MORGANTOWN — A local offshoot of the state political action group WV Can’t Wait said it will have a full slate of candidates running for Morgantown City Council in the city’s April 27 election.
A representative of the group Monongalia County Can’t Wait said all council candidates will be asked to sign off on the group’s policy platform.
“Every candidate running in the election is going to be invited to sign on to the Monongalia County Can’t Wait platform, which was created with input from more than 200 Mon County residents,” Sarah Hutson said. “So candidates will have a chance to choose. Are you with the Morgantown residents or are you with Morgantown’s wealthy good ol’ boys?”
WV Can’t Wait bills itself as a nonpartisan organization, focusing more on issues of labor and wealth distribution than a political party.
“I think city council is a perfect place for that because you get to strip away those titles. We believe the issue is not left, right. We believe the issue is up, down. It’s not so much the letter after someone’s name. In most cases, today, we think there shouldn’t be a letter after the name, there should be a dollar sign,” Hutson said.
Whether it’s the fact council candidates are elected at-large — meaning every city resident gets to vote for all seven ward representatives — or traditionally low voter turnout — 8.8% of 18,642 registered voters participated in 2019 — candidate slates have had overwhelming success in recent council elections.
In 2013, Morgantown Together ran five candidates and won all five seats. In 2015, there were only two contested races, but in 2017, candidates supported by Mountaineers For Progress captured all seven seats. Five of those council seats remained unchanged in 2019, while two of the 2017 winners, Mark Brazaitis and Ryan Wallace, didn’t seek reelection and were replaced by Dave Harshbarger and Zack Cruze, who became the city’s first write-in candidate to win a seat on council.
This time around, four incumbents, Rachel Fetty (1st Ward), Cruze (3rd Ward), Ron Dulaney (5th Ward) and Barry Wendell (7th Ward) are not seeking reelection.
Hutson said Monongalia County Can’t Wait will announce its candidates in February.
Feb. 8 is the deadline for candidates to file certificates of announcement with the city clerk’s office.
So far, the following candidates have registered with the city: 1st Ward — Patrick Hathaway; 2nd Ward — Bill Kawecki; 4th Ward — Jenny Selin; 5th Ward — Tony Setley, Danielle Trumble, Marly Yniques, Zach LeMaire; 6th Ward — Dave Harshbarger.
