Lots of candidates for U.S. Senate primary

Three Democrats and ten Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in the Special Senate Primary Election set for Saturday, August 28.

Voters will choose the party nominees for the General Election on November 2.

The November winner will finish the last two years and two months of the term of longtime U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, who died in late June.

Democratic Primary
Candidates in the Democratic Primary are Ken Hechler, Sheirl Fletcher and Joe Manchin.

If elected in November, Manchin would resign the governor’s post. The last two years of the governor’s term would be filled by Earl Ray Tomblin. As president of the State Senate, Tomblin is also lieutenant governor.
Hechler, now 95, is former U.S. Congressman and West Virginia Secretary of State.

Republican Primary
Candidates in the Republican Primary are: Thomas Ressler, Harry Bruner, Frank Kubic, John Raese, Daniel Scott Rebich, Kenneth Culp, Albert Howard, Lynette Kennedy McQuain, Scott H. Williams and Mac Warner.
The best known of the 10 Republicans is John Raese, a Morgantown businessman who has run unsuccessfully for governor and against both Byrd and Jay Rockefeller for a U.S. Senate seat in the past.
Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito had been asked by some Republicans to run, but announced last week that she would not seek the Senate seat.

Early voting
In addition to the Democrat and Republican Primary candidates, Jesse Johnson filed for the Mountain Party nomination. Johnson, who is unopposed for the nomination, ran unsuccessfully for the Senate seat against Byrd in 2006.

Early voting for the Special U.S. Senate Primary Election will begin on Friday, August 20 and continue through Wednesday, August 25 at the County Clerk’s Office.