“In response to the vacancy by the incumbent in the 91st House District, the Berkeley County Democratic Executive Committee will be overseeing the nomination of three highly qualified candidates for the unexpired term. These individuals will be forwarded to the Governor for consideration within the 15 day timeframe per WV Code 3-10-5. An emergency meeting of the BCDEC will be announced in the coming days for potential appointee interviews and selection,” said the Berkeley County, West Virginia Democratic Party in a statement on Wednesday, the end result of the meltdown by now-former state Delegate Joe DeSoto who threatened to murder state House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and other Republicans after he “had a vision to destroy them from the angel of Moroni” within days after the freshman lawmaker was sworn-in following his election win.
DeSoto ran and won as a Republican but in what was possibly some terroristic fuck-the-world move, switch his registration to Democratic just before cops arrested him over threats. West Virginia has no special elections and replacements are appointed by the governor – who can select only from a choice of one out of three candidates submitted by the local party, thus handing the seat to a Democrat. A real one and not a criminally insane freak. Now the state House of Delegates will, until at least 2027, have a 90-10 Republican-to-Democratic super-duper-majority instead of 89-11. Yay?