On January 18, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the State Constitution requires a new election when the Governor leaves office more than a year before his or her term expires. See the 19-page opinion here. The case is State ex rel West Virginia Citizens Action Group v Tomblin, 101494.
The opinion also notes that the election code requires that qualified parties choose their nominees in a special gubernatorial election by convention, not by primary. The decision notes that the legislature may possibly wish to amend that law quickly, if it desires primaries. The Governor will choose the date for the election, but it probably won’t be until the second half of 2011. The decision also strikes down as unconstitutional an election law that seemed to say there should be no special gubernatorial election in cases such as this.
West Virginia is one of the few states that does not elect a Lieutenant Governor. The people who argued against a special election said the President of the State Senate should serve as Governor until the next regularly-scheduled election, which is in November 2012.