The announcement last week by Mike Stuart that he is leaving his position as West Virginia Republican Party Chairman after the Primary Election was a significant political story in the state. News outlets interviewed Stuart and solicited reaction from party regulars.
The comments were mixed. Most complimented Stuart for his work leading the state’s minority party over the past two years, but others seemed somewhat relieved, particularly since Stuart had caused a huge controversy with his announced petition drive to have a revote on table games at the Mardi Gras Casino in Cross Lanes.
“With the controversy, we were talking about other events and getting bogged down with other things, instead of the success of the Republican Party. It will be better to have a fresh perspective,” House of Delegates member and state Senate candidate Mitch Carmichael told the Charleston Gazette.
And Carmichael is a Stuart supporter.
Others credited Stuart with bringing enthusiasm and energy to the party. “His calls for accountability and transparency from West Virginia’s elected leaders have given a long list of Republican candidates the confidence to stand up and ask the same at every level of the ballot,” said Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito.
For Mike Stuart, it has always been easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. He has led the State’s GOP from the front of the charge, whooping the war call and flashing his saber.
The state’s political reporters were peppered with Stuart’s press releases attacking Democrats. Stuart also frequently called reporters to try to generate interest in stories that benefited the state Republican Party.
He never had “no comment,” which reporters appreciate. That approach helped keep the state Republican Party in the news, a necessary function of the party chairman.
Of course, he badly overreached in his attempt to bring up a referendum on table games. Philosophically, he was on point that promises made in a political campaign should be kept, but he did not properly calculate the fallout produced when the track and its supporters quickly painted the controversy as a jobs issue.
There is the school of thought that the table games referendum will energize conservative voters who will support Republican Bill Maloney in the Governor’s race. The logic being if Maloney can win Kanawha County, the state’s largest, he can win the election. Maloney lost Kanawha to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin by 596 votes in last year’s special election.
His solo attack on the track was indicative of the Stuart style. At times Stuart could be a bull, just looking for the nearest china shop.
Still, the GOP, as the constant underdog in West Virginia, needs a leader who has Stuart’s will to win. The state Democratic Party just rolls along, propelled by its overwhelming advantage in registration and elected office holders. The Republicans, by virtue of their secondary status, need to pick fights.
Stuart claims that the table game controversy was not his undoing, that he had been thinking for some time about leaving because of the demands of time and energy required of the volunteer position. It’s reasonable to wonder whether all the party work conflicted with his responsibilities as an employee at the Steptoe and Johnson law firm.
Law firms depend upon goodwill and you can imagine that Stuart’s high-profile role as party chairman could have conflicted with business.
There’s a management philosophy that says every change is an opportunity to improve, and the state GOP should keep that in mind as it chooses a replacement. Stuart’s short but dynamic tenure leaves behind some clear indicators of what to do, and what not to do, as party chairman.