WEST VIRGINIA 5 Electoral Votes

In 2000 the campaign of Vice President Gore had been taken by surprise and ended up losing West Virginia.  That would not happen again; Democrats were on notice.  President Bush worked the state, visiting West Virginia six times before the campaign started heating up in March 2004 and making another eight visits in the final eight months.  The work paid off as Bush improved upon his 2000 showing, despite the Democrats' huge, but somewhat smaller, edge in voter registration (28.34 percentage points in 2004 compared to 32.76 in 2000).  A newspaper ad the Bush campaign ran on July 12, 2004 captures the President's appeal (1).  The ad showed an image of Sen. Kerry and asked "Got Conservative Values?"  Kerry was vulnerable on such issues as abortion (2) and guns, and these issues trumped attempts by his supporters to frame the debate on economic issues (3) or a broader view of faith (4).

The Bush campaign did face a challenge in keeping clear of considerable turmoil in the state Republican party.  Gary Abernathy, who served as executive director of the West Virginia Republican Party from 2001-04, details in his book Elephant Wars how party chair Kris Warner became distracted from the party's broader efforts by the gubernatorial campaign of his brother Monty Warner.  Although Republicans had significant successes on November 2, Abernathy wrote in his book that, "We should have been celebrating many more legislative wins."

One of Bush's electors, South Charleston Mayor Richard Robb, created a bit of a stir in September by stating he might not vote for Bush.  The slate of electors, consisting of the losing candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, had been approved by the 2004 Republican State Convention held in Beckley in June.  While expressing misgivings about Bush, Robb also said it was unlikely he would vote for Kerry and that he was looking at his options.  In the end he remained faithful and voted for Bush.

Also in September an RNC mailing drew some attention.  The flyer which urged recipients to "vote Republican to protect our families" showed a Bible with the word "BANNED" across it, and a man putting a ring on another man's finger with the word "ALLOWED."

Senator Kerry last visited the state on Labor Day, September 6, but his running mate Senator Edwards made four visits in the month and wife Elizabeth made another three
visits.  The Associated Press reported on October 4 that there were a total of "69 paid staffers working statewide for the Kerry-Edwards ticket."  On October 12 the
campaign announced Kerry would visit on October 17.  However the visit was cancelled, and, with poll numbers looking bad, Kerry and the DNC Coordinated Campaign
pulled nearly half of their resources and staff out of the state and transferred them to Ohio, Nevada, and Florida.  In a last ditch effort to boost turnout in the heavily
Democratic southern coalfields, the campaign organized a late October bus tour featuring Sens. Ted Kennedy, Robert C. Byrd, and Jay Rockefeller, along with
gubernatorial nominee Joe Manchin.

Democratic allies were active in West Virginia.  ACT opened an office in Charleston on May 8, 2004.  The United Mine Workers endorsed Kerry.  NEXT, a group of Washington, DC area professionals, focused on Berkeley and Jefferson counties (the two counties at the tip of the panhandle) in their Get On the Bus project.

In sum, in 2004 West Virginians gave Democrat gubernatorial candidate Joe Manchin one of the most lopsided margins in the state's history, almost 30 percent, and at the
same time they favored President Bush by a margin of nearly 13 percent.

1. Bush-Cheney '04 West Virginia newspaper ad, July 12, 2004.
2. Letter of Most Reverend Bernard W. Schmitt, Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, Oct. 20, 2004.
3. Radio and print ads run by The Media Fund in conjunction with President Bush's visit to Parkersburg on May 13, 2004.
4. People of Faith for Kerry newspaper ad, Oct. 30 and 31, 2004.
 
