It Could Have Made for an Interesting Trivia Question…
There is a popular meme often shared on the internet of two individual Spider-Men pointing at each other. Sometimes the meme includes four Spider-Men or more.
Replace the Spider-Men with Gov. Jim Justice, outgoing Senate President Craig Blair, incoming Senate President Randy Smith, and Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey all pointing at each other. The one thing all four have in common is one is the current governor, one is the incoming governor, and the two senate presidents might have had to briefly act as governor.
But that possible Golden Horseshoe question is no longer a possibility. Justice announced Thursday — after weeks of being asked by me, WV MetroNews reporter Brad McElhinny, and now-retired Nexstar Media reporter Mark Curtis — that he will wait to resign until Morrisey is sworn in as governor on Monday, Jan. 13.
I’m going to take pride in pointing out I was the first to raise the possible scenario in my August column that come January there would be a need for whoever was senate president to act as governor in between Jan. 3 and Jan. 13. But even then, I hadn’t thought about the possibility of there being two acting governors.
I’ve explained this before, so I will be brief: Justice won election to the U.S. Senate. New senators can be sworn in as early as Friday, Jan. 3, at the end of this week. But Morrisey, who also won election as governor in November, can’t be sworn in until the second Monday in January according to the state Constitution, which falls on Jan. 13.
So, if Justice were to take office on Jan. 3, Senate President Blair, R-Berkeley, would have to act as governor for five days. While the senate president holds the honorary title of lieutenant governor, the state Constitution requires whoever holds the position of senate president to act as governor until a new governor takes office.
And when current Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee Chairman Smith, R-Tucker, is elected as the next senate president when the Legislature gavels in on Wednesday, Jan. 8, he would then also have to act as governor for another five days until Morrisey’s inauguration day on Jan. 13. Four governors in 10 days.
I can’t speak for the entire history of the state, but I feel confident in saying that there has never been an instance of four governors serving in less than two weeks. I’m only aware of two times a governor went to the U.S. Senate in the last 50 years.
Most recently, that was former two-term governor Joe Manchin, who won a special election to succeed the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd. That involved former Logan County Democratic Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin acting as governor until he won a special election for governor in 2011.
The other example is retired Democratic U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who won election in 1984 after serving two terms as governor. But history tells that Rockefeller also waited until up to the inauguration of former Republican Governor Arch Moore to resign. Had Rockefeller resigned earlier than Jan. 14, 1985, he would have had both former Senate presidents Warren McGraw and Dan Tonkovich acting as governor.
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One question I have is why it took Justice so long to decide to wait to resign? I’ve had sources for weeks telling me this was his plan all along, but when asked, Justice played coy even as early as the week before Christmas. I suspect that Senate Republican leadership put some pressure on Justice to make an official announcement so they can plan things out for when Congress returns heading into next week.
As near as I can tell, there won’t be any major votes planned that will require Justice to be on Capitol Hill as the 53rd GOP vote between Jan. 3 and when incoming Republican President Donald Trump is sworn in on Monday, Jan. 20. Justice said Thursday that he has spoken with Trump, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, and Senate GOP majority leadership and has their blessing to wait to join them on Jan. 13.
Really, the only way Justice’s decision to wait to resign hurts him is in regard to Senate seniority, which is determined by length of legislative service. So, by waiting to join the Senate on Jan. 13 when many of his new colleagues will have already been sworn in, that puts Justice at the bottom of seniority. And seniority determines everything, from office space to committee seating assignments, from priority on bills to earmarks (sorry, it’s now called congressionally directed spending now).
Will Justice’s seniority ranking mean bringing back less for West Virginia? Maybe, though the people I see most upset by this are D.C. lobbyists who probably planned to inundate Justice’s Senate office with requests and favors. But keep this in mind: Justice is friends with the Trump family going back prior to 2016; and he is close to Capito, our senior U.S. Senator and ranked fourth in Senate Republican majority leadership. He might be near dead last in seniority, but he has the ears of powerful people.
Also keep in mind that Justice raised more than $3.3 million during his campaign, much of that going into the coffers of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Some of that fundraising benefited other more-tight races that helped secure the incoming Senate GOP majority. Trust me, Justice has some favors he can cash in.
Finally, when U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, resigns to become Trump’s vice president on Jan. 20, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will have to appoint a new U.S. senator, who will then rank last in seniority. Justice won’t be at the bottom of seniority rankings for long.
With that said, I also don’t think it wouldn’t have hurt anything to have Blair and Smith be acting governors briefly. And it certainly would have been historical. But it would have also stolen Morrisey’s thunder too.
Perhaps lawmakers should consider putting a constitutional amendment on the next ballot creating an actual lieutenant governor position to avoid this scenario and also avoid having the next senate president preside over two branches of government (The senate created the “acting senate president position to avoid such a scenario).
Perhaps we won’t be in this scenario again for a while? Perhaps we could be in this scenario again in two years when Capito’s seat is up in 2026 and Morrisey gets the itch to make a run for it? As Spock from Star Trek is fond of saying, there are always possibilities.