The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Election Central

November 8, 2006

Long blames Democrat voters, not Blankenship, for loss

Mannix Porterfield

Joe Long says Democratic voters in Raleigh, Summers and Wyoming counties ignored the real issues and looked solely at Massey Energy chief Don Blankenship in rejecting all but one Republican candidate in Tuesday’s general election.

“I’m not blaming Don Blankenship as such because of our losses,” the Raleigh County Republican chairman said Wednesday.

“I’m blaming Democrats for not considering my candidates. All they were concerned about was Blankenship.”

In the two-county 27th District, where Democrats boast a 2-1 voter registration edge, the lone GOP winner was Delegate Linda Sumner, who led the ticket.

Four other delegate candidates went down — Dereck Severt, Ron Hedrick, Chuck Carpenter and Philip Stevens — along with state Sen. Russ Weeks, R-Raleigh, in the 9th District.

Blankenship ran constant television ads attacking Democratic incumbents in the race and touting all five GOP candidates.

Long said he harbored no hard feelings against Blankenship for pouring thousands of dollars into the race — a factor he acknowledged turned some Democratic voters against his candidates.

“That’s his right,” he said. “He can do what he wants to do with his money. Who knows, maybe he’ll support some Democrats the next time. He has supported them in the past. They didn’t dislike him then.”

Blankenship was merely attempting to focus on some major issues, ones the Democrats chose to ignore in sinking the GOP ship, he suggested.

“They didn’t consider us at all,” Long said. “They were anti-Blankenship votes. We took the brunt of them. My candidates were superior in the 9th and 27th districts. I had better candidates. We only had one elected, but I think we had better candidates.”

More than 4,000 Democrats marked straight-ticket ballots, the GOP chairman said.

“We have lost without Blankenship and we have lost with Blankenship,” he said. “So how can I blame Blankenship? We lost without him two years ago. We lost with him this year. That’s what bothers me — people don’t look at the issues.”

Long indicated another factor could have been a trickle-down effect of a national fallout over the war in Iraq and other issues that turned voters against some Republicans.

Even so, he said, West Virginia has its own problems not connected with national matters.

“We’re still down at the bottom, regardless of what’s taken place in Congress,” he said.

“We still have people living in poverty and people not making enough money and people moving out of the state. That’s still occurring. The sad thing is, we need to take care of West Virginia first and that’s not being done. We’ll see what happens in the next two years. We may be back saying, not 75 years of one-party rule, but 77, and we’re still at the bottom.”

— E-mail: mannix @ register-herald.com

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