 
Bush-Cheney '04 Kerry-Edwards 2004
Organization details...  details...
BC'04 State Chair: Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito
General State Co-Chair: Bill Phillips, Jr.
Exec. Director: Brian Donahue
Office: 300 Capitol Street, Charleston 

RNC Victory Director: Brent McGoldrick
Comm. Director: Mary Diamond

Republican Party of West Virginia
State Chair: Kris Warner
Exec. Director: Gary Abernathy
Office: 5019 MacCorkle Avenue SW, South Charleston

 KE State Director: Terri Giles
Comm. Director: Amy Schuler-Goodwin
Office: 602 Virginia Street, Charleston

Coordinated Campaign Director: Joe Eyer

Democratic Party of West Virginia
State Chair: Nick Casey
Exec. Director: Scott Sears
Office: 5 Greenbrier Street, Charleston

Travel  compare...
BUSH-CHENEY KERRY-EDWARDS
Final Month (Oct. 2-Nov. 2, 2004)
George W. Bush - 0 visits
Dick Cheney (and Lynne Cheney) - 1 visit (1 day)
Laura Bush (solo) -  0 visits		 John Kerry - 0 visits 
John Edwards - 1 visit (1 day)
Teresa Heinz Kerry (solo) - 0 visits
Elizabeth Edwards (solo) - 0 visits 
Eight Months (March 2-Nov. 2, 2004)
George W. Bush - 8 visits (8 days)
Dick Cheney (and Lynne Cheney) - 4 visits (4 days)
Laura Bush (solo) - 1 visit (1 day)		 John Kerry - 6 visits (6 days)
John Edwards - 8 visits (10 days)
Teresa Heinz Kerry (solo) - 2 visit (2 days)
Elizabeth Edwards (solo) - 2 visits (3 days)

Newspaper Endorsements
BUSH
Morgantown Dominion Post  (10/31/04)
Parkersburg News  (10/24/04)
The Intelligencer [Wheeling]  (10/23/04)
Bluefield Daily Telegraph  (10/23/04) >
Charleston Daily Mail  (10/15/04) 		KERRY
Huntington Herald-Dispatch  (10/30/04)
Times West Virginian [Fairmont]  (10/27/04)
Charleston Gazette  (10/19/04)

-Ogden Newspapers, Inc. endorsed Bush.  ONI owns several West Virginia dailies:  The Intelligencer (Wheeling), The Inter-Mountain (Elkins), The Parkersburg News/Sentinel, The Wheeling News-Register, The Weirton Daily News.
 

NO ENDORSEMENT
Clarksburg Exponent Telegram
"We do not endorse any candidates at our newspaper.  We try to give our readers as much information on the elections, national or local, that is possible so that they can make their own decisions." 
The Register-Herald [Beckley]

More Endorsements
KERRY
United Mine Workers of America, with 50,000 active and retired members in West Virginia, endorsed Sen. Kerry on April 26, 2004 in an event in Moundsville (outside Wheeling), West Virginia.  Before receiving the endorsement Kerry toured the McElroy Mine.

Independent Steelworkers Union  --Aug. 18, 2004
I.S.U., headquartered in Weirton, WV, is the official labor organization of the union-represented employees of the Weirton Steel Corporation.  President is Mark Glyptis; according to the ISU website there are "approximately 3600 card-carrying I.S.U. members."


West Virginia's Largest Counties: 2000 and 2004
In 2004 more than 30,000 votes were cast for President in seven counties: Kanawha, Wood, Cabell, Monongalia, Berkeley, Harrison, and Raleigh.  Here are the top four:

Kanawha County (Charleston)
.2000

.
 .2004

+Gore/Lieberman (D)
38,524
 (50.25%)
.
 Kerry/Edwards (D)
43,010
  (48.92%)
Bush/Cheney (R)
36,809
 (48.01%)
.
 +Bush/Cheney (R)
44,430
 (50.53%)
Nader/LaDuke (G)
948
 (1.24%)
.
 Nader/Camejo (I)
356
 (0.40%)
Others (3+3 w/in)
389
 (0.51%)
.
 Badnarik/Campagna (L)
126
 (0.14%)
Total
76,670
.
 Total
87,922

11.83% of statewide total
Gore plurality:
1,715 (2.24%) 

11.63% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
1,420 (1.61%) 

Wood County (Parkersburg)
.2000

.
 .2004

Gore/Lieberman (D)
12,664
 (37.40%)
.
 Kerry/Edwards (D)
14,025
  (35.76%)
+Bush/Cheney (R)
20,428
 (60.34%)
.
 +Bush/Cheney (R)
24,948
 (63.61%)
Nader/LaDuke (G)
582
 (1.72%)
.
 Nader/Camejo (I)
188
 (0.48%)
Others (3+3 w/in)
183
 (0.54%)
.
 Badnarik/Campagna (L)
62
 (0.16%)
Total
33,857
.
 Total
39,223

