EKB News

WEST VIRGINIA....
Governor Joe Manchin has announced he will call a special legislative session Thursday, July 15th to allow lawmakers to address the succession process necessary to deal with filling the vacant seat left by U.S. Senator Robert Byrd. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said earlier that state election laws would not allow a special election until 2012, but Attorney General Darrell McGraw overruled that decision Thursday. Tennant agrees the Governor has the power to call a special election and has recommended doing so this November. Manchin says there must be clarity in the law to prevent risking judicial intervention. An early Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of 500 likely voters says Governor Manchin is the early leader in hypothetical match-ups... showing Manchin would receive 53 percent of the vote and Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito 39 percent. The survey says Manchin would outdistance former Secretary of State Betty Ireland 65 percent to 26 percent.