repubgazette4-25-07shouldgopchallengegopconvention

When I first came to work for the West Virginia Republican Party in 2001, I brought with me the attitude, ingrained in me by my years at the Ohio GOP, that every Democrat must be challenged, every seat must be contested.

Clearly, part of the reason for the failure of the West Virginia GOP over the years to make gains had been its decision, conscious or otherwise, to cede as many as 40 percent of the available seats up for election in the Legislature every two years. That fact undoubtedly has contributed to the lopsided voter registration in favor of the Democrats that exists today, as more and more West Virginia voters realized over the years that elections were being decided in the Democrat Primary, with November serving only as a coronation.

The new state GOP chairman, Kris Warner, was in complete agreement with the "challenge every race" philosophy, and off to the races we went.

In 2002, we ended up challenging about 80 percent of the available legislative seats, with impressive results, to wit, a total of seven pickups in the House of Delegates and four in the state Senate.

By 2004, we finally hit the magic goal, with a Republican candidate for every seat and every statewide office in that November's General Election.

The result? We picked up three more Senate seats, one more Delegate seat, and successfully defended all our incumbents. While the Delegate pickups could have been more, the fact is we began the election technically down by four seats to begin with, with one retirement, two House members running for the Senate, and one running for governor.

So, over the course of two elections, we netted seven pickups in the Senate and eight in the House of Delegates.

But the picture is not as simple as it may appear at first glance. In 2002, the only major statewide race on the ballot was Jay Rockefeller's campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate. Rockefeller was challenged by Republican Jay Wolfe, whom Rockefeller did not fear and therefore spent comparatively little money defeating.

In 2004, Joe Manchin was, of course, a juggernaut, but his effect on the rest of the ticket was offset by a major effort from the Bush campaign and the high-profile race that defeated Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw at the hands of Brent Benjamin.

Then came 2006. Everyone has an opinion about what went wrong for the GOP. First and foremost, a president at his lowest ebb, and a war growing more unpopular were major factors across the nation. In West Virginia, Robert C. Byrd -- obviously respecting the deep pockets of Republican challenger John Raese, and the scare Raese had delivered to Rockefeller in the 1980s -- ran probably the most aggressive reelection bid of his life, both in terms of money and in personal activity.

Byrd and his party, with an eye not just on Raese but on the millions coming from Don Blankenship in support of House of Delegate candidates -- had one mantra for Democrat voters throughout the campaign: "pull the rooster," i.e., vote straight ticket. And it worked, with Democrats flocking like robots to the polls to obey their ancient leader one more time.

Now, as we approach the 2008 campaign, Republicans are internally debating the wisdom of competing aggressively

against Rockefeller and Manchin next year, and GOP Chairman Doug McKinney is on the receiving end of no shortage of solicited and unsolicited advice on this topic.

(On Hoppy Kercheval's "Talkline" program Tuesday morning, West Virginia's own version of George Will, State Journal columnist and Republican ally Chris Stirewalt, seemed to weigh in on the side of letting sleeping dogs lie.)

Simply put, the theory goes, if Rockefeller feels threatened, he will open his checkbook and write as many zeros as necessary to the degree that it lifts all Democrat boats right along with his own yacht, much as Byrd did last year.

Similarly, Manchin, already having raised a couple of million dollars, will be in a position to spend whatever it takes as well.

Conversely, if Rockefeller and Manchin are unchallenged, or face only token opposition, they will likely keep their wallets in their pockets, thereby affording Republicans a better shot at all the down-ticket races, races aided also by the likelihood of the state voting Republican again in the presidential contest.

This is the real dilemma facing the GOP in many cycles, although in 2008 it may be a phantom problem. Among all the Republican candidates who might consider either a Rockefeller or Manchin challenge, there are only three who would even register on Rocky or Mojo's political radar screen -- Shelley Moore Capito, Betty Ireland and John Raese (Brent Benjamin would be a fourth, but that's not happening.)

I have no inside intel on this, but I am confident Capito's not making that move. Ireland has already indicated a preference for a state Senate race in order to focus more time on the care of her elderly parents. Raese is as unpredictable as spring weather.

Chances are, by plan or by circumstance, Rockefeller and Manchin are not going to be feeling much heat in November 2008. And the fact that that is a good thing for the Republican Party as a whole is a sad commentary on West Virginia politics and its antiquated straight-ticket voting system.

Only 15 states continue to allow straight-ticket voting by means of casting one vote at the top of the ballot to automatically vote for every candidate in a party. Missouri was the latest state to do away with it, just last year.

Even as a diehard partisan, I would consider it rather embarrassing to be so mindlessly wedded to the dictates of any party boss. Even if they intend to vote for all Democrats or all Republicans, voters should prefer to do so race by race, person by person.

The Democrats, of course, fear such independent thinking by voters, which is why they beg so desperately for voters to "pull the rooster." And by agreeing to do so over the years, voters have avoided actually looking at names like Mezzatesta or McGraw, and their guilt is much assuaged.

But as long as straight-ticket voting and its zombie-like disciples exist, and as long as we have multi-delegate districts (which also severely penalize Republicans), the state GOP has no choice but to wrestle with whether the benefits of unnecessarily motivating a Byrd, Rockefeller or Manchin are worth the risks to the rest of the Republicans on the ballot.

It is a question with no easy answer. Either conclusion is a disservice to voters and a no-win for the GOP, as is so often the case in regard to the state the Democrats have created in their image, and the inheritance they fight to preserve.