5.22% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
7,764 (22.94%) 

5.19% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
10,923 (27.85%) 

Cabell County (Huntington)
.2000

.
 .2004

Gore/Lieberman (D)
14,896
 (46.24%)
.
 Kerry/Edwards (D)
16,583
  (43.70%)
+Bush/Cheney (R)
16,440
 (51.03%)
.
 +Bush/Cheney (R)
21,035
 (55.44%)
Nader/LaDuke (G)
605
 (1.88%)
.
 Nader/Camejo (I)
229
 (0.60%)
Others (3+3 w/in)
275
 (0.85%)
.
 Badnarik/Campagna (L)
98
 (0.26%)
Total
32,216
.
 Total
37,945

4.97% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
1,544 (4.79%) 

5.02% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
4,452 (11.74%) 

Monongalia County (Morgantown)
.2000

.
 .2004

Gore/Lieberman (D)
12,603
 (46.05%)
.
 Kerry/Edwards (D)
16,313
  (47.55%)
+Bush/Cheney (R)
13,595
 (49.68%)
.
 +Bush/Cheney (R)
17,670
 (51.51%)
Nader/LaDuke (G)
942
 (3.44%)
.
 Nader/Camejo (I)
206
 (0.60%)
Others (3+3 w/in)
227
 (0.83%)
.
 Badnarik/Campagna (L)
115
 (0.34%)
Total
27,367
.
 Total
34,304

4.22% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
992 (3.63%) 

4.54% of statewide total
Bush plurality:
1,357 (3.96%) 


Nader
The Mountain Party considered but declined to make Nader its nominee.  Nader then sought to qualify as Independent candidate; his campaign needed to submit 12,962 valid signatures by August 1, 2004 (12,962 is 2 percent of the number who voted in the 2000 presidential election).  The campaign used JSM Inc, a Florida-based firm, to collect signatures.  In mid-July, news reports described several instances of questionable petitioning practices in Charleston, including petitioners covering Nader's name on the petition, not displaying proper credentials, and otherwise misrepresenting their intentions.  The campaign submitted 23,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office on July 29.  Signatures were sent out to county clerks for verification, and on August 17 the Secretary of State's office announced that Nader had submitted over 15,000 valid signatures.  However, on August 23 the Attorney General Darrell McGraw's office, acting at the request of Secretary of State Joe Manchin, filed suit in Circuit Court of Kanawha County seeking an injunction to keep Nader off the ballot because of "doubt as to the legitimacy and the validity" of the petition.  According to the complaint "the signatures were obtained by overt deception."  Judge Tod Kaufman held a hearing on August 30 and on September 2 ruled against the state in its effort to keep Nader off the ballot, finding that the "state interests do not outweigh the harm that would occur from removing these candidates from the ballot." [order]  On September 3 the Attorney General took the matter to the state Supreme Court [petition for injunction].  On September 9 the Supreme Court likewise declined to issue an injunction and Nader's place on the ballot was secure.

West Virginia State Coordinator: Vince George (paid staff member for several months, then volunteer through November)
In 2000 George worked as the campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate Denise Giardina in West Virginia, establishing a new political party, the Mountain Party, via the petition route for ballot access.  He also worked on the 2000 petition drive for Ralph Nader in West Virginai, helping him to gain ballot access.

Post-election quote: "The effort was definitely worth it if only for the human contact that I think is sorely lacking in our civic discourse.  The hypocrisy and fearmongering of the Democrat party and others was very disappointing, to say the least.  Ralph was the best candidate with the best ideas.  The Democrats might start winning again if they would adopt instead of abandon the Nader principles and platforms.  It was an honor and a privilege to work with this iconic citizen activist."


The 2004 Campaign on the Web--West Virginia
1 2 5 4
Republican Party of WV Democratic Party of WV WV Mountain Party Libertarian Party of WV




7 8 9 10
Monty Warner (R) Joe Manchin (D) Jesse Johnson (Mtn) Phillip Hudok (Const.)



...Governor

8





Copyright © 2005  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.