Several candidates for Kanawha County magistrate seats, who met with Gazette-Mail editors on Monday, said they like that judicial elections in the state are now nonpartisan.
But other changes to the way magistrates run in the state have proven confusing for potential voters, said seven of the 21 candidates running to fill the 10 magistrate seats in Kanawha. Other candidates are set to meet with the editorial staffs of the Gazette and Daily Mail opinion pages on Tuesday.
The magistrate positions in Kanawha County are now broken up into 10 "divisions," but those divisions don't represent specific parts of the county. Instead, candidates choose which district they want to run in. And, in this election, that means challengers picked which incumbent to go up against.
Some of the candidates who met with editors Monday said their strategy was to file to run against incumbents who hadn't held the position very long. Marva Lee Crouch, of Chesapeake, and Kathy Ferguson, of Dunbar, said they chose to run in Division 3 against Brent Hall, of Charleston, who has served only one term in office.
Crouch served as a Kanawha magistrate from 2004 to 2008. Since losing reelection, she has worked as a senior-status magistrate around the state.
But Charleston resident Cecilia "Cecil" Thomas and former Nitro mayor Rusty Casto decided to challenge longtime Kanawha Magistrate Ward Harshbarger, of Dunbar. He has served as magistrate the past 36 years.
Casto said at least one downfall of the changes is that they could result in hurt feelings. He ensured Harshbarger that he has no hard feelings against him, but said he thought running against him gives him the best chance at winning.
"I think I voted for him the last nine times," Casto said with a laugh about the incumbent in his division.
Thomas, who said she has worked in a legal setting on the federal level for 30 years, was more blunt about her decision to run against Harshbarger.
"I believe it's time for a change. I've seen and heard enough," she said. She didn't go into detail about what she meant.
Harshbarger said Monday that he considers an incident two years ago a learning experience in which he admitted to mishandling a domestic violence petition the ex-wife of former Kanawha prosecuting attorney Mark Plants tried to obtain against the prosecutor. Harshbarger, after a hearing in 2014, apologized and agreed to pay a fine and be publicly censured, in order to resolve ethics charges filed against him by the state Judicial Investigation Commission.
"Cecilia and Rusty have put a little spark in my step and got me going out [campaigning] - that's a good thing," said Harshbarger. "We'll see what happens."
Pam Nixon, who is running against incumbent Mike Sisson, a retired St. Albans police officer, didn't attend the meeting Monday.
Crouch said Sisson has been more of a public figure than Hall, who spent most of his career working for law firms.
Hall disagreed, though, saying he can often be seen around town and truly enjoys campaigning.
What has surprised him most about his time as magistrate has been the amount of drug charges filed in the county, he said. When first elected, methamphetamine arrests dominated the caseload. Now, he said he hardly ever sees a drug charge that doesn't include heroin.
Ferguson returned several years ago to Dunbar to care for her father before his death. She is the daughter of the late Gail Marie and Warne L. Ferguson. Judge Gail Ferguson served as administrative law judge for the state's Human Rights Commission, and Warne Ferguson was a pioneer for children's fitness, created the Upward Bound program at West Virginia State University and was the first African-American to play in the state's Public Courts tennis tournament.
Ferguson said she has more than 25 years of criminal justice experience in positions working with adjudicated youth, federal prisoners, probationers and parolees, abused and neglected children and crime victims. She most recently worked for Maryland's Division of Parole and Probation, the Sheriff's Office of Prince George's County, Maryland, and the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
Both Ferguson and Thomas, who is a certified rehabilitation counselor, have never run for public office.
They both stressed the importance of protecting victims in cases concerning allegations of domestic violence.
Sisson, Crouch and Hall touted the success of Kanawha's domestic violence program, which began in 2012. It's designed to streamline cases by sending them all to one magistrate to protect victims and prevent future offenses.
Casto said if elected he'd be willing to assist Julie Yeager, the magistrate who handles the Kanawha domestic violence program, even if it meant taking on additional work.
"I want to be a part of the solution," he said.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.