West Virginia: Governor

Gov. Joe Manchin (D)

Joe Manchin (D) Elected 2004, 1st term up Jan. 2009
Born:	08-24-1947, Farmington
Home:	Charleston
Education:	WV U., B.S. 1970
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Gayle)
Elected  Office:	WV House, 1982-84; WV Senate 1986-96; WV Sec. of State, 2000-04.
Professional Career:	Co-owner, Manchin's Carpet and Tile, 1968-82; Owner, Enersystems, 1989-2000.
DC Office	1900 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, 25305 888-438-2731 Fax: 304-558-2722 Website: www.wvgov.org
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Joe Manchin, elected governor of West Virginia in 2004, comes from a family involved in politics for many years. Manchin grew up in Farmington, a few miles up Buffalo Creek from the industrial city of Fairmont on the Monongahela River. He remembers working in his grandfather’s grocery store; he also worked in his father’s carpet and furniture store, and took a semester off from college to rebuild it after a fire. His grandfather and father were elected mayor of Farmington; his uncle, A. James Manchin, was elected to the House of Delegates and, statewide, as secretary of state and state treasurer. After graduating from West Virginia University, Joe Manchin went to work in the carpet and furniture business, helping to send his four siblings to college. Then he started a coal brokerage company and eventually moved to Fairmont.

In 1982, at age 35, Joe Manchin was elected to the House of Delegates. In 1986 he was elected to the state Senate; a friend there was “Buffy” Warner, a Republican from next-door Monongalia County, the older brother of Manchin’s 2004 Republican opponent Monty Warner. In 1996, after 10 years in the state Senate, Joe Manchin ran for governor. The Democratic primary was a riproaring contest between Manchin and legislator Charlotte Pritt, who had the support of organized labor. She attacked Manchin as the business candidate; unions opposed him because of his votes on workmen’s comp. Pritt beat Manchin in the 11-candidate primary by 40%-32%. He declined to support her in the general election and attacked her in October; she lost to 74-year-old Republican Cecil Underwood, who had also been elected governor as a 34-year-old in 1956.

Manchin returned to Fairmont and seemed out of politics. But in 2000, when 86-year-old Secretary of State Ken Hechler ran for the U.S. House (where he had served from 1958 to 1976), Manchin ran for his office. So did Charlotte Pritt. This time Manchin beat her in the primary by 51%-29%. He worked with Republican U.S. attorneys to prevent vote fraud and was one of the few secretaries of state to comply with the federal requirement of a statewide voter registry. In May 2003, he announced he was challenging Democratic Governor Bob Wise in the 2004 primary. That seemed a daunting task, for Wise had already raised $1.2 million. But timing is everything: later in the month Wise announced that he had had an extramarital affair and would not seek reelection. In quick time eight Democrats and 10 Republicans joined the race.

In the 1996 governor’s race, Manchin had been tagged as the business candidate. This time he worked successfully to get support from both labor and business. His stands on cultural issues were impeccably conservative: against abortion, gun control, same-sex marriage. But he emphasized economic issues, with a platform for concentrated state effort to spur economic development.

The cast of characters in the May 2004 Democratic primary was not unfamiliar. Manchin’s best financed opponent was former state Senator Lloyd Jackson, who had started running against him in 1996 and then bowed out; another was Charleston lawyer Jim Lees, who had also run in 1996. Jackson ran tough negative ads against Manchin, but they apparently didn’t have much impact. Manchin won with 53% of the vote to 27% for Jackson and 14% for Lees. In the more fragmented Republican primary, Monty Warner, a retired Army colonel and Monongalia County developer, won with 23% of the vote.

Manchin and Warner were old friends; Manchin substituted for the absent Buffy Warner at a family ceremony honoring Monty Warner on his retirement from the Army. They pledged to run a positive campaign, and mostly did. But the advantage was all with Manchin. He had far more money, and his implicitly low-tax platform undercut Warner’s tax-cut, stop-lawsuit-abuse theme. Warner wasn’t invited to appear on stage with George W. Bush during many of his frequent appearances in West Virginia, and Manchin’s business support, plus the formation of a Republicans for Manchin group that included top Bush backers, helped convince the usually Republican Daily Mail to endorse him. The business community concentrated on an ultimately successful attempt to defeat Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw. Republicans also made gains in state legislative races—a dividend, perhaps, of George W. Bush’s 56%-43% victory in the state. But Manchin won by a wider margin, 64%-34%, carrying 52 of 55 counties.

