CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two state senators from Kanawha County are expected to resign their seats Monday with the start of the Morrisey administration and new terms for members of the state Board of Public Works.
Senator Mark Hunt, R-Kanawha, is the new state auditor who will take his oath of office Monday while Senator Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, has agreed to be new Governor Patrick Morrisey’s revenue secretary.
The Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee will be tasked with submitting names for the seats to Morrisey for his selection.
KCREC Chairwoman Dianna Graves said the committee won’t have any problem coming up with names for the open seats.
“There’s so much interest in these seats already, it’s crazy the number of people who have called me and texted and emailed about these two seats,” Graves said. “We’re going to have three people on these two lists.”
Graves said that the process for each vacancy is little different because the 8th Senatorial District represents Kanawha County alone while the 17th District represents several different counties.
She said that the state GOP, in both instances will announce that there is a vacancy.
“Usually, what the process is, the state GOP will post an announcement on their website, they may use some other forms to notify people that the vacancy has happened and encourage them to apply,” Graves said.
After the GOP receives resumes and applications they will be given to a vacancy committee from the 17th District, who will then conduct interviews at the state GOP headquarters. Once they’ve interviewed the candidates they will discuss and narrow it down to three names. Those names will be then submitted to the governor.
As for the 8th district, Graves said she does things a little differently.
“I chose a subcommittee, list of people that I put together from the voting committee members and that subcommittee will meet,” Graves said. “The same thing happens where the state GOP posts on their website, but they will forward all the resumes to me though. I’ll get my subcommittee to meet at the state GOP headquarters, we’ll interview all of the candidates, we’ll narrow it down to the list of three and submit it to the governor.”
Both the vacancy committee and Graves have 15 days, from the time the vacancy happened to submit their list of three names to the governor, in which he will have five days to select the candidates he wants to fill the spot. However, if either committee fails to submit their lists on time the governor will still have the five days to select someone.
The vacancies come a month before the legislature’s regular session begins on Feb. 12.