Manchin Replays the Disastrous 2016 Governor's Race Strategy

[This piece was originally published in the Spirit of Jefferson in March, 2019.]

Way back before the beginning of time, in early 2015. West Virginia began to talk about the Governor’s race. Earl Ray Tomblin was finishing up and the seat would be open. After a resounding defeat in the 2014 mid-terms, under former Party Chairman Larry Puccio, that saw Republicans capture both houses of the Legislature, Democrats needed a new message, new messengers, and a strong candidate to defend the Governor’s Mansion against Bill Cole.

Former Senate President Jeff Kessler came out first, declaring himself a candidate and announcing a progressive vision focused on helping working people earn better wages to improve their lives. Within days though, Manchin’s newly-picked Party Chair went on Hoppy Kercheval’s radio program to announce that there would be “other good candidates” in the race. As the Vice Chair I thought the move was pretty unfriendly to Kessler, but we were all much younger then.

Next thing West Virginia knew, the Manchin rumors began to swirl. Barely two years into his Senate term, Joe Manchin wouldn’t say if he would finish the term he’d won or come back home and run for governor again. Was he the “other good candidate” his Party Chair teased on Hoppy? Democrats were frozen. With a Manchin candidacy a possibility, influential Democrats and donors had to wait and see, making it more difficult for Kessler’s candidacy to build momentum and raise money during 2015.

It turned out to be a bluff of course. What Manchin wanted to do was not run for governor himself, but simply to make sure the Party’s candidate would be “his guy.” The uncertainty over a potential Manchin run ended as soon as he had his recruit in place, Jim Justice, to be managed by none other than Manchin’s long-time consigliere, Puccio. Manchin said the Justice campaign was like a dream come true for West Virginia, while making no comments at all about Kessler, who questioned from day one if Justice was even a Democrat.

Stalwart Democrat Booth Goodwin also entered the primary but Manchin’s endorsement turned the Party into a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Justice campaign. The thought of Jim’s billions being turned into ammunition for Democratic campaigns was just too much for many professional politicians to turn down, and the Party apparatus, controlled entirely from Fairmont, fell in line. Every ounce of Party resources was devoted to the top-line race and neither billions, nor millions, nor all that many thousands  materialized for the down ballot.

The result for the West Virginia Democratic Party? Unprecedented catastrophe. Amidst much bold talk of gaining ground in the House and re-taking the State Senate, Democrats lost seats. The celebrated win in the top-line race turned to ashes in a few short months when it turned out that, exactly as Kessler had said, Jim Justice turned out to be a Republican.

Since then West Virginia has endured a steady drumbeat of Republican giveaways to its wealthy donor class. Working families have lost prevailing wage protections, union power, and their voice in Charleston. What might have happened if Manchin had not recruited Justice and pushed him on the Party, no one knows, but the Justice win made for the worst of all worlds. Coal baron Justice, and his friends in the extraction industries run the state. Not only did the Party lose the power of the office it had won in the election, it lost its credibility as an organization dedicated to fighting for the little guy.

So here we are again. Twenty months out from the governor’s race, the Democrats have managed to attract a young, optimistic, organized leader prepared to take the state in a new direction. The Stephen Smith campaign that refuses corporate money has been building a movement from the ground up. It recently barnstormed the state for family-oriented, pot-luck meetings in homes in every part of West Virginia. The tour was so successful it raised over $100,000, much of it in small donations, to fund an ambitious set of events including one in every single West Virginia county.

What’s that sound you hear? Yep, it’s Joe Manchin rushing to Hoppy Kercheval’s microphone. Regular as clockwork he’s “not denying” that he might run for governor. The whole thing worked out so well last time, why not try it again? There’s not much chance of Manchin actually running of course. The unexpectedly close three-point win against Patrick Morrisey earned him a six year term and laying that on the table to run against a billionaire would be contrary to most any politicians’ survival instincts and no one ever says Manchin doesn’t have those.

Manchin won’t be a candidate in 2020. More likely, what he wants is to hold off any kind of organic, grass roots movement within the West Virginia Democratic Party and make sure his “own guy” in the race. Puccio, who went from Manchin’s Party chair, to leader of Manchin’s Country Roads PAC, to Chairman of the Justice campaign, might be looking for a new campaign to run. Who will that candidate be – other than a closet Republican? We’ll see.

The legal term for what’s happened to the West Virginia Democrats is “mortmain.” Mortmain refers to the perpetual, inalienable ownership of something. The literal translation is “dead hand.” The West Virginia Democratic Party is controlled by its past, which is why it has been dying. Despite a massive blue wave leading to nearly forty new Democrats in Congress last Fall, not one of West Virginia’s three districts turned blue. The Party was so busy keeping Manchin on top it never even glanced down the ballot.  It’s time to learn the lesson. The West Virginia Democrats need new ideas, new voices, and new leadership. It needs more Amy Shuler Goodwin, more Sammi Brown, more Bill Ihlenfeld, more Sean Hornbuckle and more Stephen Smith, and a whole lot less of Fairmont’s dead hands on every race and every decision. The time has come for new voices and new leaders. West Virginia can’t wait.