Local hotel manager is running for U.S. Senate

HUNTINGTON -- A local hotelier has filed to run for U.S. Senate.

Phil Cline, general manager of the Pullman Plaza Hotel, is one of two candidates on the Republican ticket for West Virginia's junior Senate seat, currently occupied by Democrat Jay Rockefeller. The longtime senator and former West Virginia governor is running for his fifth term.

"I've been a friend of Jay Rockefeller's for a long time and I've raised money for him," Cline said Tuesday. "I got to praying about what he's done recently in the Senate and I felt he should not get a free pass to become senator without an election."

Cline said when he mailed his candidacy form to the Secretary of State's office Saturday, he was the only Republican who had filed. Jay Wolfe, a former state senator from Harrison County who ran against Rockefeller in 2002, has since joined the GOP ticket and will face Cline in the primary election.

Rockefeller will face two opponents in the Democratic primary: Sheirl L. Fletcher of Monongalia County and Billy Hendricks Jr. of Boone County.

Cline, 74, said he applauds Rockefeller's efforts to bring foreign companies to West Virginia, but is critical work on the Senate Intelligence Committee and his vote to raise the minimum wage.

Cline said the focus of his campaign will be "continuing the economic gains that we've made in this country since President Bush took office by making his tax cuts permanent."

Cline's previous political experience includes a term on Huntington City Council from 1997 to 2000, and he has a long list of community service in the Huntington area. In addition to other business interests, he is a member of the board of directors for Champion Industries, which owns The Herald-Dispatch.