in its primary.
It's all a matter of balance. You put too much one one side of the scales for too long, and it's bound to tip over.
(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter @CHowellWDT)