Betty Ireland

By John Hickey
Betty Ireland, elected West Virginia’s secretary of state in 2004, is the first Republican to be elected to that office since 1972, which would be 15 years before you were born if you were the average college freshman. (Which, of course, you’re not.) She is the highest-ranking Republican in the state government, and the first woman to be elected to a major non-judicial West Virginia state office.

Ireland has energetically mobilized her office to bring voters into the political process and to fight vote fraud. Her web site wvvotes.com describes a multitude of initiatives to get people registered and voting (see “Tea With Susan B”) and she has gone on the warpath against vote fraud perpetuated by the “Boss Hoggs” who “hold power over jobs ... and in some instances a decent way of life for our residents” (Wheeling Intelligencer Aug. 12) and “the political machines in some counties that control everything from who gets jobs to which roads get paved,” saying, “People are tired … of being enslaved by this system.” (Charleston Gazette Aug. 4) Ireland told the Chronicle Aug. 24 that state investigations of vote fraud in West Virginia were now in progress, augmenting ongoing federal investigations which have brought several election-fraud convictions in southern West Virginia. She has set up a vote-fraud hotline: 1-877-FRAUD-WV (1-877-372-8398).

A hard-eyed cynic might note that new voters are crucial for West Virginia’s Republican Party, now outnumbered 2-1 by registered Democrats, and that the “Boss Hoggs” are among her political rivals, part of the entrenched Democratic political machine. But Ireland unmistakably has a heartfelt concern for those alienated from the political process, especially young voters, the elderly and the poor.

In an interview, she talked about the isolation of the elderly and the poor, and it became clear that she was talking about more than just voting. It’s clear that, for her, engagement with the political process is a metaphor for being engaged with life. She says people feel excluded; that even her own 92-year-old parents, in spite of being parents of the secretary of state, don’t feel fully included in the political process. She wants people to feel that they count, that they’re part of things. She doesn’t want them disenfranchised by law, and she doesn’t want them disenfranchised by hopelessness, and she doesn’t want them disenfranchised by people that buy or steal or extort their votes.

About herself, Ireland says that she is business-friendly but “the most liberal Republican you will ever see.” A sign of the kind of leadership she admires is her suggestion that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be a worthy Republican presidential candidate. She agreed that Colon Powell would also be a fine candidate.

She strongly defends women’s reproductive rights, though she rejects both the “pro-choice” and “pro-life” labels. On the West Virginia University at Parkersburg campus for “Tea with Susan B,” celebrating the struggle to bring women the vote, Ireland says America has been changed by women’s involvement in politics, and, she says, “Vive la Différence.”

Asked for her views on Social Security, her answers differed from those advanced by President George W. Bush. Ireland has a background in financial planning, and she said that, rather than millions of individuals managing their own accounts, the Social Security Trust Fund might be better managed as a whole by professionals with the freedom to use some intelligence in making investments. When asked whether she agreed with President Bush’s statement, on his visit to the Bureau of Public Debt in Parkersburg, that the Treasury bonds held there which make up the Social Security Trust Fund are “worthless IOUs,” she affirmed that the Treasury bonds were very safe investments, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, and indicated that she thought President Bush’s remark might not fully express his considered thoughts on the matter.