repubgazette6-25-07edwardsgiulianimoneybusinessattraction

Having Fun

With Mojo

Of course I get all the credit!

Hey kids! Mojo here! Did you hear the news? Some magazine no one ever heard of until now says West Virginia is the 8th best state for attracting business! That means my slogan works! Yes, it's true that the study looked at business activity over the past eight years, and I was only the governor the last two of them! But everybody knew eight years ago I was going to be governor real soon! They knew it even after I lost to Charlotte Pritt in the Primary in '96, and they especially knew it when I got elected Secretary of State in 2000! And even if old Cecil gets some of the credit, guess who helped get him elected? Right! I made sure Charlotte lost and Cecil won! So it looks like I'm the one to thank! You're welcome!

It may not be an official poll, but if the winners of the presidential race in West Virginia were decided on the basis of which candidate had raised the most money from the Mountain State as of the end of March, John Edwards was leading the Democrat pack, while Rudy Giuliani was the frontrunner on the GOP side among declared candidates.

According to FEC records from the first quarter, West Virginians had so far ponied up about $130,000 to various presidential campaigns -- $95,000 to Democrats, $35,000 to Republicans. It will be interesting to compare these figures with the new ones that will come in on July 15 for the second quarter.

But early on, John Edwards had raised more from West Virginia than any other candidate, claiming about $72,000. Among other Democrats, Hillary Clinton had raised about $11,000, Barack Obama had pulled in roughly $9,000, Joe Biden had netted about $2,000, and Bill Richardson had raised enough for a roundtrip airfare with $700, all from one donor, John Simmons of Sommersville.

Among Edwards' biggest donors were several who have given at least $2100 -- presumably most of it at a Charleston fundraiser -- including Harry Bell, Jim Humphreys, Scott Segal and David Grubb, all of Charleston. Other notable Edwards supporters include Brooks McCabe, Jon Caine, Pat Maroney and Steven White, all of Charleston, as well as Harvey Peyton of Nitro and Warren McGraw (yes, that one, we presume) of Prosperity.

As for Hillary, most of her West Virginia funds have come from Gireesh Bembalkar of Beckley, who has given $4600. Other donors include Harry Deitzler of Charleston and Robin Dolly of Moorefield.

Obama is best loved by Joe McGraw of Lewisburg, who has given $2300, as has Julie Bonneford of Bunker Hill. William DePaulo of Charleston and Karen Fitzpatrick of Morgantown, among others, have given lesser amounts.

Giuliani raised about $18,000 to lead the GOP pack in West Virginia, but it all came from five Charleston sources, primarily the Robert Gould and James Reed families. Bennett Hatfield, John Barber and Peter Bridke have also contributed.

Mitt Romney was second among Republicans with about $14,000 raised from folks including Philip Cline of Huntington ($2100), John Elliott of Charleston ($2000), George McCune of East Bank ($2100) and Timothy and Janet Sheldon of Moatsville ($2100 each).

John McCain had pulled in just $1950 from West Virginia, with the largest contribution being one of $500 from Henry Willard of Shepherdstown.

West Virginia's giving was paltry compared to the national scene, where all candidates combined raised more than $157 million. Democrat candidates raised $95 million, Republicans $62 million.

California led the way with donations totaling more than $20 million ($12 million to Dems, $8 million to Republicans). New York had given more than $19 million ($13 million to Democrats) while Texas gave $8 million, slightly more to Republicans than Democrats.

Among neighboring states, Ohio ponied up $1.5 million; Pennsylvania $2.3 million; Maryland $2.7 million; Virginia $3.8 million; and Kentucky about $800,000.

You can't blame Mojo for heralding the news, but the ranking, compiled by Expansion Management Magazine in cooperation with the National Policy Research Council, was actually based on a study of business activity over the last eight years -- in other words, beginning with the Underwood years.

According to Expansion Management Magazine, West Virginia ranked 8th over the "most recent eight year period" -- presumably 1998-2006 -- in the number of businesses that relocated to another market and the number of branches opened.

Results of governmental economic policies always take a few years to recognize their fruits, be they positive or negative. Any good news that has occurred over the past eight years must largely be credited to former Gov. Cecil Underwood, and to a degree former Gov. Bob Wise. But nothing initiated by Manchin will show results for at least another year or two.

There are several flaws in the magazine study -- for example, it doesn't seem to account for the number of businesses that have packed up and left West Virginia during that same time frame. And there's a lot that needs to be explained about how the state can rank so high on this report and yet as recently as last year rank just 49th among the best states to do business in a Forbes Magazine study.

But having West Virginia ranked as high as eighth in any business news is something worth savoring for a while. The mistake would be to misinterpret the reasons for the ranking, or to sacrifice a serious look at what might have been done right a few years ago for the sake of scoring political points for the current administration.