Manchin had been in office for just a year when he gained national renown as the public face of desperate attempts to rescue 13 trapped coal miners after the January 2, 2006 explosion at the Sago Mine in central West Virginia. Manchin, whose uncle was killed in a 1968 accident that claimed 78 men, arrived at the Sago mine within hours of the accident to offer comfort to the families of the miners and act as their main conduit of information. During the two-day ordeal, the governor appeared frequently at news conferences and gave numerous television interviews to national and international media outlets. But he also made an astounding mistake, announcing “the miracle of all miracles,” that 12 of the miners had survived when in fact they had died, an almost unforgivable error considering the temporary euphoria it generated among the grief-stricken families. This was the kind of blunder that would seem a career-ending mistake. But in fact his standing skyrocketed in the polls, largely due to his sincerity and tirelessness but also in small part because West Virginia Republicans decided that the mining accident was a line that they would not cross. Asked by USA Today to comment on Manchin’s performance, the state Republican party chairman said, “There’s nothing political about this crisis. The governor represents the state, and we’re all united in the heartache that we’re all experiencing.”

On January 26, Manchin signed into law a package of mine safety improvements, including wireless emergency communication devices, tracking devices and extra air supplies, and a $100,000 penalty for mine operators that fail to report mine fires and explosions to a central hotline within 15 minutes. After two other deadly mining accidents in the state, Manchin in early February ordered safety inspections at all West Virginia mines. In April 2007, Manchin signed new coal safety laws mandating certain ventilation practices and giving the state the authority to temporarily shut down mines with safety violations.

Taking advantage of his floor privileges and his experience as a former delegate, Manchin has achieved legislative success on other issues. In April 2006, he signed into law eight bills designed to improve state health care, including a new mental health commission, a low-income health care plan providing basic care at clinics around the state, and a catastrophic health care insurance program. He approved a bill that increased the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over two years, though a loophole restricted benefit of the increase to just 2,000 workers. He also signed legislation restricting city governments in taking property in eminent domain cases.

Increased coal mining and video lottery revenue helped boost state tax revenues, which Manchin persuaded the legislature to use to pay down the state’s portion of debt it owes to teacher and other state employee pension funds. Manchin also proposed a law increasing penalties for sex offenders. The bill died in the regular session after Senate Republicans added strict mandatory sentencing language and renamed the bill “Logan’s Law” after an abused child who had been killed. After legislators met in a special June session and approved a compromise bill, Manchin signed it. During a second special session in November 2006, legislators delivered to Manchin a series of tax cuts, including a cut in the food tax and a reduction of business franchise and corporate income taxes.

Manchin enjoyed high approval ratings as Democrats headed into the 2006 elections and he proved to be a popular draw for Democratic candidates. In a bid to shift control of the House of Delegates to Republicans, coal executive Don Blankenship pumped more than $2 million into state delegate races; Democrats ended up improving their majority in the state House by four seats, giving them a 72–28 advantage. After the elections, Manchin added to his legislative success: He raised teacher pay by 3.5%, approved changes to campaign finance law and placed new limits on lawsuits from out-of-state plaintiffs.

Manchin’s popularity has sparked discussions about his political future beyond the governor’s office. He has been mentioned as a future Senate candidate if Jay Rockefeller opts for retirement. Other scenarios envision Manchin appointing himself to succeed Robert Byrd if that Senate seat becomes vacant, as a cabinet member in a future Democratic White House or even as a vice presidential candidate. But Manchin seems far more likely to run for reelection in 2008, and began raising money again in early 2007. The governor will be formidable: he had over $1 million left over from his 2004 race and Republicans have no ready candidate to challenge him.