WV Election Filing Period Comes to a Close

Tonight is the final night of the candidate filing period for West Virginia's 2006 elections. Candidates must file their certificates of candidacy in person by midnight tonight at the Secretary of State's office if filing to run for a multicounty office or until the close of business at the county clerk's office for a county office or single-county legislative district. Candidates may also file by mail if the envelope has today's postmark. If vacancies remain on the ballot, political party executive committees will be able to choose nominees until the day before the primary election.

Every election year, the final night of filing always produces interesting news. At this hour the question remains, "Will House Speaker Bob Kiss run again?" Kiss, D-Raleigh/Kanawha, has been very tight-lipped on whether he will seek reelection from his Beckley-based district despite his non-legislative job being in Charleston, his family living in Charleston, and--most damaging to his case for being a legal Raleigh County resident--has his children enrolled in a Charleston preschool.

UPDATE: Kiss retires, see above post.

The 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary to select the candidate who Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito will trounce in November appears to be the ultimate political freak show. The candidates in this race are:

• South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb, who will win the backing of Moveon.org and other ultra-left wing groups for his "progressive" ideology, support for abortion, and ardent pacifism.
• Former state Democratic Chairman and federal prosecutor Mike Callaghan, who looks exactly like a James Carville clone.
• Delegate Mark Hunt, D-Kanawha, who was the financier of an infamous cloning lab operated at the old Nitro High School about 5 years ago by the Raelians and once sought to have his late son cloned.

Moving down to legislative races, the race for the House of Delegates in the infamous 19th District (Boone/Lincoln/Logan/Putnam) appeared to finally be emerging from the longstanding corruption that has resulted in numerous local elected officials and political operatives pleading guilty to a wide variety of federal election fraud-related charges. That was until tonight, when disgraced former Logan County prosecuting Attorney Mark Hobbs, D-Logan, filed. Hobbs was elected county prosecutor in 1992 and served less than 2 years in office. His early departure from office was the result of his law license being suspended for 5 years for bribing the late, infamous former Logan County Circuit Judge Ned Grubb.

Hobbs received immunity from federal prosecutors for his testimony at Grubb's 1992 federal corruption trial. Grubb, who was well-known for "delivering the best justice money could buy," was convicted and died in prison. Among other crimes committed by Judge Grubb, he once told a political rally, in the presence of TV cameras that caught his speech on tape, "If you vote for my friend Oval Adams for sheriff and you come before my court, you'll get mercy. If you don't vote for my friend Oval Adams for sheriff and you come before my court, you'll get justice." Adams did win the election but, like Grubb, also went to federal prison.