Nice Work, If You Can Get It

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Charlie King has the kind of seat that's safe in virtually any election. He's running unopposed for a fresh term next month and I can't, for the life of me, find any primary results from May, where he was also probably unopposed. No opponent on the horizon, no hideous mistakes in the news - what could be better?

Apparently, Judge King is having second thoughts, but he's not quite sure. You see, he's retired. Sort of:

Longtime Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King resigned on Tuesday, less than a month before the general election, saying he wants to take a few months to decide whether or not to return to the bench in January.

King said he resigned so that he can start to draw his state pension. If he is re-elected, he could legally collect both his state pension and his salary as a judge if he decides to return to the bench.

What a coup! Retire, start drawing your pension, and then, if you want, step back into your $116,000 a year job unopposed in January (yes, in WV, you can do both at once)! Why, it's positively Machiavellian (or Rovian) in its audacity.

What brought this on?

'I love my job,' he said. 'I just wanted the time off to decide whether I want to go back on the bench full time or look for new challenges.'

One would think that kind of reflection should have been done before one decides to run for office again, huh? Don't the voters of Kanawha County deserve some say in who is on the bench there for the next eight years? Granted, it doesn't look like any of the other judge have competition either, but still, surely someone would have showed up to fight over an empty seat.

I don't actually have a dog in this hunt - I don't live in Kanawha County and thus don't vote there (don't practice in the state courts, either, for what it's worth). But I'll just point out that there is a "write in" option on the ballot.