There’s too much “me” in Charleston and not enough “we,” Del. Shawn Fluharty insists.
“And as a Democrat, I’ve never been a member of the majority party,” the lawmaker said. “But it’s different now, and it’s not the good kind of different.”
Fluharty was first elected to one of two seats in House District 3 in Ohio County, but now he’s running for re-election in the newly formed District 5 thanks to the single-delegate redistricting. He was elevated to Minority Whip in January 2021 and served as minority chair of the Workforce Development Committee during the past year in Charleston.
Although Fluharty is just one of 22 Democrat members of the House of Delegates, the delegate makes sure his opinions are heard during the chamber’s floor sessions.
“I have always believed that we should have the fight and let it be an open fight on the battlefield, and if you lose, you lose, and if you win, you win. But at least have a fair fight,” the lawmaker insisted. “But that’s not how the process has been recently. It’s much different than when I was first elected in 2014.
“I think a lot of it has to do with national politics trickling down to the states and even to the local levels,” he said. “Things have changed, and that’s my number one problem with the way things are going down in Charleston right now. We’ve really lost the process, and I feel that’s why a lot of people have lost faith in government.”
Fluharty gets heard, that’s for sure, and frequently he makes the local news.
“The fight is simply doing what you feel is right for the people in your district and throughout the Northern Panhandle. That’s how I’ve looked at it on Day One. That’s why I’ve fought for things like medical cannabis even before it was politically popular to do so,” Fluharty recalled. “I remember people saying that we could never have medical cannabis here, and, well, here we are with medical cannabis.
“Taking those difficult positions is part of the fight, and when you know what you are doing is what your constituents want you to do, you have no doubt,” he said. “You can win or lose an election as long as you can sleep well at night and still have your integrity. If that’s the case then I’m OK with it, but I’ll never shy away from fighting for the people in my district.”
Good Ideas. Bad Ideas.
An angle taken by leaders of the National Republican Party involves broad stroking all Democrats as spend-crazy liberals, but throughout Fluharty’s legislative career he has searched for revenue generators that would benefit not only the state’s coffers but also Mountain State residents.
Medical cannabis is one of them, and sports and iGaming are two more. One little-known effort of Fluharty’s involved Amendment II, one of four constitutional proposals that will appear on the ballot in West Virginia.
Property Tax Modernization AmendmentTo amend the State Constitution by providing the Legislature with authority to exempt tangible machinery and equipment personal property directly used in business activity and tangible inventory personal property directly used in business activity and personal property tax on motor vehicles from ad valorem property taxation by general law.
“Putting personal property taxes in there? That was my idea, that was my proposal, and that was my amendment on the House floor, and it passed 98-2, so, yes, I can get good things accomplished even though I am only one of 22 Democrats in the House,” Fluharty said. “I know there are a lot of people who are against it, and I know their arguments have merit, but they would not have been able to vote for or against it if my amendment was discarded because of my party.
“In its original form, it included only the Business Inventory Tax, but now it involves the residents of West Virginia,” he said. “So, we’ll see what the voters say about the four amendments that’ll be our ballots.”
W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice, however, has campaigned against the constitutional change an approved Amendment II would allow because he is promoting the idea of a step-by-step elimination of West Virginia’s income tax. The governor, in fact, has informed residents that he believes lawmakers in Charleston have forgotten about the people in the Northern Panhandle and that GOP supermajority should not be trusted.
While the governor’s criticism may be new for Mountain State Republicans, Fluharty has grown used to ignoring what he calls, “Justice’s games.”
“Let’s just say I probably will not get a Christmas card from Jim, but that’s OK. I get plenty so it’s OK. I’ll survive,” Fluharty said with a broad grin. “Seriously, it depends on the issue as far as how I’m getting along with Gov. Justice, but there have been times when he has taken the time to listen and learn, and medical cannabis is one of those issues.
“The governor has his views of the world, and I have mine. We agree on a few things and disagree on many things, but that’s politics. There’s nothing wrong with that,” the lawmaker said. “At the end of the day I’d still shake his hand and tell him good game, but it still depends on who won and who lost. That always matters, and that’s why I fight so hard for the people of my district.”
