Unsurprisingly, Clinton is projected to win big in WV. So it’s simply a mater of how big the win is.

Of course there are still plenty of local races that are important.

If anyone is interested in keeping track of the state elections, live results are available on the Metro News site.

First and foremost, my concern is for the race for the State Supreme Court of Appeals. I am really hoping that Spike Maynard loses–and loses big in the primary. His associations with Blankenship are beyond disturbing, and I’d really like to see him out. Then we just have to wait until Brent Benjamin–the Republican Justice whose election was bought and paid for by Blankenship–comes up for reelection.

So I’ll be up for awhile this evening paying attention to the local results, and wondering how big of a blow-out Clinton’s win will be.

Oh, I was still unable to vote for a write in candidate with the stupid electronic voting. Time to write another letter.

ADDENDUM the First:
It looks that for a variety of reasons Joe Manchin is getting a run for his money for governor. The Garrison-Bresch scandal seems to have taken a toll, with many voters supposedly giving a protest vote to Kessler.

ADDENDUM the Second:
I decided to make a batch of cookies while listening to the results. Heard Hillary’s speech, and it wasn’t too bad. She’s nowhere near as good as Obama, but she held her own, and made many nice references to WV.

Manchin took the Democratic primary for Governor as expected, however, as of now, Kessler has 26% of the vote. Additionally, WV Public Radio asked him about today’s news that Rich Rodriguez has claimed that 1) Garrison–who was not even University president at the time–promised him that the $4 million buyout clause would not be enforced and 2) Manchin pushed Rodriguez to sign the 2007 contract.

Manchin pretty much said that Rich Rod has gotten to big for his britches and just needs to suck it up, pay the $4 million, and quit crying.

For the local House of Delegates race, Charlene Marshall is leading with Barbara Evans Fleischauer a close second. All four candidates look good to go up against Cindy Frich in the fall.

And most importantly, Spike Maynard is still in LAST place for the State Supreme court of Appeals race. Let’s hope he stays in last place and is soundly thumped.

ADDENDUM the Third:
Spike Maynard is now in third place, but he’s still eight points behind Menis Ketchum with 88% of precincts reporting in.

Natalie Tennant has taken the race for Secretary of State.

It’s very strange. As much as race and gender were supposed to be factors in the presidential primary, we’ve got a lot of women who won primary elections this year, and the top winners for the 4th district House of delegates are women.

So I wonder how much is gender and race, and how much boils down to “knowing” one candidate versus feeling that another candidate is a stranger come to call. Because if there is one state that Bill Clinton helped Hillary, it has been in WV. Because West Virginians feel like they know Bill Clinton. They’re comfortable with him and understand him. And they were willing to let those feelings roll over onto his wife.

Hillary said tonight that she would campaign hard for whoever the Democratic nominee is. Let’s hope she keeps her word and spends time in WV this summer and fall.

ADDENDUM the Fourth:
With 90% of precincts reporting in, Spike Maynard is still down 9 points.

Good.

I’m going to bed; I have to work and teach in the morning.