CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Twelve years is the term for the first West Virginia Supreme Court justice to be elected in a nonpartisan race and MetroNews was projecting Beth Walker, a Morgantown attorney, will be the winner of Tuesday’s race.
See the Supreme Court numbers from MetroNews here.
Walker was making her second run for the state Supreme Court after losing a possible seat in 2008 by less than one percentage point.
At that time, she ran as a Republican. During this race, Walker was endorsed by leading Republicans, including U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and 3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.).
She received additional endorsements from the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, West Virginia State Medical Association, the West Virginia Farm Bureau, the West Virginia Business and Industry Council and the West Virginia Coal Association among others.
Walker works as associate general counsel for the West Virginia University Health System. Previously, she was a partner in the Bowles Rice law firm where she focused on labor and employment law.
Walker was one of four candidates in the Supreme Court race.
Justice Brent Benjamin sought re-election 12 years after first being elected during what turned into one of the most expensive and nastiest judicial campaigns in U.S. history. Outside interests, Benjamin said, “drowned out the candidates” that year.
During what was a partisan election, Benjamin became the first Republican elected to the West Virginia Supreme Court is more than 80 years.
Benjamin served as chief justice in 2009 and again in 2013. Prior to beginning his 12 year term, he worked as principal attorney with Robinson and McElwee in Charleston.
Bill Wooton, a Beckley attorney, served for more than 30 years with the U.S. Army Reserve and West Virginia National Guard and for 26 years at the State Capitol.
He had three separate stints in the state House of Delegates beginning in 1976 that included time as House Majority Leader. In the state Senate, he served from 1990-2000 and was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I ran as a Democrat all those years and I remain a Democrat,” Wooton told MetroNews.
Earlier this year, Walker unsuccessfully challenged the public campaign financing awarded to both Wooton and Justice Benjamin.
Wayne King, a Clay attorney, was running for his first political office in the 2016 primary with his Supreme Court campaign. He called himself the “wild card” in the race.
Raised in Belle, King has been practicing law for 45 years in Clay.
Forty years after first being elected to the state Supreme Court as a Democrat, former Justice Darrell McGraw, who later served five terms as West Virginia’s attorney general, was again seeking a seat on the High Court in Tuesday’s primary election.
The term for the new Supreme Court justice, along with the terms for all of the circuit judges, magistrates and family court judges elected in West Virginia Tuesday, begins on Jan. 1, 2017.