These are confusing times in the West Virginia Legislature. A power struggle that is pitting lawmakers from the deep south coalfield counties of southern West Virginia against those living in the northern end of the state is prompting concern — and rightfully so.
If all goes as planned, Sen. Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, will become the Senate’s acting leader Wednesday while current Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin serves as West Virginia’s acting governor. The new leadership team announced last week by Kessler includes Berkeley County Sen. John Unger as his new majority leader, Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, as his new majority whip and Sen. Brooks McCabe of Kanawha County as president pro tempore.
It also represents a stunning reversal of political fortunes for Mercer County. Just a year ago, both the Senate minority leader and the Senate majority leader represented political districts serving Mercer County. Don Caruth’s death last year left Mercer County without the Senate minority leader’s post. And if all goes as Kessler is predicting Wednesday, current Senate Majority Leader H. Truman Chafin will be stripped of the majority leader post.
Two freshmen senators serving Mercer County — Mark Wills, D-Mercer, and Ron Miller, D-Greenbrier — have thrown their support behind Kessler. In doing so, the two lawmakers are essentially allowing Mercer County to lose a position of power with the majority leader post. Time will tell if Wills and Miller made the correct decision in supporting Kessler.
Chafin argues the power shift sought by Kessler will create a constitutional crisis in the Mountain State. Chafin said the state constitution doesn’t allow the Senate to appoint a president, and then turn around and strip him of his political powers, and then subsequently create the position of acting Senate president.
At the moment, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Are we disappointed? Of course we are. We lost the Senate minority leader post, and now we are losing the Senate majority leader post, all in the span of less than one year. And with the exception of Browning — who has been without question a vocal advocate for modern roads, water and sewer projects in southern West Virginia and a long-time fighter for the Coalfields Expressway project — the new leadership team being set up by Kessler is largely devoid of lawmakers from the deep south counties. That’s very troubling.
We have been fortunate in years past to have a strong and unified bloc of southern West Virginia lawmakers in Charleston who have been able to put their political differences aside in order to fight for what is best for the deep south counties. We hope that will still be the case after Wednesday.
But at the moment, there is political chaos in Charleston. And that’s unfortunate. We need our lawmakers to be focused on moving the state, and the deep south counties, forward. We need unity in Charleston.
Will this new leadership team work? Or are the deep south counties getting the shaft? Time will tell. But we are cautiously optimistic and hopeful that things will work out. Kessler pledged Monday to help fight for the deep south counties, and projects of importance to our region.
But If things don’t work out, and if southern West Virginia suffers, the voters of the deep south region will ultimately have the final say during the next election cycle. And as we saw last November, an angry electorate can and will demand change.
Editorials
January 11, 2011
Power shift: Lawmakers must work toward unity
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