MORGANTOWN — Come January, Delegate Mike Caputo will be Sen. Mike Caputo.
Caputo, D-Marion, defeated Republican Rebecca Polis to win the 13th District state Senate seat now occupied by Minority Leader Roman Prezioso, who is retiring.
In two other local Senate races, the Republican incumbents held substantial leads late Tuesday and looked to retain their seats in the 2nd and 14th districts.
All totals are unofficial pending canvassing.
13th District
According to Tuesday night’s figures, Caputo tallied 25,870 votes (56%) to Polis’ 20,178 votes (44%).
With his long history in the House, where he served as majority whip and then minority whip when the GOP took control of the House, Caputo was viewed as the front-runner to succeed his Marion County colleague.
Caputo said, “I’m honored and humbled that the people of the 13th District chose me to represent them in the West Virginia Senate.” He always makes just two promises: He’ll work as hard as he can and he’ll never forget where he came from.
He knows, he said, the seat doesn’t belong to him, it belongs to the people of the district and he’ll do what the majority of the constituents want him to do. “It’s a pretty exciting evening.”
Polis said, “It’s my hope that the people of West Virginia will not be disappointed by the choice of the voters to elect Mike Caputo to the state Senate. I hope he will use the privilege he has been given to serve West Virginians in a way that will be beneficial to all.”
She continued, “I thank eveyone who helped me financially and in every conceivable way. I really appreciate everybody.”
2nd District
With 99 of 136 precincts reporting, incumbent Sen Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, led Democratic challenger Josh Gary with 21,525 votes (56%) to Gary’s 17,229 votes (44%).
Maroney, who chairs the Health and Human Resources Committee, was charged with a misdemeanor charge of soliciting a prostitute more than a year ago. The trial has been repeatedly delayed and Maroney has maintained that the charge is bogus and that the prosecution has a conflict of interest and was using the case in order to influence the election.
Maroney was originally arrested in August 2019 and the county prosecutor sought to introduce additional evidence against him this past August, with the arrest of a different woman who said she is a prostitute and claims she was at Maroney’s house. No additional charge was filed regarding this alleged new evidence.
In late October, the prosecutor stepped aside and requested a special counsel after Maroney’s attorney filed for a hearing to consider disqualification, according to a statement he released.
14th District
With 83 of 105 precincts reporting, incumbent Sen. Randy Smith, R-Tucker, was well ahead of Democratic challenger David Childers.
Smith chairs the Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. He had 31,416votes (72%) to Childers’ 11,970 votes (28%).
Tweet David Beard@dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
