Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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January 10, 2012

West Virginia lieutenant governor: Legislators consider new post

By MANNIX PORTERFIELD for the Daily Telegraph

CHARLESTON — Hoping to avoid the legal battles and election costs that haunted West Virginia only a year ago, lawmakers took the first step Monday in creating the post of lieutenant governor.

Without dissent, such a bill exited Judiciary Subcommittee C on the second leg Monday of January interims meetings.

Even with unanimous approval of the bill, one panelist, Delegate John Pino, D-Fayette, urged caution as lawmakers deal with the matter in the upcoming legislative session.

Difficulties arose after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin moved into the governor’s mansion, succeeding former Gov. Joe Manchin, once he was elected to replace the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.

Court cases led the state Supreme Court to order a special election for governor, which cost several million dollars for both primary and general election balloting.

Under the bill passed out by the subcommittee, the lieutenant governor would move into the chief executive’s office if the governor became disabled or otherwise disqualified from serving out his term.

“There are some questions that will come out in this debate,” Pino predicted afterward.

“And we’d better be very careful how we word that and put it on the ballot for the people.”

As amended by Delegate Linda Longstreth, D-Marion, the bill specifies that if a vacancy occurs, the lieutenant governor automatically ascends to the top post and he, in turn, names his successor, but the appointee must be confirmed by both the Senate and House of Delegates.

“I think all we’re trying to do is make it conform with the federal level,” she explained afterward, noting this follows the rule in force when a vice president is elevated to the White House.

“We’re just trying to keep it like the federal level, and bring it down to the state level so we’re not different. I think this is a good thing.

“If they understand it’s like the president and vice president, it makes it so much simpler.”

Tomblin emerged as the Democratic nominee in a crowded primary field last spring, then narrowly beat a Republican rival, Morgantown businessman Bill Maloney, in the Oct. 4 general election.

The balloting allowed Tomblin to finish the final year of Manchin’s second term, meaning another election for governor will be held in this presidential election year.

Pino said he wants to avoid any political maneuvering that would allow a governor-lieutenant team from switching roles after eight years.

“We want to make sure we don’t get a ‘Dynamic Duo’ in there,” the veteran Fayette County lawmaker said.

Otherwise, he said, the concept of having a lieutenant governor would avert some of the problems that surfaced last year.

Obviously, Pino said, when the two candidates run as a team, the stronger one would seek the governorship, while the other would be in the lesser role.

“You have to consider, since the governor candidate is picking his running mate, then maybe the House and Senate should look over that,” Pino said, if a vacancy develops and a new lieutenant governor is picked.

“There might be some basis for that.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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