CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Senate Finance Chairman Mike Hall, a veteran Republican lawmaker out of Putnam County, is in line to be the next chief of staff of the Justice administration — although even Hall said today that the situation could change.
Senate President Mitch Carmichael, in a telephone interview, said he had spoken both with Hall and Gov. Jim Justice.
“While the final decision has not been made, I think there’s a high expectation that Mike will be the new chief of staff,” Carmichael said this morning.
The position is opening up because Justice on Monday fired chief of staff Nick Casey after switching parties from Democrat to Republican earlier this month.
MORE: Nick Casey says he was fired by telephone while out of town celebrating anniversary
The governor has announced a 10 a.m. Wednesday press conference to discuss the chief of staff situation.
Hall, reached by telephone this morning, acknowledged he’d been in conversations with the governor. But he said with a full day to go before the announcement anything could happen.
“I will admit we’ve had conversations. I know there’s an announcement tomorrow so we’ll just have to wait and see,” Hall said.
“Why don’t we wait and see what happens. There’s some names floating out there. Until it’s a done deal, let’s wait and see.”
Among the possibilities to assume Hall’s Senate seat, John Musgrave is among the most well-known and experienced. Musgrave was state Lottery director for 19 years, retiring in 2015.
Musgrave lives in Point Pleasant. Senate District 4 covers Mason, Jackson and parts of Putnam and Roane counties. The seat is up for election in 2018.
Delegates Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, and Jim Butler, R-Mason, each told the Charleston Gazette-Mail they would be interested in the Senate seat.
Hall, 68, is generally recognized as a moderate, knowledgeable Republican with a calm demeanor. He was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and served as minority leader before Republicans took the chamber’s majority in 2014. Hall served in the West Virginia State House of Delegates from 1994 to 2004.
“He has a good working relationship with the governor and the Legislature.” Carmichael said. “Mike is a fiscal and social conservative who brings a great perspective to that office should he be selected.
“Should the governor select Mike he would be making a very good choice, and I think the Legislature would work well with him, and Mike would bring a level of professionalism and a good, Republican, fiscal perspective to that office.”
Carmichael added, “Mike has a reputation here of being steady, solid and dependable – and we would enjoy the opportunity to welcome Mike as chief of staff.”
Other names in the rumor mill have included former U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner, whose brother Mac is the Secretary of State, and former media chief Bray Cary.
Carmichael, who has a close relationship with Cary, said he had not personally heard that name mentioned as chief of staff and doubted that particular role would be of interest to Cary.
“Bray is a terrific resource for the state of West Virginia. I never heard his name mentioned as chief of staff. I think he’s more on the policy initiatives. But the day-to-day operations of the governor’s office, it’s not something I heard his name floated about.”
During the most recent legislative session Hall expressed serious reservations, sometimes publicly and sometimes privately, about a revenue plan backed by the governor and many of his Republican colleagues in the Senate that would have raised sales taxes six months before lowering personal income taxes.
Fiscal models showed that proposal opening up bigger budget gaps in coming years, and Hall was among those urging caution.
Variations of the proposals were voted down repeatedly by House Republicans and House Democrats, and Senate Democrats also voted against it.
When Justice announced his party switch almost two weeks ago, he cited the defeat of the revenue proposal — which in the short term would have raised additional revenue for many of his preferred policy initiatives — as the reason he was parting ways with the Democratic Party.
“And I went right straight to the Democratic caucus and begged ’em. I said, ‘Listen, do you realize you are going to walk away from your very constituents, and you’re going to hurt people. There’s going to be real carnage. And at the end of the day, what really happened for good for for bad is the Democrats left me. I didn’t have any intention whatsoever. I’ve been a shining knight trying to carry the flag in every way. But if I’m going to get something done for this state and our people, I’ve got to make this move,” Justice said in a news conference.
Justice made a similar statement about firing Casey on Monday, alluding to disappointments over the legislative session.
“Nick Casey is a friend and a good man,” Justice stated in an emailed announcement. “There’s no question we all tried very hard during the legislative session to get things done, I wish we could have done better. I’ve given this a lot of thought and going forward I just didn’t see any pathway where it would work out.
“I appreciate the work Nick Casey has done and wish him well in the future.”
Appearing today on MetroNews’ “Talkline” with guest host Danny Jones, House Minority Leader Tim Miley said he can understand why the governor would want to put his preferred team in place, but he objected to how Casey was let go.
“I completely understand why the executive has the right to have those people around him or her that they choose,” said Miley, D-Harrison.
“But what’s not easy to understand or accept is when one week you say you hire people based on their competency and not at all based on their political party, and the very next week you say one thing but do another. Clearly, Nick was fired because he was a Democrat — not because of his competency or what was or wasn’t accomplished during the legislative session.”
Miley said the governor will wind up missing Casey’s expertise.
“I think it’s a big loss for the governor’s administration. Some may think otherwise. But I think it was pretty crappy to do it that way,” Miley said.
Miley went on to say about Casey, “I think he was playing a significant part in running the state because I don’t think the governor was showing up at the Capitol every day, not that you can’t do work remotely. But Nick had a significant role in it.”
The House minority leader said he thinks the governor’s recent actions have contributed to decreasing his own credibility.
“I can assure you, there will be no more biting our tongues or supporting policies from the Democratic side that we don’t truly believe in, so I hope he can pass whatever his agenda is with 51 Republican votes because if he thinks he’s going to pass tax increases with being a Republican and all of a sudden (House Majority Leader) Tim Armstead is going to change his political philosophy, I think he’s going to be rudely awakened when the regular session rolls around,” Miley said.
He went on to say some Democrats have expressed relief at the governor’s party switch.
“Nobody is bitter. Quite frankly many people are relieved,” Miley said. “Many were biting their tongues. Many were supporting his agenda items begrudgingly because he was a Democratic governor and you don’t want to embarrass a member of your party. They feel like a burden can be lifted from them because now they can be themselves.”
Asked right after his party switch about the possibility of working with a newly-restructured top staff, Justice stated his belief that the administration could continue to function smoothly:
“The train always seems to go on. Do we really believe that by losing a few key members, or really the engineer, me — the train always goes on. And what we’ve got to do is, sometimes it becomes difficult,” Justice said.
“I’m telling you, this train is going to move on and it’s going to go north.”