In West Virginia, a familiar name is expected to be on the ballot for a seat in that state’s House of Delegates in 2008.

Ted Arneault Jr., the 24-year-old son of racetrack and casino executive Ted Arneault, is seeking an open seat in the district covering Hancock and Brooke counties in West Virginia, the Charleston Daily Mail reports.

The Arneault name, of course, is well known in Erie, too.

The elder Arneault is the chief executive of MTR Gaming Group Inc., which owns Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va., and Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie.

The younger Arneault told the Daily Mail that his interests are separate from Mountaineer’s. He told the newspaper that he’s interested in reversing the area’s declining population.

Unlike the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the House of Delegates in West Virginia is a part-time gig.

The House is in session from mid-January to mid-March, and for two- to- three-day meetings during each of the other months of the year, said Tamara Pettit, a spokeswoman for Mountaineer who knows something about state politics. She is a former delegate and the current chairwoman of the Hancock County Democratic Party.

Mountaineer is in Hancock County.

No one is getting rich by serving in the House of Delegates. Members get a $15,000 annual salary, plus daily expenses while in the state’s capital city, Pettit said.

— John Guerriero