Ken Hechler was first elected to the U.S. House in 1958 — the same year fellow West Virginia Democrat Robert C. Byrd was elected to the U.S. Senate. Now 52 years later, Hechler is seeking the Senate seat left vacant after Byrd’s death. He is competing against Gov. Joe Manchin and former delegate Sheirl Fletcher of Monongalia County. “I was elected to the House the same year as Sen. Byrd, and we served side-by-side for 18 years,” Hechler told students at Wheeling Jesuit University Wednesday night. “I feel I am qualified for the seat because I am able to exert the same type of leadership as he did. “I believe the seat belongs to ‘we the people,’ not one person. That’s why I think he deserves competition,” Hechler said of Manchin. Hechler, who turns 96 next month, explained how he came to first get involved in politics while a professor at Marshall University. “I always told the students your obligation is to participate in politics,” he recounted. “One day, a group of them came up to me and asked, ‘What’s your excuse? Why don’t you run? We’ll help you. “There’s nothing like student power to go out and ring door bells. They’re great campaigners and are enthusiastic. They have no ax to grind.” Hechler told the students that it’s his opposition to mountain top removal mining that made him enter the 2010 special election for U.S. Senate.