CHARLESTON — Mark Hunt is a Republican state senate candidate and is currently the frontrunner in The Journal’s primary polling. In an interview with The Journal, Hunt discussed his tenure and accomplishments while serving in the House of Delegates.
“I was a member of the House for 14 years previously. And during that time, I had some great successes,” Hunt told Mountaineer Journal. “I had 100 bills passed in my name, and I had millions of dollars of projects funded for my district. I served and represented three different districts, because of redistricting.”
Hunt expressed the primary motivation for his candidacy is to create harsher penalties for child sexual predators. Hunt believes that there are several deficiencies in state law that are too lax on predators that seek prostitution from minors.
“A lot of the work I wanted to finish remains undone. For instance, one of the last things that I was in a quest to do was to make our children safer from predators. I sponsored and got enacted, a number of years ago, Megyn’s Law. And then I also sponsored and got enacted a bill that prohibits sex offenders from changing their names to subvert Megyn’s Law.”
Hunt cited §61-8-5 of the WV Code that reads, “Any person who shall solicit, induce, entice, or procure another to commit an act of prostitution, lewdness, or assignation; shall, upon conviction for the first offense under this section, be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not less than 60 days nor more than six months, and by a fine of not less than $50 and not to exceed $100.”
“Right now, we still have some gaps in the laws in West Virginia regarding sexual predators. For instance, if someone solicits a child for sex, and is unsuccessful, it’s only a $50 fine.
And I understand. I was working with an FBI task force, when I left my last session of the legislature. They just can’t live with that. So, everyone who is caught with that offense in West Virginia, they take it federal.
That’s one of the laws that I want to get changed. It’s the same offense for soliciting a child, as it is for soliciting a 40-year-old prostitute. There is something way wrong with that. The FBI has numbers that say these men who do this type of thing, if they’re not successful, there is a 100 percent chance they will eventually be successful.
So, there are still some gaps and problems in our laws, as it relates to predators, and those are some of the things that I would hope to get back involved in and fix.”
Mark Hunt also expressed that he opposes The Fairness Act, the infamous bill that allows biological men to use girls’ restrooms merely by identifying as the opposite sex. Hunt called the bill “ridiculous.”
“I don’t think it’s needed. The Constitution provides us all with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So, we’re all covered under the United States Constitution. In addition to that, we have both the state and federal Human Rights Act, that says (basically), ‘No one can be discriminated against.’ So, we’re adding layers and layers of bureaucracy that’s not needed.”
Hunt is the likely Republican nominee, following in the May Primary.