Bear gets state GOP on Nov. 4
By Jess ManciniSome days you get the bear.
Other days the bear gets you.
It looks like the bear got the Republican Party in West Virginia again on Nov. 4.
The party came nowhere close to achieving a goal of having a majority in the Legislature where it comprises less than a third of the 134 seats 100 in the House and 34 in the Senate.
Majority membership was a party goal and was encouraged by advances in the 2000 and 2004 elections when gains were not just made in the Legislature. Voters also elected Republicans Betty Ireland secretary of state and Brent Benjamin to the Supreme Court, sending Warren McGraw packing.
On Nov. 4, no Republicans were elected to statewide office, including secretary of state, two Democrats were elected to the Supreme Court and the party lost three seats in the Senate where Democrats will outnumber Republicans 26-8. It didn't field a candidate to run for auditor and treasurer among the more than 30 campaigns for statewide and legislative offices. In politics, someone has to take the blame.
The state went to Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama for president, but that apparently didn't help Republicans on the state level. It tells me that race was the factor as predicted. One of the positive notes for the party was in the House of Delegates where there was a one-seat gain (71 Democrats to 29 Republicans) and all the Republican incumbents targeted by the West Virginia Democratic Party won, including Tom Azinger of Wood County and Mitch Carmichael of Jackson County. Shelly Moore Capito, who some see as the face of the state Republican Party in the future, won re-election when voters nationwide rejected 20 other Republican congressmen.
Winning is everything is everything and losing is absolutely nothing for political parties. It is the prime directive for hacks and hangers on who live by political fortunes. Winners hire, award contracts and set policy. Winners make the rules and losers don't.
At least two Republican contacts this year told me, one about a month before the Nov. 4 general election, to watch for changes on the state level. State party Chairman Doug McKinney may be the fall guy who they throw under the bus. McKinney was criticized earlier this year when he told Republicans the only way the party could avoid deficit spending was to dissolve the organization unless donations increased.
I heard similar rumblings before and after the 2004 general election when former chairman Kris Warner, a key player toward the party's 2008 goal, was ousted.
Warner's tenure turned sour in the later years, a hero when the party did well, then the goat for putting party money into his brother Monty's unsuccessful campaign for governor at the detriment of party coffers and legislative candidates. The party debt rose to $190,000.
Maybe it's unfair to blame chairmen. If voters wanted to elect more Republicans, they would vote for them.
But someone has to take the blame. That's the rule in politics.
Contact Jess Mancini at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com
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Lizzard
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11-14-08 9:01 AM
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80 years of democrat rule--how's that workin' out for ya?
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Lizzard
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11-14-08 9:00 AM
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No, race was NOT the factor. I'm sure there are some closet (and not-so-closet) racists in WV, but every state has them. Think maybe voters didn't identify with too many of Obama's far-left positions on multiple issues they hold dear? The fact he's a big fat Marxist surely had no effect on voters' opinions... I agree that the state Republican leadership has got to improve, but when every union tells its members they're democrats, even when their personal beliefs say otherwise, voter sheep stupidity when selecting state officeholders has to be considered as well. WV voters overwhelmingly supported Sen. Clinton in the Dem primary. Days later, its two senators turned around and endorsed the other candidate. Can't believe that voters didn't remember that. (Duh...) I guess we're stuck with Rockefeller for life.
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