Trending
The filing period for West Virginia's May primary election, as well as Weirton's municipal election in November, will wrap up Jan. 27.
A lot of the attention for this year's election has been focused on the presidency, and, here in West Virginia, the race to be the state's next U.S. senator, member of Congress and governor.
Quite frankly, with only a couple of exceptions, that is probably going to be where all of the excitement happens this year, unless there are some major changes in the next week.
As I'm writing this, the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office is showing two Republican candidates for the single Hancock County Commission seat up for grabs this year. Everyone else on the ballot in Hancock County is, for all intents and purposes, unopposed at this moment. Essentially, that means that, unless we get a major influx of candidates over the next seven days, the election of county commissioner, county prosecutor, sheriff, assessor, three magistrates, two school board seats and conservation district supervisor, will have been determined during the May primary.
The ballot for Brooke County isn't much better at the moment.
There is one Democrat and one Republican currently registered for county commission. All the other offices on the ballot, though, county prosecutor, sheriff, assessor, two magistrates, school board and conservation district supervisor, have a lack of competition. In fact, at the moment, there is only one candidate set for school board, but I'm pretty sure more than one seat is up for grabs this year.
In the Legislature, we now have two Republican candidates for the state Senate seat going before the voters for District 1 this year. Incumbent Ryan Weld is now set to face a challenge in the primary from Wellsburg resident Scott Adams.
In the House, only Pat McGeehan is set for the Delegate District 1 race, while local businesswoman Michele Slates will face Mark Zatezalo for the District 2 seat. Both are Republicans, so whomever wins will get that seat.
District 3, though, currently has incumbent Jimmy Willis, a Republican, eventually facing a challenge from Democrat David Cantrell of Wheeling.
The First Judicial Circuit currently has four candidates - one for each of the four divisions in the circuit - although there is one candidate we've been told of who has yet to appear on the list of registered individuals. Incumbent judges Jason A. Cuomo, Michael J. Olejasz, David J. Sims and Ron Wilson are on the Secretary of State's website as of 11:20 a.m. Friday. If you've been paying attention to our newspaper in recent days, you know the name not included.
But, there is still a week remaining, so we'll see what happens over the next few days.
Personally, I have mixed thoughts on what, once again, appears to be a lack of candidates for many of these offices.
On one hand, it means the majority of our local elections will be determined with the May primary election. That, of course, assumes we have no one decided to jump into the general election. It's possible, and it's happened before, but it's a rare situation.
With those elections essentially determined in May, I have an opportunity to provide more focus toward the Weirton election in November. To be honest, I was dreading the thought of figuring out coverage of the city's, as well as Hancock County-based races, so it's a bit of a relief.
As someone who believes in the need for competition in elections, though, I'm also disappointed to see so few candidates step up this year.
I often hear people comment about their unhappiness with not having more of a selection on their ballot. Yet, when the time comes, there are only a handful of non-incumbents to step forward.
Running for public office is a challenge. I get that. But, if we want options, and we want to see change, people also have to be willing to be the change.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the next week brings.
(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/X @CHowellWDT)