96-year-old seeks Byrd's Senate seat

WHEELING, W.Va., July 22 (UPI) -- A 96-year-old veteran West Virginian politician has entered the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, officials said.

Ken Hechler said he paid the $1,740 fee to enter the race to highlight the issue of mountaintop removal mining, the Wheeling News-Register reported Thursday.

Hechler served in the U.S. House from 1959-77 and held the office of West Virginia secretary of state from 1985-91, the newspaper said.

"I started out as an activist, then I became an agitator," Hechler said. "Now I'm a hellraiser, and I'm a hellraiser interested enough to spend $1,740 to show how bad mountaintop removal mining really is."

Hechler said he is not seeking the Senate seat "for myself."

"I want to give people an opportunity to vote on the issue of mountaintop removal," he said. "By voting for me, they would be voting against that proposal."

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, also on the Democratic ballot for the Aug. 28 special primary election, has promised to be a proponent of the use of West Virginia's coal as a national energy source if elected to the Senate, the News-Register reported.