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
Republican
Party of West
Virginia
|
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
|
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."
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%) |
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."
Republican Party of WV | Democratic Party of WV | WV Mountain Party | Libertarian Party of WV |
Monty Warner (R) | Joe Manchin (D) | Jesse Johnson (Mtn) | Phillip Hudok (Const.) |
...Governor | |||
Copyright © 2005 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.