Gov. Tomblin appoints Cookman to State Senate
Charleston, W.Va. – West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin appointed Donald H. Cookman, of Romney, to fill the State Senate seat left vacant when former Senator Walt Helmick was elected Commissioner of Agriculture.
Cookman has served as a circuit judge since 1993. His experience includes temporary assignments as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals. His public career includes service as the Hampshire County Prosecuting Attorney, President of the West Virginia Judicial Association and chairperson of the Judicial Ethics Commission.
Cookman was recently appointed by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia as one of three judges on the newly created State Business Court. A graduate of Romney High School, Cookman attended WVU on a football scholarship before graduating from the West Virginia University College of Law in 1971.
Cookman, a Democrat, will represent the 15th senatorial district for the two years remaining in Helmick’s term. The 15th District includes Hampshire, Hardy, Morgan, Pocahontas, Randolph and Pendleton counties, and parts of Berkley, Grant and Upshur counties. The district’s other state senator is Republican Clark Barnes, of Elkins.
Cookman resides in the current 15th District but outside the newly drawn 11th District, of which Pocahontas County is a part. Cookman stated in an interview, to be aired starting with Noon Hour on Friday, that if he runs for re-election, it would be for the 15th District. Therefore, Cookman will be Pocahontas County’s state senator for just two years.