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Sandy announces bid for Wood County seat in House of Delegates

(Graphic Illustration - Capitol Notes - Image generated through the use of ChatGPT)

PARKERSBURG — A former Wood County Sheriff and former state cabinet secretary is running for the West Virginia House of Delegates.

Jeff Sandy, 67, announced his intention to run for the seat in House District 11 which is currently being held by Republican Del. Bob Fehrenbacher. The former West Virginia Homeland Security Secretary under former Governor Jim Justice, will be running as a Republican after years as a registered Democrat and Independent.

“Since I retired as a cabinet secretary, I have been working with a number of Wood County businesses on economic development,” Sandy said.

There will be an upcoming announcement within the next month or two regarding economic development in Wood County which Sandy said he is “very proud of.” After retiring he worked for the Governor’s Office (under Justice) as a regional representative doing background investigations for the West Virginia Department of Economic Development on new businesses coming into the state.

“After years of being involved in law enforcement, I have really enjoyed being involved in economic development,” Sandy said. “Between working on projects and working as part of the Governor’s Office…I have really enjoyed that.

“I feel the number-one priority that Wood County needs to work on is bringing businesses into the county, especially with the loss of jobs at the Bureau of Fiscal Services. We need jobs for our children and we need to make our area more attractive for economic development.”

A theme of his campaign, listed on his website is “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.”

“That is what my priority is going to be,” Sandy said.

His next priority will be battling fraud.

He was a founding partner at Perry Forensic doing forensic accounting investigations which through the efforts of the Wood County Sheriff’s Department have been able to keep millions of dollars in Wood County and not distributed to criminals throughout the world.

“One of the things I want to do as a legislator is continuing to work with the people of Wood County to help them not be a victim of fraud.”

Sandy’s next priority is education to help students either prepare to go to college or to get them involved in learning a number of building trade skills.

“Those work hand in hand together,” Sandy said. “Not everyone can be an accountant, not everyone can be a welder, but we need both.

“The first thing I will do as a legislator is to promote education in technical skills and also in building and trade skills.”

Sandy said he has worked with legislators during his time as a cabinet secretary. He knows how to do budgets, knows how to make presentations in front of committees and how to work with lawmakers.

“I really look forward to working with the legislators elected from Wood County in both the House and the Senate,” he said.

Sandy said when Fehrenbacher decided to run for the state Senate, he received a lot of phone calls from around the area urging him to run for the House seat.

“That is what really prompted me to run,” he said, adding he believes that there will be no other potential candidate who has his experience working in Charleston.

During his time working with Justice, he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent. Democrats in West Virginia are different from Democrats in Washington, D.C., in that many Democrats in West Virginia are moderate, he said.

“I have always been moderate and conservative,” Sandy said. “I haven’t really changed, but the party changed.

“I am now more aligned with the Republican Party today (compared to when he was sheriff a decade ago).”

A local official he didn’t have permission to name told him he was always a “Republican at heart,” he said.

Sandy had worked as a federal agent for a number of years dealing with fraud, narcotics, organized crime and terrorism. In different speeches, Sandy has quoted former President Ronald Reagan having gotten to know the man having been a part of his protection detail for six months during the 1980 election when Reagan was still governor of California and running for president. Sandy has testified before Congress, the House of Delegates and the state Senate in West Virginia and more.

“No one else has the experience I have,” Sandy said.

His website is at sandy4house.com

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com.

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