Head of West Virginia gun lobby appointed to replace lawmaker-elect arrested for making threats
Head of West Virginia gun lobby appointed to replace lawmaker-elect arrested for making threats
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The president of West Virginia’s largest gun-lobbying group has been appointed to fill the seat of a lawmaker-elect who was ousted while confined to his house on charges related to terroristic threats against his colleagues.
Ian Masters, a Gerrardstown lawyer and president of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League, was appointed Thursday to take over the vacated seat of Joseph de Soto representing the southern part of Berkeley County in West Virginia’s House of Delegates, Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced.
Morrisey said Masters’ experience defending the rights of gun owners in the state prepares him to step into the role.
“I’m confident he’ll bring experienced conservative leadership and be an effective legislator,” the governor said in a statement.
De Soto, 61, was elected in November and arrested in December after saying God had called on him to kill several members of the Legislature, including House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and House Majority Leader Pat McGeehan, who are both Republicans.
He was released on bond on Dec. 23 by the Berkeley County Magistrate Court, and was ordered to home confinement while awaiting grand jury deliberations. The terms of his confinement stipulate that he can’t contact those he allegedly threatened or have access to any deadly weapons.
Earlier this month, the Republican majority House of Delegates voted to declare de Soto’s seat vacant.
De Soto was a Republican when he was elected to office and switched parties to become a Democrat the day before his arrest. The West Virginia Democratic Party unsuccessfully tried to prevent a Republican from being appointed to the seat by filing a writ of mandamus with the state Supreme Court of Appeals.
West Virginia’s Constitution states that vacancies must be filled by the governor from a list of three people submitted by the party executive committee “of the same political party with which the person holding the office immediately preceding the vacancy was affiliated at the time the vacancy occurred.”
West Virginia Del. Mike Pushkin said in his view, that means a Democrat should have been appointed to replace de Soto.
“We’re incredibly disappointed but not at all surprised when Republicans obey a law only when it works to their advantage but ignore it when it doesn’t,” Pushkin said in a statement via text message following Masters’ appointment.
Republicans occupy 91 out of 100 seats in the state House of Delegates and all but two out of 34 seats in the state Senate in West Virginia, making it one of the most GOP-dominated Legislatures in the nation.
De Soto was elected to his first term in the West Virginia House as a Republican representing part of Berkeley County in the state’s eastern panhandle in November, receiving 72% of the vote in the general election after defeating two other Republicans in the May primary.
If convicted, de Soto could face a maximum fine of $25,000 and three years in prison.
By LEAH WILLINGHAM
Associated Press
