WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

By Vic Sprouse

One of my Dad's favorite comments was always, "You need that like you need another hole in your head."

I hate picking on former opponents, but I had to shake my head at former Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman now contemplating another run for Supreme Court.

West Virginia needs that like it needs another hole in its collective head.

Margaret said she felt there was "unfinished business" on the court. I assume she means her own, since she stepped down during the middle of her last term to do other things.

Now, she wants her old seat back. Here's hoping she doesn't get it.

I have no beef with Margaret, but come on. She simply has the bug. The election bug. That's the bug that makes politicians think the political world is going to end without them in it.

In Margaret's case, after she vacated her Supreme Court seat, she ran and was beaten in the Democratic primary for Congress by Jim Humphreys. Of course, she ran close to Humphreys… mainly because by the end of that primary, even the Democrats had grown weary of him.

Of course, Humphreys went on to the largest electoral defeat of any Democrat running for Congress in oh, say… a century.

Margaret thought because she ran so close, she should run for State Senate.

Of course, when she realized that she'd actually have to "work" for the Senate seat I held, she quickly got shellacked by 13 points.

Look, here's Margaret's problem and it was evident in the race against me for State Senate.

She is simply a terrible campaigner. She has won one big race, for Supreme Court in 1988, where Big Foot would have probably had a chance of winning because the opponent on the other side was Darrell McGraw.

Margaret saw this win as a mandate to her greatness and, well, has lost every race ever since. And, I like the comment from her that she won't run if current Justice Larry Starcher runs should send a clear signal to the business community that she intends to run as a trial lawyer.

She's not a bad lady, she seems nice at times, but she is a bad campaigner, she doesn't really know what she stands for (she was on both sides of just about every issue in the Senate race) and she is not personable outside the South Hills tea and crumpet crowd. I almost felt bad for her out in Marmet and other locations where she actually had to interact with people who don't know the proper use of fondue forks.

Anyway, unless Warren McGraw comes out of retirement and runs a one-on-one race against Mags, I don't think she will win.