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Wood County Republicans celebrate 2016 victories

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton State Senator Mike Azinger, R-Wood, center, speaks with Sandra Wehr, left, and the Rev. Don Wehr, right.

PARKERSBURG –Despite winter weather advisories, Wood County Republicans turned out at the Blennerhassett Hotel on Saturday night to celebrate inaugural weekend and the party’s 2016 general election showing.

Conrad Lucas, West Virginia Republican Party chairman, said the gathering was more than a celebration of the party and gains made in 2016. Lucas said the Republican party was in tune with the people.

“We’ve gone from voting for Michael Dukakis in 1988 to Trump’s biggest victory,” he said. “It’s been a great 28 years for us. Donald Trump won West Virginia by the biggest margin of any candidate in West Virginia history and his next closest rival was Abraham Lincoln.”

Lucas said a record number of Republicans turned out to vote.

“Today Republicans represent 54 of our 55 counties,” he said. “Braxton County is the one we have to work on in a couple of years, because every county in West Virginia deserve conservative Republican leadership.”

Photos by Jeffrey Saulton Conrad Lucas, West Virginia Republican Party chairman, was one of the speakers Saturday.

Lucas said the party will work to work to target Joe Manchin.

“Everytime he tries to cozy up to the Trump administration we will remind voters when he also quietly votes to support Obamacare again like he did two days ago,” he said.

Mac Warner, the Republican secretary of state-elect, said Saturday’s event in Parkersburg was more than a celebration of the Republican party.

“It’s a celebration of West Virginia,” he said. “As we go more and more down the line I think it’s the conservative hard work ethic of West Virginia shining through and it so happens the Republican party is representing their values much better than the Democrat party. The Democrat party has pretty much abandoned the Democrats in West Virginia.”

Warner said after years of being a minority the Republican party is becoming more dominant in state politics.

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, left, and Secretary of State-elect Mac Warner were also speakers Saturday.

“That’s the trend and it’s going to continue,” he said.

Warner said as secretary of state he plans to work more closely with the county clerks.

“Many of them were quite vocal with their discontent with the current secretary,” he said. “They felt they weren’t getting the support they deserved and needed from the office.”

Warner said he wanted to start with the voter registration rolls in each county.

“There is no reason why a county should have more voters registered to vote than they have adults eligible to vote,” he said. “That just shows a lack of staying on top of changes and I intend to help them accomplish that.”

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who will begin his second term as attorney general, said he will work to improve the state’s fraud recovery rate in the Medicaid program. He said the Medicaid program is a $4 billion program but has only half the recovery rate of many other states.

“I think we can do much better,” he said. “Even if we get up to the national average we could be saving tens of millions of dollars a year. That’s a lot better than tax increases, don’t you think?

“That is something I hope to do and hope the Legislature will give me the authority to go after Medicaid fraud,” he said.

Morrisey said his office has been successful on the disability front and managing the consumer protection division.

“Let us do more good work in respect to Medicaid fraud,” he said. “If we go after fraud then West Virginia can be that shining state in the mountains.”

Morrisey said the state has the team to get things done with four of the six seats on the Board of Public Works. Members of the board are the top elected positions in state government, the governor, secretary of  state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general and commissioner of agriculture. An unelected member is the state superintendent of schools.

“We now have the pieces in place to show the public what Republican leadership in West Virginia truly means,” he said. “Now is West Virginia’s time to shine.”

State Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, has seen the changes in the Senate from the days when she was the only Republican in the Senate to being one of 22.

“I’m one of the ones I never thought we’d become the majority,” she said. “We got up to 13 at one time and then three decided not to run and the next election three more did the same so we were back down to six; Bill Cole and Mitch Carmichael were the guys with the vision that we could be the majority.”

Boley said the budget will be the biggest issue, but they are going to wait and see what the Justice administration will propose and they have to work from there.

Former State Senator and Wood County Assessor David Nohe said the gains made by the GOP in the state is the most remarkable change.

“When I went in (the Senate) there were only five of us and now we’ve gone to 22 — what a difference,” he said. “With that comes a lot of responsibility; the people trusted us and we have to show them we will fulfill that trust. We will serve.”

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