(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

I’ve had nearly two weeks to decompress from the recent special session for redistricting, which was stressful not only because of the drama in the West Virginia Senate, but personally stressful for me as my wife and I were closing and moving into our first house.

Most of the attention was on the fight between moderate and conservative Republicans in the state Senate, while much of the coverage leading up to the special session, including my coverage, focused on the drawing of the two new congressional districts.

Despite multiple editorials from this paper and concerns raised by others about putting both Morgantown/Monongalia County and the Eastern Panhandle — the fastest growing population areas in the state — in the same district, that’s exactly what the Legislature did.

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The new 2nd Congressional District is in the north and the new 1st Congressional District is in the south, breaking decades of tradition. At first, I thought it was a mistake, with whatever poor amendment drafter on the state Senate side of the building simply mixing up the district numbers. But the House of Delegates had an opportunity to fix the issue when they had to take the bill up again to make the bill effective from passage.

The move surprised and angered long-time politicos, including U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, I’m told. Capito represented the 2nd Congressional District for nearly 15 years when it was sandwiched between the 1st and 3rd congressional districts. I don’t blame her for being annoyed.

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As a result of the new districts, current 3rd District Congresswoman Carol Miller will have the new 1st Congressional district to herself in 2022, assuming that no Republican attempts to primary her. But current 1st District Congressman David McKinley and 2nd District Congressman Alex Mooney will both have to face each other. McKinley hails from Wheeling, while Mooney — a Maryland escapee — resides in Charles Town.

I almost have to wonder whether the numbering issue truly was a mistake. I don’t believe that Mooney puts the congressional district number on his campaign signs, but the swap of the numbers means that Mooney doesn’t have to do much education for voters who are used to seeing 2nd District by Mooney’s name.

McKinley, who has represented the 1st District since winning election in 2010, will have to spend time telling voters who are used to being in the 1st District that they are now in the 2nd District. That combined with Mooney’s voting base in the populous Eastern Panhandle could be a challenge for McKinley.

However, Mooney lost a lot of counties previously in the 2nd District to the new southern 1st District. Almost all of McKinley’s 1st District counties — including the growing Morgantown/Monongalia County region — are in the new 2nd District. Mooney will have to introduce himself to voters who have never had him on a ballot before. He got a head start a few months ago with a visit to Parkersburg. McKinley paid a visit to Martinsburg last week.

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I also suspect the race will come down to who is most Trumpy. While both McKinley and Mooney have voted mostly with former president Donald Trump, McKinley was also a supporter of an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden as President. West Virginia remains in the sway of Trump for better or worse, so that vote could bite McKinley next year.

Yet, Mooney has been taking flack from his right flank for months now from Chuck de Caro, a contributor to Trump-conservative publication American Greatness. Mooney is accused of not sufficiently fighting for the right hard enough. While McKinley has had run-ins with some of the more right-wing members of his caucus, such as North Carolina Republican Madison Cawthorn, McKinley has a lengthy conservative track record to run on and an ability to get bills through even a Democratic-controlled House.

Mooney also has the fundraising advantage. According to the Federal Elections Commission, Mooney has $2.8 million in cash on hand compared to McKinley’s $502,774 in cash on hand. But again, Mooney is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after the Office of Congressional Ethics found numerous and serious campaign finance violations made by Mooney.

The OCE released its investigative report nearly two weeks ago. It details alleged use of campaign donations for personal purchases, trips outside his district, food, his personal car and more by Mooney.

“…The Board finds that there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Mooney’s campaign committees reported campaign disbursements that may not be legitimate and verifiable campaign expenditures attributable to bona fide campaign or political purposes,” the report stated.

“If Rep. Mooney converted campaign funds from his campaign committees to personal use, or if Rep. Mooney’s campaign committees expended funds that were not attributable to bona fide campaign or political purposes, then Rep. Mooney may have violated House rules, standards of conduct and federal law,” the report continued.

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Lastly, new polling out shows McKinley with higher name recognition than Mooney. According to a poll conducted by National Research Inc. between Oct. 23-26 with 400 likely voters in the new 2nd District on behalf of the GOPAC Election Fund, McKinley leads Mooney 44 percent to 29 percent with 18 percent undecided.

Of note though, both McKinley and Mooney remain popular in the counties the formerly made up their districts, with McKinley having 65 percent favorability and Mooney having 62 percent favorability.

McKinley, whose 1st District counties make up 65 percent of the new 2nd District, would beat Mooney 62 percent to 11 percent in those counties, while Mooney would beat McKinley 62 percent to 12 percent in the 35-percent of current 2nd District counties that would make up the new 2nd District.

The McKinley/Mooney match-up will be interesting to watch in 2022.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com