Former West Virginia Secretary of State and U.S. Rep. Ken Hechler says his health is improving and he hopes that he will soon be released from the hospital.
Ken Hechler’s wife, Carol Hechler, said the 101-year-old was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday because he was experiencing some internal bleeding and had a seizure. He was eventually transferred to another hospital in Maryland.
Carol Hechler said her husband was in a very serious condition on Thursday. But she said Friday that his health had improved significantly and he’s “happy and perky and anxious to be home.”
Ken Hechler said he’s “feeling good for a guy who’s only 101.” He said he hopes the doctor will let him return to his home in Romney on Saturday.
The first woman to hold a statewide office in West Virginia, Helen Holt, passed away Sunday at the age of 101. Holt died of heart failure in Boca Raton,…
The first woman to hold a statewide office in West Virginia, Helen Holt, passed away Sunday at the age of 101. Holt died of heart failure in Boca Raton, Florida.
Among her many accomplishments, Holt may be best known for being the first female Secretary of State in West Virginia, appointed to the office by Gov. Cecil Underwood in 1957 after the passing of Secretary D. Pitt O’Brien.
At the time, Holt was serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates, filling the seat of her late husband, Rush Holt, Sr., who had passed. Rush Holt had also served a term in the United States Senate representing West Virginia.
Upon her appointment, Helen Holt was the only woman to have held a statewide office until 1988 when Chief Justice Margaret Workman was elected to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
From 1959 until 1960, Holt served as West Virginia’s Assistant Commissioner of Public Institutions, overseeing women’s prisons and homes for the elderly. In 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed her to implement a newly authorized program in the Federal Housing Administration to set standards for long-term care facilities and to provide insured mortgages for the construction of nursing homes meeting those standards.
Her work setting up that program and advancing other housing programs for the elderly led to her reappointment to positions in the Department of Housing and Urban Development by six subsequent presidents, from Kennedy through Reagan.
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Helen Holt being sworn in to office as Secretary of State in 1957.
Holt was predeceased by her husband Rush Holt, Sr. and daughter Jane Holt Seale. She is survived by her son, Rush Holt, who served as the U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District from 1999 to 2015, and his wife, Margaret Lancefield, of Hopewell, N.J.
Memorial services will be held in Boca Raton, Florida, on Sunday, July 19 and in Washington, DC on Saturday, August 15.
Natalie Tennant is eyeing another term as West Virginia’s secretary of state.
On Tuesday, the Democrat filed pre-candidacy paperwork to run for a third term as secretary of state.
In a crushing 2014 election for Democrats across the state and country, Tennant lost a U.S. Senate bid against Republican Shelley Moore Capito.
With Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin hitting term limits, Tennant’s name had popped up in discussions about next year’s open governor’s race.
In a 2011 special election, Tennant came in third in the Democratic primary for the governorship.
Filing for pre-candidacy lets someone start raising and spending money for the election. On pre-candidacy forms, people can pick an office or remain undeclared.
This election, West Virginia Republicans made historic gains and the state’s voters set a low mark.
A paltry 37.3 percent of registered voters cast ballots for Tuesday’s election. The secretary of state’s website says the turnout is the lowest for a regular general election since at least 1950.
For the first midterm election since its introduction here in 2002, early voting dropped this year.
The next lowest general election turnout in the last six decades was 40 percent in the 1998 midterms. The secretary of state’s numbers only date back to 1950.
The previous three midterms, turnout had stayed fairly consistent. In 2010, turnout was 43.4 percent, compared to 41.6 percent in 2006 and 42.4 percent in 2002.
The Secretary of State's Office has scrubbed plans to charge fees to obtain public filings for businesses and organizations.The Charleston Gazette reports…
The Secretary of State’s Office has scrubbed plans to charge fees to obtain public filings for businesses and organizations.
The Charleston Gazette reports the change scheduled to begin Sept. 4 was rescinded by Secretary of State Natalie Tennant’s office Thursday.
Secretary of State spokesman Jake Glance says Tennant has directed her office to develop other solutions to ensure the public can secure business licensing records, while allowing employees to serve businesses.
The new fees had called for a $5 charge to have a document sent by email and $10 to have a document faxed.
The fee proposal came after some entities requested a large amount of documents at one time after online records were removed from the Secretary of State’s website in June.
A Benwood City Council member didn’t have any opponents in this month’s election. But his re-election is in doubt after his name was mistakenly left off the ballot.
Curtis Mele is one of four council members who were unopposed in the May 13 election.
The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register reports that the ballot mistakenly listed Councilman Chuck Terry as the candidate in Mele’s district. Mele’s name didn’t appear on the ballot.
Mayor Ed Kuca says City Attorney Eric Gordon has sought advice from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office on how the city should proceed.
Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Jake Glance says the election results have been certified. He says a court likely would decide the matter.
