W.Va. AG: Special election for late Robert C. Byrd’s Senate seat can be held this fall

W.Va. AG: Special election OK for Byrd’s seat

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s top lawyer cleared the way Thursday for Gov. Joe Manchin to put the late Robert C. Byrd’s Senate seat on the November ballot.

Attorney General Darrell McGraw, responding to questions posed by Manchin a day earlier, concluded that the governor can declare a special election to fill what remains of Byrd’s term. Manchin sought the legal opinion after joining a growing push for a vote earlier than 2012, when Byrd would have faced re-election.

The iconic Democrat died last week after more than a half-century in the Senate. The 92-year-old had just over 30 months left in his term.

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, West Virginia’s chief elections officer, earlier ruled that whomever Manchin appointed to fill the vacancy could keep the seat until 2012. Tennant later said she personally favored an earlier election.

Tennant, Manchin and McGraw are all Democrats, but voters overwhelmingly went for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential race, and a special election would put another Democratic Senate seat in play this year as the party struggles to retain its majority.

McGraw’s ruling said Tennant’s analysis relied too much on a 1994 state court ruling, and too little on the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which shifted the election of U.S. senators from state legislatures to voters.

“We begin and end with the fundamental proposition that ‘no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live,’” the opinion said, quoting from a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Manchin may now call a special legislative session to settle details such as candidate filing and party nomination deadlines.

The governor will appoint someone to fill the vacancy in the meantime. He says he may run for Byrd’s seat, but won’t have himself appointed.