residence successor children birth_place religion nationality party office profession birth_date term_start spouse article_title term_end name alma_mater
south charleston , west virginia , u.s. frank mullens d'arcy ty huntington , west virginia , u.s. methodism american democratic -- 2005 -rrb- -lrb- 2005 -- present -rrb- republican -lrb- 1976 mayor of south charleston , west virginia lawyer 1 march 1946 july 1 , 1975 vicky richie robb
 june 30 , 2007 richie robb marshall -lrb- j.d. -rrb- university -lrb- b.a. -rrb- capital university law school
richie robb

richard allen robb -lrb- born march 1 , 1946 huntington , west virginia -rrb- is an american politician and lawyer in west virginia who gained notoriety during the 2004 united states presidential election .
robb had been mayor of south charleston , west virginia , from 1975 until leaving office in 2007 , making him the state 's longest serving mayor .
he first ventured into statewide politics in the unpaid chairman of the state republican party for a brief period in the early 1990s .
in 2004 , he entered a six candidate primary for the republican nomination for governor of west virginia , finishing fifth .
this was only the first seriously contended republican primary for a major office since 1988 and one of only four since 1930 , when that party lost control of the state .
in an effort to unify the party , the winning candidate had the state convention appoint the five losers as the state 's five electors in the electoral college , rather than the traditional slate of party loyalists .
robb then appeared on cnn and announced that he was a `` free agent '' and opposed the policies of george w. bush .
he announced that he would not cast the `` deciding vote '' for him .
in the end , the electoral results were not close and robb chose not to be a `` faithless elector '' .
he then changed his registration to democratic and declared his opposition to the war in iraq .
he ran for the nomination for the united states congress in the state 's second district on a `` peace platform '' against three other candidates and finished a distant third .
since leaving the mayor 's office , he has represented several small cities in the state as municipal counsel .
in 2010 , robb challenged incumbent state senator erik wells , but lost in the democratic primary .
