Tag: House of Delegates

BOE Recommends Lawmakers Revisit State Aid Formula

A committee appointed by the West Virginia Board of Education has spent the past 18 months studying how they can better provide services regionally to the county school systems. They presented the final report to lawmakers yesterday which included a recommendation for the upcoming session.

Tom Campbell, a member of the West Virginia Board of Education, recommends senators and delegates take a second look at the state aid formula this year. That formula determines how much state funding each county receives based on the number of students in their schools.

Campbell argued smaller counties are having trouble providing basic services because as their student population shrinks, so do their state dollars.

“There’s so much variation in the state,” noted Campbell, “and what’s been coming so much more different than it used to be is the difference in size of the small counties to the large counties. It’s a larger disparity, and the small counties are getting so small that there’s certain basic expenses that have to be provided.”

He says he’d like to see the legislature reconsider how much aid is going to those smaller counties regardless of the number of students they serve.

Meet Delegate-Elect for the 65th District, Jill Upson

On Election Day last week, Republican Jill Upson defeated Democrat Tiffany Lawrence for the House of Delegates in the 65th District.

Jill Upson was born in California. After marrying her husband who works in the military, they had to relocate every two years. Eleven years ago, she and her husband moved to Charles Town in Jefferson County. Upson decided then she didn’t want to live anywhere else.

“When we got to this area, I just fell in love with it, and I just decided I’m done, that’s it, I’m going to stay here,” Upson said, “And so he continued to receive orders, and move every two years, and I still stayed put. He’s been all over the place, but I stayed and raised my children in Jefferson County.”

Around 2009, after identifying as A-political for most of her life, Upson became interested in politics and specifically, Republican ideology. She started working with other candidates by volunteering and going door-to-door to interact with potential voters on their behalf. When the House of Delegates seat in the 65th District became available in 2012, Upson almost didn’t run.

“I initially said, no, that I wasn’t interested, and just through an entire series of events that occurred in my life, I decided that this was probably a good time to go ahead and give it a try.”

Upson lost in the 2012 election to Tiffany Lawrence, but this year the outcome was different. Her win surprised her.

“What happened was the day of the election, I was online looking at the different projections, and they said that I probably wouldn’t win, they said that the incumbent had a lot more money, and obviously incumbency is a benefit, and they just said that, you know, with the larger turnout that they were seeing, that they were thinking that I wasn’t going to win. So I was very surprised when I ended up winning by the margin with which I won, I mean that was really a pleasant surprise.”

Upson upset Lawrence with 56 percent of the total vote. She says she’ll stand for more conservative values in Charleston.

“Well I stand for fiscal conservative policies. I ran on enhancing education, restructuring our tax policy, on regulatory policies, and my tagline was ‘freedom and opportunity,’ so obviously individual freedom and economic opportunity.”

Upson says she has a list of things she wants to work on once she’s in office.

“The first thing I want to look at is, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce came out with several policies that they put forth during the last legislative session that they felt would help spur economic growth, so I’d like to work with my colleagues in the legislature to really look at ways that we can start to implement some of those policies.”

Her ultimate goal is to always remember the voters who put her in office. She says she wants to be open and listen to the people, keeping their needs in mind and the lines of communication open between the Eastern Panhandle and Charleston.

What the Third Parties Have to Offer in the Race for U.S. Senate

When voters take to the polling place this November, they’ll decide between five candidates vying for Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Most will recognize the names ‘Tennant’ and ‘Capito,’ but what about Baber, Buckley, and Hudok?

The three third party candidates for Senate, Bob Henry Baber of the Mountain Party, John Buckley of the Libertarian Party and Phil Hudok of the Constitution Party, talk about what they have to offer West Virginians when representing them at the federal level. 

They discuss the economy, the environment and healthcare, as well as why it’s important to include their voices in the overall debate.

Dr. Neil Berch of West Virginia University and Dr. George Davis of Marshall University discuss the history of third parties in the country and if including their voices help or hurts the political process.

Dave Boucher of the Charleston Daily Mail and Mandi Cardosi of the State Journal wrap up the show with a discussion of the Supreme Court’s decision this week to add a replacement candidate to the ballot in the House of Delegates 35th District race.

Our Children, Our Future Wraps Up Two-Day Symposium

The Our Children Our Future campaign wrapped up a two day symposium by taking over the West Virginia House of Delegates chamber. 

The final session of the symposium asked participants to act as delegates and advocate for the issues they want to see the legislature take up next year.

From funding for substance abuse treatment programs to expanding Medicaid to cover children’s mental health issues, advocates gave impassioned speeches about the issues they presented during forums for the symposium.

House Speaker Tim Miley opened the mock session by saying the group’s previous success is not because of the dollars they have to spend like some other groups, but because they show up in Charleston, in large numbers, to talk to their delegates and senators face to face about the issue that matter most to them.

“We need to continue to change the mindset of folks down here in Charleston to invest on the front end of things so you can save so much more on the back end,” he said.

In the fall, members of the Our Children, Our Future campaign will vote on the top ten issues they want to see the group present to the legislature in 2015. The group has successfully advocated for 14 bills that have passed the legislature since it formed two years ago.

Delegate Raines to Withdraw from House 35th District Race

A member of the House of Delegates will withdraw from the race for the 35th district amidst recent legal troubles and allegations related to her living situation.

Republican Kanawha County Delegate Suzette Raines was accused by the state Democratic Executive Committee for lying about where she lives. The committee also accused her of not filing campaign finance reports with the Secretary of State’s office or campaign disclosures with the state Ethics Commission.

The Ethics Commission confirmed Raines did file necessary paperwork but missed deadlines.

A second lawsuit against Raines was filed last week by her landlord, claiming she failed to pay $2,500 in rent and damaged the property. Raines claims she never signed a lease and did not damage the home.

Raines told the Charleston Daily Mail she was withdrawing from the race for “deeply personal reasons.” Her attorney said she would not resign from the seat, but hopes withdrawing from the race will help her avoid legal trouble.

She was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2012.

 

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