The candidates for Kanawha County Assessor will be joining us at 11 a.m. Check out the live blog to see what they have to say about why they should be elected to the office. Democrat Sallie Robinson will be attending as will Republican Forest Carper Sr. Both are vying for the position currently held by Democrat Phyllis Gatson who is not seeking re-election.
Today the Daily Mail editorial board will meet with candidates from the newly-redrawn 22nd House of Delegates district. The district mostly covers Lincoln County, but also includes residents of Logan, Boone and Putnam counties.
It’s a two-seat district so four candidates, two Democrats and two Republicans, are in the running.
So far only incumbent Democrat Josh Stowers, of Lincoln County, and Republican challenger Gary Johngrass, also of Lincoln, have responded to the Daily Mail’s invitation to the meeting.
Jeff Eldridge, a Lincoln Democrat who once served as the 19th district’s delegate, is also coming. Republican Michel Moffatt, of Putnam County, is also here.
As always, we will live blog and live stream the meeting. Stay tuned for that.
The Daily Mail’s editorial board will meet with candidates for state treasurer this morning, incumbent John Perdue, a Democrat, and Mike Hall, his Republican challenger.
Perdue has served as treasurer since 1998. He previously worked for the state Department of Agriculture and was a senior aide to Gov. Gaston Caperton before winning his current office.
Hall, a state senator, is the current Senate Minority Leader. Before joining the Senate, he was a member of the House of Delegates. He served six terms there, spending time as minority chairman of the House’s Finance Committee and Minority Whip.
We will be live-blogging and live-streaming this meeting, beginning at 11 a.m. If you have any questions you’d like us to ask the candidates, tweet at me (@ZackHarold) or our managing editor Brad McElhinny (@BradMcElhinny). Stay tuned.
The Daily Mail editorial board will meet with state Agriculture Commissioner candidates at 11 a.m. today.
This is one of the more interesting races this election season. For only the second time in four decades, longtime commissioner Gus Douglass will not appear on the ballot. Democrats put up five candidates in the primary election. Walt Helmick, a longtime state senator from Pocahontas County and chairman of the state Senate Finance Committee, won the vast majority of votes.
Republican challenger Kent Leonhardt was his party’s only candidate for ag commissioner. He’s a retired Marine who currently runs a sheep, cattle and goat farm in Monongalia County. Leonhardt is touting his experience in farming as well as management.
Leonhardt also is campaigning on his opponent’s lack of experience in traditional farming.
Helmick does not own any livestock (though he’s planning to start a deer or elk operation in the near future) and doesn’t raise any crops. He owns a successful water bottling operation, powered by a natural spring on his property.
State law says the agriculture commissioner should be a “practical farmer” and have made agriculture his or her “chief business” for 10 years before being elected. Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom ruled earlier this year the “practical farmer” requirement is unconstitutional and unenforceable, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from constantly deriding Helmick as a “fake farmer.”
Leonhardt also has repeatedly challenged Helmick to debates, though the Democrat has not accepted any of those challenges.
Helmick reversed course last week and agreed to a debate…only to be criticized by the Leonhardt campaign for “flip-flopping.”
This should be an interesting.
We will be live blogging and live streaming today’s editorial board meeting with the Kanawha County Commission candidates. Democratic incumbent and Commission President Kent Carper and Republican challenger Stephen D. Snead will be joining us today at 11 a.m. Tune in and check out what they have to say about the issues facing the county.
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It’s Halloween time at the Charleston Daily Mail office. We’ve got a fake rat and a bowl of candy corn on our office manager’s desk, a light-activated ghost living in our refrigerator and a bunch of creepy-looking people roaming the newsroom.
Okay, one of those things isn’t that unusual.
We’re also trying to get some spooky, scary stuff in our newspaper. We need your help.
Kathaleen Thomas, assistant manager of Magic Makers on Washington St., sets up a Halloween window display. (Photo by Tom Hindman, copyright 2012, Charleston Daily Mail)
Remember our #WVBucketList project for West Virginia Day? We used responses from our readers on Twitter and Facebook to build a list of 55 things ever West Virginian needs to do before they kick the bucket.
Now, we want your nominations for the state’s scariest places.
Everybody’s heard of the ghosts roaming the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville and the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston. We’d like you to tell us the ghost stories other people may not know about, even if it’s a creepy house at the end of your street. Of course the scarier your story is, the better.
There a few ways to contribute. You can use the #HauntedWV on Twitter, or comment on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/charlestondailymail) or use the comment section below to tell your tale.
If you’ve got a really good story that’s too long for either of those forums, just email me directly at zack.harold@dailymail.com.
We’ll compile the best responses in a special story that will run in the Oct. 31 paper.
Stay spooky, West Virginia.
Twitter is all about food today, be it discussion of gubernatorial candidates’ preferred hotdog toppings or suggestions for new Tudor’s biscuits. But the biggest Epicurean rumor relates to everyone’s favorite West Virginia-based gourmet pizza chain, Pies and Pints.
Rumors have circulated for a few weeks that P&P might open a Morgantown store. Those rumors reached a fever pitch on Tuesday.
But the Daily Mail has learned, in an interview with Charleston location general manager Chris Warner, there are no concrete plans to open a Pies and Pints location in WVU land.
“That is something we have considered. There’s nothing set in stone at this time,” Warner told me this morning.
Right now, the company is focusing most of its efforts on a Worthington, Ohio location. That store is set to open in November.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones talks about the shootings of three people at a downtown bar early Saturday morning
Video streaming by Ustream
Video streaming by Ustream
Today the Daily Mail’s editorial board will meet with House of Delegate candidates from the 13th and 14th districts, which cover Putnam and Mason counties. The meeting will include Democrats Brady Paxton and Helen Martin from the 13th district and Jimmie Wood, Jr. from the 14th district, as well as Republicans Brian “Scotty” Scott and Scott Cadle from the 13th and Jim Butler from the 14th.
I’ll post live updates from the meeting beginning at 11 a.m. Stay tuned.
West Virginia native Randy Moss returned to the NFL this season after a year away. This week on NBC’s Sunday Night Football national broadcast, he returned to the spotlight by uttering the familiar introduction, “Randy Moss, Rand University.”
This is the 7-Eleven in Rand. Some say this is the location of “Rand University”
