Delegate switches parties to retain Finance post
Friday December 27, 2002
By Fanny Seiler
STAFF WRITER
A 10-year veteran in the House of Delegates has switched from Republican to Democrat after the minority leader recommended that he be taken off the Finance Committee.
Delegate Douglas Stalnaker, a resident of Weston, changed his registration Monday, and Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, reappointed him to the Finance Committee as a Democrat.
Before he changed parties, the GOP had 32 delegates in the House, enough to gain a seat - from seven to eight - on the Finance Committee. When Stalnaker joined the Democratic ranks, the Republican Party lost the extra seat on the committee.
Stalnaker said Thursday the main reason he switched was because Minority Leader Charles Truman IV, R-Morgan, recommended to Kiss that Stalnaker be moved from Finance to the Committee on Government Organization. The minority leader recommends Republican delegates for committees, and Kiss generally accepts the recommendations when the speaker makes his committee assignments.
"This is my decision," Stalnaker said. "I felt it was the best thing for my district to remain there. I worked too hard for my district to let that happen."
Not one Democrat told him to switch, Stalnaker said. He talked with Kiss last Friday, and again Saturday. Stalnaker said the speaker wanted him to think about it to make sure that’s what he wanted to do. He called Kiss on Monday and said he had changed his registration
"He put me back on Finance," Stalnaker said. "It’s the toughest thing I ever had to do."
"Obviously, I’m disappointed to lose a member," Trump said. It’s always difficult to make recommendations, he said. There are more delegates interested in Finance and Judiciary, he said, than the other major committees, Education and Government Organization.
Trump said he has to consider all the relative factors such as seniority, an individual’s area of expertise, special training and geography. He also said he asked his members for their committee preferences.
The minority leader recommended that all the Republican Finance Committee members, except Stalnaker, be reassigned to Finance, plus Delegates Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, and Larry Border, R-Wood, who had previously served on the committee. The GOP had a vacancy on Finance since Monongalia County Delegate Sheirl Fletcher didn’t seek re-election.
Some of the more conservative Republicans reportedly had complained that Stalnaker, a moderate, didn’t toe the party line, and shouldn’t be put back on the Finance Committee when the 76th Legislature convenes in January.
With new Republican members coming to the House, Stalnaker said Trump told him it was a time for change. The 75th Legislature had 25 Republican delegates.
Stalnaker acknowledged that some Republicans feel if "you don’t vote with them 100 percent of the time, they think you’re an outcast. I’m not going to vote with anyone 100 percent of the time."
Stalnaker said he had told Kiss he wouldn’t vote all the time with the speaker.
Kiss doesn’t expect him to either. "I don’t think Doug Stalnaker is going to change one bit. He’s been an outstanding delegate. I think the world of Doug. I look forward to working with him," the speaker said.
Kiss said he didn’t think anyone voted 100 percent of the time with one party or the other. He said sometimes he feels like the odd man out himself, referring to the time that members of his own party kept him off the state Supreme Court.
"I thought he’d done a good job on Finance, Kiss said. "It was a decision he had to make."
Trump also said Stalnaker had to decide where he was comfortable in serving.
Stalnaker was elected to his first two-year term in 1994 and has served since. He is a former president of the Lewis County Commission and formerly was a member of the Lewis County Republican Executive Committee.
Stalnaker said the people in his district vote for the person, and the county and circuit clerks currently are Republicans while the assessor and sheriff are Democrats. One county commissioner is a Republican and one magistrate is a Republican while the other magistrate is a Democrat.
He fully expects Republican state chairman Kris Warner to target him, but Stalnaker said he and Warner had their differences in the past.
Warner couldn’t be reached, but GOP executive director Gary Abernathy said, "We’ll keep working with loyal Republicans." He said he understands Stalnaker formerly was a Democrat before he ran for county commission.
In four to six years, Abernathy predicted Stalnaker would be a member of the minority party again when Republicans gain control of the House of Delegates. Warner’s goal is to have the GOP in the majority by 2008, if not before.
"I think the day will come when the Republican Party will be the majority party," echoed Trump.
But Trump said the state has serious challenges, and he is looking forward to working with Republicans and Democrats and the governor in the upcoming legislative session to find answers to West Virginia’s problems.