Senate Campaign Issues and Background

 Here are nine (9) of the reasons that I am running for the United States Senate from West Virginia in the Democratic primary in 2026:

1. I want the national Democratic Party to become the party of the  working class.
2. I am a progressive Democrat. 
3. I have been a social and political activist since I was a teenager 60 years ago. 
4. I am a native and resident of West Virginia.
5. I have already served the people of West Virginia for 29 years as a state employee.
6. I understand federal and state law, including complicated federal and state constitutional issues, and have appeared before the West Virginia state supreme court about 30 times and also before federal courts several times in my  legal career. 
7. I want to restore civility to politics. 
8. I prefer compromise to grandstanding.  
9. I want to help, and not hinder, the Democratic candidates in West Virginia who would be below me on the Democratic ticket on the ballot in the November 2026 general election.

 I have not held elected public office.  However, I served the people of West Virginia for about 29 years between 1972 and 2005 as a West Virgina state employee, as follows:  

1. Highway Inspector Trainee for the West Virginia Department of Highways from August 1972 through July 1973
2. Field Representative for the West Virginia Human Rights Commission from October 1974 through June 1975
3. Staff Attorney in the Legal Division of the West Virginia Department of Highways from July 1978 through January 1981
4. Staff Attorney in the Legal Division and then in the Motor Carrier Division of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia from February 1981 through part of 1989
5. Deputy Director of the Motor Carrier Division and then of the Transportation Division of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia from the remainder of 1989 through December 2005

 I am a graduate of South Charleston High School (1968), Yale University (B. A., Political Science 1972), and the West Virgina University College of Law (Juris Doctor, 1978).   I also took graduate courses in Environmental Studies at the West Virginia College of Graduate Studies (on the campus of what is now West Virginia State University) in 1973.

I am a retired West Virginia state employee.  I have been an active member of the West Virginia State Bar for almost 48 years.  I also did a small amount of private sector work as an attorney after I retired from state government at the end of 2005.

 I belong to, or have belonged to, dozens of organizations in my life.   Among them were or are the following six (6) organizations:  

1.  American Lung Association of West Virginia, Inc., on which I served as a member of the Board of Directors and as an officer for a total of 15 years (from 1979 through 1991 and from 1992 through 1995).
2. West Virginia Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, Inc., of which I was an incorporator in 1991 and also a member of the Board of Directors.
3. Glendale Pool, Inc. (a nonprofit corporation that operated a swimming pool in South Charleston, West Virginia), on which I served as a member of the Board of Directors in 2009 and 2010 and as the Membership Director from 2009 through 2015.
4. West Virginia Electric Auto Association, of which I have been an active member since 2017.
5. Kanawha County Democratic Executive Committee, on which I served as a committeeman from 2006 through 2015, and briefly as Parliamentarian.
6. South Charleston Democratic Executive Committee, on which I have served from 2011 through the present both as a ward committeeman and as Secretary, and also as Acting Chairman from about 2021 to the present.