repubgazette6-19-07bigbrotherwvearlystartmojotobacco

If it's (insert month and year here) it must be election season.

Like the rest of the nation. West Virginia candidates are wasting no time lining up for the 2008 election season, despite the fact the filing deadline is six months away.

Of all the major sports, only the NBA has less of an off season than politics. But it is, as they say, what it is, and candidates who dare wait until the last minute (January) risk losing valuable ground in building named identification and raising campaign funds.

Of course, the presidential campaigns have led the trend toward earlier start times, and states have done their part by moving primaries, caucuses or conventions to as early a date as possible while still staying within the calendar year of the election itself.

On the presidential side, it is entirely possible we will know who the Republican and Democrat nominees are before March -- a full eight months before the General Election.

Things are already getting interesting in West Virginia in regard to statewide races. The governor's race isn't on many radar screens, with Joe Manchin wearing the armor of invicibility. But Jefferson County's Bob Adams, a candidate in 2006 for House of Delegates, has stepped up on the GOP side, and proved himself capable of winning counties in his home area in 2004 when his name was on the ballot for state treasurer.

(I hate to even refer to Adams' treasurer's race as a campaign. In 2004, the state GOP was intent on filling the ballot, and with no one stepping up for treasurer, party officials approached Adams and asked if he would put his name on the ballot. He agreed, but made it clear he had no time to run an actual campaign. Still, he won eight counties vs. entrenched incumbent John Perdue. For the 2008 gubernatorial race, Adams is planning an aggressive campaign, and it will be interesting to see if the Eastern Panhandle again gives him a good starting base.)

There are a couple of other candidates who have filed for governor. Joseph Oliverio II is listed as a Republican, but in 2004 the state GOP disavowed Oliverio after he made several outrageous statements, including saying he would turn southern West Virginia into a drive-through zoo. And Butch Paugh of Nicholas County has filed as a member of the Constitution Party.

The Democrats are preparing for an interesting campaign for Secretary of State, with Natalie Tennant, wife of state Sen. Erik Wells, running again after her 2004 primary loss to Ken Hechler, and Delegate Joe DeLong of Hancock County also lining up.

The early betting is on Tennant winning the primary, based mainly on the same public familiarity that shoo'd in hubbie and former TV co-host Wells to the Senate. But DeLong might be better funded and have more support from legislative arm-twisters.

The GOP side is wide open, with no pre-candidates and with incumbent Betty Ireland

still mulling a state Senate race instead of another run for SOS -- even though she would likely hold the SOS seat against either Tennant or DeLong.

Sen. Clark Barnes is rumored to be interested, but people who received a recent fundraising letter from Barnes said it read more like he was running for re-election to the Senate. Ireland's Chief of Staff, Ben Beakes, has been encouraged by many to consider the race himself, but so far won't bite.

A Mountain Party candidate, Dave Rao of Elkins, has also filed for the SOS race.

Another good campaign will be the one to unseat Darrell McGraw from his Attorney General post. Someone is likely to accomplish that feat, but whether it's a Democrat or a Republican will be the interesting thing to watch. Kanawha Delegate Corey Palumbo is rumored to be considering taking on McGraw in the primary, but Palumbo is also mentioned in connection with other races, too.

On the GOP side, Hiram Lewis can't resist misinterpreting the results of his narrow loss to McGraw in 2004 on the coattails of the campaign against Darrell's brother, but Charleston attorney Mike Stuart is seriously considering jumping in, and while Stuart lost his 2006 campaign for House of Delegates in the 30th District, he still managed to receive more votes for Delegate than any other Republican in the state, win or lose. Stuart so far is filed as an "undeclared" candidate.

With two seats up for election on the Supreme Court, rumors are rife. Incumbent Spike Maynard would face his toughest challenge in his own Democrat primary, but if he survives that, he's in good shape for November. The other incumbent up for election, Larry Starcher, was thought to be backing away from the race a few months ago, but lately many court watchers think he's going to go for it.

A rumor floating around is that the trial lawyers and the state Chamber of Commerce are looking for a "consensus candidate" they can agree on to take out Starcher, reportedly so they can avoid a war with each other that would harm each side's anti-Starcher candidate.

Why would the trial lawyers target the tort-friendly Starcher? Because they think Starcher is extremely vulnerable and likely to be defeated next November if he survives his own primary. The state Chamber, meanwhile, is so ineffective that to call it a pale imitation of a real Chamber of Commerce is an insult to the shade of pale.

It's also interesting to look at the candidates who have filed as "undeclared," leaving their options open, and they include such diverse Republicans as Del. Larry Border, Sen. Don Caruth, Del. Kelli Sobonya, and Del. Linda Sumner. Democrats in this category include Sen. Billy Wayne Bailey (who said he was running for Secretary of State, but may be having second thoughts), Del. John Doyle, Sen. Jeff Kessler, Del. Harold Michael and Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin.

While I have my differences with Charleston Mayor Danny Jones, I have no doubt of the purity and sincerity of his reasons for wanting to increase the city's user fee for the purpose of installing cameras all over the city to deter crime.

But the last thing society needs is Big Brother watching every move made by citizens once they step outside their own homes. Catching criminals might be one result of surveillance cameras on every street corner, but another consequence is the activities of every law-abiding citizen being captured and monitored as well. Mayor Jones declared this week, "Video surveillance is the wave of the future." Indeed it is, along with loss of privacy in almost every walk of life, all in the name of crime prevention. We should oppose it where we can.