Danny Jones (politician)

Jones was sheriff of Kanawha County, serving one term in office from 1984 to 1988.[3] Jones was the first Republican to be elected as Kanawha County sheriff in more than thirty years; at the time, registered Democratic voters outnumbered registered Republican voters 2–1 in the county.[4] As sheriff, Jones oversaw 130 full- and part-time employees, and managed the county jail, county law enforcement, and the county tax department.[4] Jones cited the reorganization of the tax department as one of his accomplishments as sheriff.[2] He chose not to seek reelection.[2]

Jones was then elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates, serving a single two-year term.[2] He did not seek reelection in 1990 in order to focus on his restaurant business, Danny's Rib House, in Nitro, West Virginia, a "rib shack" operated by Jones for four years.[2][5]

Jones first became mayor of Charleston in 2003.[6] In 2007, Jones won a second term in office, receiving 4,304 votes (79%) and defeating Democratic candidate Hershel Layne, who won 1,142 votes (21%).[7] In 2011, Jones won a third term with 3,349 votes (71%), defeating Democratic candidate Janet Thompson, who won 1,376 votes (29%).[8]

In 2015, Jones won a fourth term as mayor of Charleston, becoming the first person ever to serve four terms in the position.[6] In the 2015 Republican primary, Jones defeated a conservative primary challenger.[1] In the election, Jones received the endorsement of the Charleston Gazette-Mail for reelection.[9] Jones won 3,623 votes, defeating Democratic candidate Paul Monroe (who won 1,984 votes) and independent candidate Bill Carpenter (who won 191 votes).[6]

In 2016, Jones announced that he would not run for reelection as mayor, or for any other elected office,[1] in the next mayoral election in 2018.[10]

Jones has cited, as major accomplishments in office, the Appalachian Power Park, renovations to the Charleston Civic Center, and the a half-cent sales tax to fund the pension debt for Charleston's police and firefighters.[6][11] Under Jones, the city also constructed new public housing units as replacements for older units.[11] Jones supported the City of Charleston's $2-per-week "user fee" on people employed in the city.[1]

Jones was mayor during the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, which had a major effect on Charleston.[12] Jones has strongly criticized Freedom Industries, the company responsible. Jones said: "I can't believe there is not a law against what they did, ... [The leaders of Freedom Industries are] a bunch of renegades who have done irreparable harm to this valley ... Quite frankly, somebody needs to go to jail."[13] Jones questioned whether the company's executives "cared what happened to the public."[12]

In September 2016, Jones left the Republican Party after 45 years, switching his party affiliation to "unaffiliated" and endorsing Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson.[1][14] Jones said that he could not support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and also cited the party's drift to the right.[1][14] Jones specially cited "the obsession of the West Virginia House of Delegates' leadership with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."[1]