John Rose Sr., 60, the Republican candidate for West Virginia's House
of Delegates in District 47, died on 31 October during Hurricane Sandy,
when a tree limb fell and landed on him while he was checking the
fences on his deer farm in Phillipi. (The farm breeds whitetail deer
as prey for hunters.)
Rose remained on the ballot, pitted against incumbent Democrat Mary
Poling, who was seeking her seventh term and is chair of the House
Education Committee. In case Rose won, the Barbour County Republican
Executive Committee would select three people to fill the vacancy.
Those names would go to the governor, who would select the new delegate
from among those three. (Local Republicans were angry that the West
Virginia secretary of state ordered the posting of signs at all polling
places to inform voters that Rose had died, but it was done under state
law, which mandates the signs, and dictates their wording.)
In the end, Poling won re-election, with 3,596 votes to Rose's 2,973.
Another candidate, Henry "Butch" Hoppe, filed as a write-in candidate a
day or so after Rose's death, but only 54 write-in votes were cast in
the election, and not all of them may have been for Hoppe.
<
http://www.ibtimes.com/node/856916> John Rose killed by tree limb
<
http://goo.gl/YbJzp> Hoppe as a write-in
<
http://goo.gl/z4ITR> The signs
<
http://goo.gl/Ukkm6> Poling wins
<
http://www.gonehuntinwhitetails.com/> The deer farm