WILLIAMSON - Teresa McCune's son was furious when he found out that his mother's car window had been smashed.
"Think Mingo politics have changed?" Ryan Donovan wrote April 11 on Twitter. "The cowards smashed mom's car today in broad daylight."
McCune, who is a candidate for circuit judge in Mingo County, had a stack of campaign signs in the backseat of her car when her window was broken.
A red and white campaign magnet was also displayed on the side of the car, which made McCune and members of her campaign think it might have been political.
Plus, the campaign had just wrapped up a successful weekend, McCune recalled. The window was broken the following Monday.
"Nothing in the car was touched so that's, of course, what makes me think it was intimidation," McCune said. "But I'm certainly not going to say who I think did it or accuse other candidates. There are a lot of people that act or say they act or pretend to act on behalf of others."
Politics in Mingo County have a history of being messy.
It's been less than four years since a handful of Mingo officials stepped down before pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.
"I thought maybe it was time some good people ran," McCune said, about why she decided to step out of her comfort zone and run for judge.
She said she's seen others in the county do the same.
"People in Mingo have choices on the ballot this time," McCune said.
McCune, who has served as chief Mingo public defender for nearly 30 years, will face off against Williamson attorney Robert Carlton and incumbent Judge Miki Thompson, who was elected in 2014 after longtime judge Michael Thornsbury stepped down as part of the plea deal he made with federal prosecutors. Judicial elections in West Virginia are now nonpartisan, making primary results final.
"With so many of our former elected officials having faced criminal charges in the last years, no one can really argue there is a culture of corruption," McCune said.
Private investigator Don Stevens said he decided to run for magistrate to try to combat that culture of corruption.
He admits he doesn't have the political connections that some say is what's required in order to win an election in Mingo.
But Stevens does have name recognition, he said, thanks to an unusual set of circumstances.
"They made me a household name when they tried to send me to prison for something I didn't do," said Stevens, referring to, among other county officials, former Mingo prosecutor Michael Sparks and Thornsbury.
While none of the officials were actually charged with crimes involving Stevens, federal prosecutors did provide him with a letter stating that he had been the victim of a crime by Sparks.
Also, according to Stevens, he gets routine updates from the Department of Justice about the status of Thornsbury, a current federal inmate.
Stevens settled a lawsuit earlier this year that he had filed against Sparks and Thornsbury, in which he alleged charges were cooked up against him because it was believed Stevens was investigating the former judge.
Stevens' lawsuit also claimed Sparks and Thornsbury sent two men to beat him up. The two men were never identified, but that's who a state insurance provider agreed to pay Stevens $100,000 on behalf of in order to settle his claims.
Stevens believes that, as difficult as the experience was, it will help him if he's elected magistrate.
"I will have been on the other side of the bench if I'm elected," he said. "Sometimes people say they are innocent and really mean it - I know that."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.