Statehouse Beat: In election year, politics influences all

[theHandpuppet]

The Charleston Gazette
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Statehouse Beat: In election year, politics influences all

At the Capitol, nothing happens in a vacuum, and in an election year, every action has a touch of politics to it — possibly including the state Supreme Court’s writ of mandamus ordering that Marie Sprouse-McDavid be allowed to fill a vacancy on the House of Delegates’ 35th District ballot, created when Delegate Suzette Raines withdrew her candidacy.

In its decision, the court faulted the State Election Commission for failing to apply a fairly obscure 1992 court opinion clarifying that, after the commission allows a candidate to withdraw, it is mandated to authorize that a replacement be appointed.

However, reality is not quite as cut and dried as the court opined, with the key difference in the current case being that Raines never appeared before the Election Commission seeking to withdraw; instead, her withdrawal was a condition of having the lawsuit against her in Kanawha Circuit Court dropped...

An important question is, which Republican benefited most from the court’s ruling, Marie Sprouse-McDavid or Shelley Moore Capito?

See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141004/ARTICLE/141009698/1419#sthash.z4vaTWfR.dpuf