The renovated House Chambers in the West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, W.Va., in Dec. 2023. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Thursday appointed a Republican gun rights activist to fill the House seat that was briefly held by Joseph de Soto, who was arrested last month for making terroristic threats against fellow members of the state House of Delegates.
Ian Masters, an attorney from Berkeley County who also serves as the president of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League, will fill the seat.
“Ian’s experience leading the WVCDL makes him exceptionally prepared to step in and represent the people of the 91st District. I’m confident he’ll bring experienced conservative leadership and be an effective legislator for southern Berkeley County,” Morrisey said in a news release Thursday.
Masters’ appointment to the seat, however, is not without controversy.
The seat he’s filling was vacated via a House Resolution passed earlier this month by Republicans, who opted not to expel de Soto for the death threats he made against members. De Soto was arrested in December for those threats. He is currently serving home confinement in Berkeley County and there are protective orders in place that prohibit him from talking with several members of the House who he threatened.
On Jan. 8 — nearly a month after he was arrested — de Soto did not arrive at the House to take the oath of office and, due to his home confinement and the protective orders standing, he “is not reasonably expected to do so at any point in the future,” according to the resolution passed that day.
De Soto was elected in November as a Republican but switched to the Democratic party hours before his arrest. The change had led Democrats to believe they should get to fill the vacant seat if he didn’t serve.
The resolution that vacated the seat, however, ordered the Republican Executive Committee of Berkeley County to provide a shortlist of candidates to Morrisey for appointment to the seat.
A week after that resolution passed, the West Virginia Democratic Party sent a petition to the state Supreme Court asking it to determine if House Republicans, who hold a supermajority, followed the state’s laws and constitution in filling the seat.
The Democrats argued that elected delegates in prior sessions who were unable to attend their oaths of office on the session’s first day did not have their seats declared vacant. And, they continued, several other members were absent for this year’s swearing in ceremony, including Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, who did not attend after 911 tapes leaked about him drunkenly handling assault rifles and allegedly terrifying his family at home. None of those members had their seats vacated, the Democrats wrote.
And the legitimacy of vacating the seat aside, the state Democrats also argued that the resolution directly conflicted with a portion of state code stipulating that a vacancy in the House must be filled by an appointment from a list of three nominees submitted by the party executive committee of the same political party with which the person holding the office was affiliated at the time the vacancy occurred. Given de Soto’s party switch, that would mean the seat would be filled by a Democrat.
On Jan. 20, the Supreme Court released a scheduling order for the case and proceedings are still ongoing. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, and Morrisey have until Monday to file a response to the Democrats’ petition, according to the schedule.
Once those responses are filed, the court will issue a written decision on the case at a later date, which could potentially call Masters’ position into question.
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