On February 7, West Virginia HB 2853 was signed into law. It provides for a special gubernatorial election this year, on October 4. This means four states will hold gubernatorial elections this year. The others, who always have their gubernatorial elections in the odd year before a presidential election year, are Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi.
This bill is not the same as the earlier bill, HB2552, which would have allowed this election to qualify a minor party with 1% of the vote. This HB2853 is basically the Democrat’s Senate Bill 216 with comprimised election dates and retains their party qualification exclusionary clause. The Republicans in the House were asleep at the wheel on this!
Thus, there is no incentive for a Libertarian or Constitution Party candidate to run (Republican strategy after all?), other than some optimistic publicity. Mountain Party candidate Jesse Johnson received just 223 votes in the single candidate special U.S. Senate primary on August 23 of last year. In such a low turnout expected election, a write-in candidate could probably fare just as well without having to pay the burdensome filing fee.