Trending
NEW CUMBERLAND-All the Republicans needed to do to win control of the West Virginia House of Delegates, after 83 years as the minority party, was pick up four additional seats.
On Tuesday, they ended up gaining an estimated 17 seats, according to unofficial statewide results, giving Republicans a veto-proof supermajority in the House.
Voter turnout was estimated at 37.3 percent, with 457,151 ballots cast statewide, according to West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant.
Helping Republicans gain an apparent 64-36 majority in the House were Hancock County Republicans Pat McGeehan and Mark Zatezalo, who defeated longtime Democratic incumbent Randy Swartzmiller and two-term Democratic incumbent Ronnie Jones.
McGeehan, a District 1 state delegate from 2008-2010, won with 27 percent of the vote (4,551 votes), while Zatezalo, a political newcomer with a background in hydrogeology, was the top vote-getter with 30 percent of the vote (5,087 votes), according to unofficial results with 25 Hancock County precincts and seven Brooke County precincts reporting.
Historically Democratic, District 1 includes all of Hancock County, the city of Weirton and a small part of northern Brooke County.
McGeehan, 35, of Chester, said he was helped by name recognition from his previous term in the House but that he didn’t rely on that.
“We worked hard. We knocked on doors and let the people know where I stand,” he said. “I’m pleased with the results. I’m here to listen and to help all the people in our district, regardless of whether they voted my way or not.”
McGeehan won despite what he characterized as a barrage of negative advertising-direct mail pieces, TV and radio commercials, “robocalls”-directed against him in the run-up to Election Day.
He was not the only District 1 candidate to express dismay over the proliferation of attack ads.
Swartzmiller, despite running “the same type of campaign I ran for the past 14 years,” said he was disappointed with the involvement of outside interest groups.
“There were a lot of negative mailers. I thought that was unfortunate,” he said.
Faceless political committees such as Grow WV Inc., Go West Virginia Inc., Honest West Virginians and Protect West Virginia spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative campaign materials, according to campaign finance reports filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State.
The latter, affiliated with the Washington, D.C.-based Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, spent $166,000 statewide, according the Secretary of State’s office.
Expenditures paid for opposition research conducted by the D.C.-based Grindstone Research ($22,000); a direct mail campaign conducted by Mad Dog Mail ($104,581), a “Democratic persuasion mail firm” based in Fernandina Beach, Fla.; and digital marketing handled by the D.C.-based Rising Tide Interactive ($40,000), according to campaign finance reports.
McGeehan, without naming names, said he is willing to “forgive” the people responsible for the negative ads. “Sometimes they just don’t know any better,” he said.
Zatezalo, 62, of Weirton, said his newcomer status made him less of a target. Zatezalo’s campaign literature stressed his scientific credentials as a geologist, his understanding of “the science of coal and its energy potential,” and his willingness to “take on” the Environmental Protection Agency.
“People are making political decisions based on science right now. If that’s the way it’s going to be, then you ought to have somebody (in office) who can explain the analysis,” he said. “These are decisions that affect all of us, especially those of us in West Virginia.”
Picking up yard signs on Wednesday, Zatezalo reflected on all the “walking and knocking on doors” he did during the campaign. “That was a very positive experience for me, even when I ran into negative people,” he said.