Happy June, everybody. Today marks the meteorological start of summer, and I’m ready to fire up the grill and head to the pool.

However, some people are still stuck trying to sell us in the West Virginia political press that the May 12 Republican primary was a victory for the forces of Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston.

I still contend that the GOP primary wasn’t a victory for anyone. It was a stalemate in the Republican caucuses in the House of Delegates and state Senate. The governor will once again face a hostile House Republican caucus. And Smith will encounter the same chaos that engulfed the Senate Republican caucus over the last two sessions.

Yes, Wood County Republican Dels. Vernon Criss and Scot Heckert will no longer be thorns in the governor’s side in 2027. But Morrisey lost a couple of allies in extremely close elections: Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell; and Del. Laura Kimble, R-Harrison.

And on the Senate side, the pro-Morrisey and pro-Smith forces united to spend a lot of money to protect overlapping allies. But those connected to state Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, including U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, spent a lot of money as well to protect like-minded incumbents. The lines remain mostly the same.

But advisers to pro-Smith political action committees and independent expenditure committees would have you believe that the May primary was a Super Bowl win. You have several Senate Republicans posting pictures on social media with Smith declaring their allegiance and support for a second two-year term as a Senate president when the caucus votes for that later in December.

As I’ve said before, we’re a long way from December and votes for the next Senate president could be very different. There are a handful of Senate Republicans who I would label as floaters. These Senators swung the Senate toward Smith in the second round of voting against Takubo in December 2024. Are those floaters satisfied with the past two years? We will see.

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Pro-Smith groups were advised by several people, including John Findlay, Morrisey’s former director of intergovernmental and political affairs; and Jimmy Keady, the founder and president of JLK Political Strategies.

What do these two people have in common? Findlay, who briefly was executive director of the West Virginia Republican Party, came over the border from Virginia, when he was executive director of the Virginia Republican Party until Democrats took majorities in the Virginia statehouse in 2020. Keady was former deputy executive director of Virginia’s House Republican Campaign Committee between January 2017 and May 2017.

Findlay I know. Keady I had never heard of before until he went on WV MetroNews Talkline last week. I would think, given their backgrounds in Virginia statehouse politics, that their advice would be taken with a grain or two or three of salt.

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Senate President Pro Tempore Jay Taylor, R-Taylor, was able to fend off a GOP primary challenge by former state lawmaker Marc Harman. Taylor may have survived the frying pan only to have jumped into the fire.

Dragline, an investigative news website sponsored by the ACLU of West Virginia, published a report on May 19 that Taylor has been working off and on for State Auditor Mark Hunt as a contractor for the state department despite objections raised by the Attorney General’s Office.

According to reporter Kyle Vass, citing documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, Attorney General J.B. McCuskey told Hunt that hiring Taylor would violate Article VI, Section 15, of the state Constitution, which states in part that “No senator or delegate … shall be elected or appointed to any civil office of profit under this state, which has been created, or the emoluments of which have been increased during such term, except offices to be filled by election by the people.”

Despite being warned, Hunt hired Taylor anyway under the guise of a contractor but largely being treated as a full-time employee. I can confirm Vass’ reporting, as I had sought and received Taylor’s contract with the State Auditor’s Office dated Nov. 12, 2025. According to the memorandum of understanding, Tayor was hired … sorry, contracted to work in the Auditor’s Local Government Services Division.

Taylor was to provide professional services related to county and local government accounting and budgeting, including providing technical assistance to local governments, working on training programs related to fiscal transparency and accountability, and other services. The contract was only good through Dec. 31, 2025. Taylor was to be compensated at $25 per hour, capped at $5,000 for the entirety of the contract.

The MOU also stated that Taylor “acknowledges that he is an independent contractor and is not entitled to employee benefits…” Yet, according to emails obtained by Vass, Taylor tried his best to get officials in the State Auditor’s Office to raise his hourly rate to between $47 and $55 per hour to make up for the fact he would have no access to benefits.

Vass also found that Taylor began working directly on legislation affecting the State Auditor’s Office during the most recent legislative session, requiring county boards of education to submit annual financial reports to the same division Taylor for which was a contract employee.

“I would not have entered into the contract if I believed it was prohibited, and I do not agree with the suggestion that this was a workaround or an improper conflict,” Taylor told Vass.