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

When it comes to elections, there are winners and there are losers. But I can’t help feeling like no one really won after last Tuesday’s Republican primary elections.

Sure, individual candidates won and lost. But otherwise, the two factions within the West Virginia Republican Party — the dark red caucus led by Gov. Patrick Morrisey and like-minded affiliates, and the light red faction led by many of the GOP lawmakers who helped secure the Republican legislative majorities back in 2015, such as state Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha — remain at loggerheads.

More than $5 million was spent by political action committees and independent expenditure groups in order to secure victories for either the dark red or light red factions. That’s a lot of money spent in order for the battle lines to remain mostly unchanged.

Morrisey and operatives affiliated with Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, are naturally trying to spin Tuesday night as a victory for “true” conservatives, whatever that means.

Morrisey and pro-Morrisey groups (Sugar Maple PAC, School Freedom Fund, Americans for Prosperity) can say they settled their grudge match with House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, and Del. Scot Heckert, R-Wood. But other than also defeating Del. Jeffrey Stephens, R-Marshall, who else did Morrisey get over the finish line in House GOP contested contests?

If you factor out the uncontested GOP statehouse primaries that Morrisey has added to his scorecard and five House Republicans that had the support of both light red and dark red factions, Morrisey really went five for 14 in House GOP contests. And instead of being cowed by the millions of dollars brought to bear by Morrisey-affiliated groups, Morrisey now has a House Republican caucus even more hostile to him, including House Speaker Roger Hanshaw.

“Memories in the Legislature last a long time, and we will remember these past few weeks,” said Hanshaw, R-Clay, to my friend Amelia Knisely of West Virginia Watch last week.

I know some lawmakers are trying to take the high road and say they won’t hold grudges, such as Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison, who won his contested primary with thousands of dollars spent by Morrisey-affiliated groups against him. But he is Criss’ vice chair on the House Finance Committee, which took a hard line with Morrisey this past session. Who do you think will be the House Finance Committee chairman next year?

As for the Senate, other than getting Toby Heaney (backed by the dark red faction) over the finish line against light red-supported Robert Dobkin in the primary to succeed state Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, it is mostly a tie between the two warring GOP factions in the upper chamber. The dark red faction protected its incumbents, but so did the light red faction.

In short, Morrisey is going to have the same problems next year when the Legislature meets as he had this year: a House that is hostile to the 37th governor, and a chaotic Senate.

***

“Advisors” to the independent expenditure committee connected to Senate President Smith are also trying to spin things to make Smith look like a political genius. Even Smith has been out there all happy and saying he plans to run for a second two-year stint holding the gavel. But when the Senate Republican caucus meets this December to select their senate president nominee, don’t be so sure Smith gets the nod from his colleagues.

This can change over the next nearly six months, but those lumped in with the moderates in the Senate GOP caucus are not happy with Smith. And those to Smith’s political right are also not happy with him after this past legislative session.

***

A note to the light red faction: Your messaging is not working. I get it, the dark red faction had millions in out-of-state donations and was able to vastly outspend you in numbers never seen before in WV statehouse contests. So, by the time you all geared up to counteract their messaging, it was really too late.

Look, we in West Virginia news media were late to covering all this spending until it was well underway. No one could have predicted the millions that were spent and, frankly, the coordination of these groups. But I would encourage some of the light red groups to do an autopsy, figure out what went wrong, and go back to the drawing board.

***

And yes, the underrated races of last Tuesday night were the statewide judicial races. I don’t make predictions here for a reason, because if I had, I would have assumed that Justices Tom Ewing and Gerald Titus would have been fine. Both are respected in the state legal community. And Intermediate Court of Appeals Chief Judge Dan Greear is one of the original judges appointed to the new court.

But Senior Status Judge Kirk Kirkpatrick, Del. Bill Flanigan, and Family Court Judge Jim Douglas did something smart: They treated the May primary as a general election. Because the May primary IS the general election for nonpartisan judicial races.

So, while some candidates were mostly focused on reaching a Republican audience, others made sure to reach out also to Democratic voters and the independents who hadn’t switched to just vote in the closed Republican primary.

I think there are lessons here to be learned for Democratic candidates heading into the general election.