Candidates and Community

It takes a lot of time, commitment, money, and effort to run for office and I respect anyone who takes the plunge and follows through with fundraising, door to door walking, attendance at fairs and festivals, and anything else necessary.

That being said, some candidates tend to earn more respect than others from their communities. Those are the ones that didn't just start caring about community because they ran, but ran for office because they cared about their communities.

One great example is Harley Staggers Sr. Almost everyone has a story about his commitment to this region before and after his election as congressman. He taught kids to play ball, helped the sick find doctors in the middle of the night, and commuted to and from work in Washington most days. Remember, that was prior to four lane highways, too. His son keeps that family tradition alive by coaching middle school basketball in Keyser.

You see other candidates around the state with that same mentality. Charles Minimah and his wife are both running for the Legislature from districts in Charleston on the Republican ticket. They run a small business and have been active for many years in promoting black heritage in the Kanawha Valley. Locally you see Gary Howell active in Rotary, Rose Ann Maine in Kiwanis, and all our legislators, Dave Sypolt, Ruth Rowan, and Allen Evans, contributing by sponsoring livestock at the fair. You see them at the community dinners and gun bashes in and out of the political season. School Board candidate and recent addition to the county Republican executive committee, Butch Wahl has helped raise thousands of dollars for the Keyser High School athletic complex. They show their support for local fundraising by purchasing tickets and attending events whenever possible.