The West Virginia Record, the state’s largest legal newspaper, is conducting an online poll asking who should run against Justice Larry Starcher in 2008. The choices are Warren McGraw, Jim Rowe, Carrie Webster, Margaret Workman, and Senator John Yoder (R-Jefferson). So far Senator Yoder, who would be perfect for the position, is commanding an impressive lead.

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Senator Sprouse and I aren’t the only ones criticizing the State of the State address. The bipartisan consensus at the capitol yesterday was that Manchin’s speech was underwhelming. The few specific plans Manchin did give in his uninspired monolog are going to be drastically changed by the legislature, especially the teacher pay raise.

Legislators did get a kick out of Manchin declaring that West Virginia will be dependant of foreign oil by 2030. While he was at it, why didn’t he stamp out world hunger or get the West Virginia football team in the national championship or invent a flying car? If only every politician were allowed to promise a perfect world…in only 24 years.

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The Hill, the Washington D.C. paper “for and about the U.S. Congress,” published an article yesterday about Senator Steve Harrison (R-Kanawha) and other leading Republicans as they watch the election scene in 2008. Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito is putting feelers out as she considers running against Senator Rockefeller. If she does decide to run, some of the names circulating as her replacement are Harrison, Secretary of State Betty Ireland, and the newly elected Senator Mike Hall.

John Raese, who lost to Senator Byrd, may also consider a run against Rockefeller. Unfortunately Raese, who has an obsessive personality that must control every facet of the campaign, is his own worst enemy. If he does have plans for 2008, he must hire competent staff and trust their decisions. Politicians don’t have to be smart to win, they just have to be pretty and stand where they are told.