BECKLEY, W.Va. — Among the newcomers to political campaigns this year is District 29 House of Delegates candidate Brandon Steele (R-Raleigh).
The long-time Raleigh County resident, who practices law in Beckley, told MetroNews affiliate WJLS his experience dealing with the ever-worsening drug addiction crisis in southern West Virginia was a central reason he felt compelled to start his first campaign for state office, after witnessing the adverse effects of the illegal drug trade, as both a prosecutor and as an attorney in private practice.
“There’s not a class on that in law school, where they talk to you about how to deal with folks like that, and you get thrust into a lot of abuse and neglect cases, the foster care crisis, as well as criminal cases. And the vast majority of criminal cases (in southern West Virginia) revolve around the drug trade,” said Steele.
Steele also said he’s frustrated by what he sees as lenient sentencing guidelines at the state level for drug dealers, as compared to federal sentencing mandates.
“Right now, if you bring 20 lbs. of heroin into the state, you’re facing the same sentence of one-to-15 years that someone selling two hits of heroin is getting. So those people get an indeterminate sentence…the parole board’s looking at, they’re letting them out after a year, you’re dealing with them again,” he said.
Steele is a graduate of Mountain State University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. He received his law degree from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has practiced law in Southern West Virginia since 2014. He also is a former Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Raleigh County, where he was a member of the Veteran’s Court program.
Incumbent House of Delegates member Ricky Moye (D-Raleigh) has made job creation and business expansion a central theme of his campaign, and told WJLS he believes there are ways to make southern West Virginia more attractive to companies looking to relocate or expand, despite some geographical disadvantages.
“Most of the companies that have been relocating to West Virginia have been up north…they have more available land and more flat land. Here, in Raleigh County, a large portion of the land here is owned by out-of-state big land owners, and they don’t want to sell it. Just go try to buy a piece,” said Moye, adding that he believes smaller manufacturers could be convinced to set up shop in the region, if the right incentives from the state were made available to them.
“You just look around the Beckley area, here. We have pretty much everything business could want. We have roads, we have good water and sewer systems, we have infrastructure. Now, on the outlying areas, there can be some problems with infrastructure but those could be overcome, if we had somebody that was interested in coming and locating there,” he said.
Moye was born and raised in Raleigh County, and is a businessman and former coal miner. He attended Beckley College (later Mountain State University). Moye has been serving in the House of Delegates in District 29 since 2013. Previously, he was a delegate in District 27, serving consecutive terms beginning in 2007.