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One can only imagine the behind-the-scenes stresses accompanying West Virginia's Governor, Joe Manchin, these days. For starters, Manchin finds himself in a surprise, neck-and-neck race with Morgantown businessman John Raese, now the political contest of the Governor's life.   But unlike Raese, Manchin also has to deal with the serious legal and public relations problems associated with a federal investigation into his administration that is getting increasingly close to the Governor himself. The Charleston Gazette's Phil Kabler put it succinctly in last Saturday's piece, "Two factors could play key role in election":   "From the administration's perspective, two troubling events...

(Martinsburg, W.V.) West Virginia governor Joe Manchin once supported Obamacare, saying days before it passed in March that he'd vote "for it" if he were in the House of Representatives. Now, in the midst of a tight Senate race with Republican John Raese, the very popular Manchin has run away from the very unpopular health care law. He's called for for "repealing the things that are bad," such as the individual mandate, the federal funding for abortion coverage, and the 1099 reporting requirement for businesses. But he hasn't gone into great detail about what, exactly, he supports in the law.  Asked Friday night if he wants...

Here is video of University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato this morning saying he believes the GOP will win the House by “a wide margin.” Sabato said the latest polling shows the Washington Senate race is going to be “extremely close,” and may be trending Republican, which would be an additional GOP gain to what he had as his final projection last week. Sabato said only West Virginia seems to be moving in the Democrats’ direction. He said that early on Election Night, if West Virginia winds up going to the GOP, he believes the GOP “will win the Senate...

CHARLES TOWN - From the Ohio River to the Eastern Panhandle, West Virginians are fed up. They're disappointed in their politicians and disgusted with how they're behaving. They're frustrated their taxes helped fund bailouts they'd never get. They're tired of career politicians, yet wary of those who want to replace them. But that anger makes them unpredictable: Interviews with dozens of would-be voters from Parkersburg to Charles Town suggest that many are just as likely to cast a protest vote on Election Day as they are to stay home. "We need some Americans, instead of Democrats and Republicans,'' says Ed...

The Senate contest in West Virginia is between Joe Manchin's popularity and Barack Obama's unpopularity and in the end it looks as though Manchin's popularity will win out. Manchin leads John Raese 51-46 in PPP's final look at the race. Manchin is the most popular politician we've polled on anywhere in the country this year and it's by a wide margin. On this final poll his approval rating hit the 70% mark with only 22% disapproving of him. Usually you would expect someone with those kinds of numbers to have an easy time of it but Manchin's been hampered by...

Republican John Raese says former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be joining rocker Ted Nugent at a weekend rally in Charleston for his U.S. Senate campaign. Raese spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said both Palin and her husband will be at the Saturday afternoon event, slated for Haddad Riverfront Park...

NEWELL, W. Va. — Governor Joe Manchin is running what seems to be a classic Republican campaign for the US Senate in West Virginia. He blasts “Obamacare,’’ files a lawsuit against environmental laws, and — literally — fires a bullet at a mock-up of climate-change legislation. He boasts of his endorsement by the US Chamber of Commerce, his A rating from the libertarian Cato Institute, and his conservative fiscal credentials. The catch: Manchin is the Democratic nominee. And even this effort to distance himself from President Obama and his own party hasn’t assured him of victory in the Mountain State....

A federal investigation into West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin’s administration has taken a disturbing turn for his Democratic supporters: agents reportedly have subpoenaed the director of the state Aviation Division, along with flight logs and records for official government aircraft. The news comes just after federal prosecutors privately asked a judge to delay the sentencing of a contractor who got a no-bid contract to redecorate Manchin’s office. And the developments are set against an ongoing government probe reportedly involving state Democratic Party chairman Larry Puccio, Manchin’s former chief of staff. It’s highly unlikely the federal investigation will be resolved before...

An ongoing federal grand jury investigation of the Manchin administration took a new turn Monday, with sources confirming that federal subpoenas were issued for the state Aviation Division director and for records maintained by the Aviation Division. The subpoenas were issued for director Keith Wood and for division flight records. Department of Justice investigators first issued subpoenas in August 2009, seeking records from the Division of Highway's Right-of-Way Division. That sparked speculation that the investigation might have something to do with then-Manchin chief of staff Larry Puccio, co-owner of Puccio and York LLC, a Fairmont-based real estate appraisal firm. The...

The Spirit of the Wild is coming to the West Virginia Senate race. Rock guitarist Ted Nugent will campaign for Republican John Raese this weekend, days before the GOP nominee and Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin face off in the highly competitive race to succeed the late Sen. Robert Byrd. Nugent, a controversial gun rights advocate, is scheduled to headline a rally for Raese and perform a concert Saturday in Charleston, W. Va. After years of being outnumbered in the solidly Democratic state, West Virginia Republicans are pulling out all the stops for Raese’s campaign – which is widely regarded as...

A new Public Policy Polling poll shows Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin ahead of Republican senate candidate John Raese, 50 percent to 44 percent.   Manchin’s ratings for his job performance as governor continues to be high, with 69 percent approving. President Obama continues to have very low ratings, with only 31 percent approving of him. “The reason this race has remained close despite Manchin’s overwhelming popularity is that for the folks who both like Manchin and dislike Obama, accounting for 37 percent of voters in the state, the feelings toward Obama have been more influential in how they plan to...

Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, declined over the weekend to endorse Barack Obama for a second term for president or Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as Senate majority leader in interviews with Politics Daily. "That's such a hypothetical thing, but basically I think there's two more years that have to play out," Manchin said when I asked him if he expects to endorse Obama for a second term. "Things have got to change. People will have time to evaluate and make a decision over the next two years and four years. I just think...

After a bad couple of weeks, Republicans worried that Joe Manchin might have overtaken John Raese in the race to replace the late Robert Byrd in the US Senate. A new Fox News poll shows that Manchin made up ground on Raese, but the Republican still holds a narrow lead over the Democrat in West Virginia. Barack Obama’s agenda worries voters more than a casting call for a political ad, apparently: Republican John Raese still leads Democrat Joe Manchin in West Virginia’s rough and rowdy Senate race despite a pair of controversial television ads, according to the latest Fox News...

WEST Virginians must soon choose who will represent them in the U.S. Senate for the next two years. The issue in the race is how Democrats have used their 59-41 majority,  and whether West Virginians want to see more of the same. The Daily Mail endorses Republican John Raese. Make no mistake. That choice is painful. Gov. Joe Manchin is one of the most engaging and effective governors in the state's history. He has tackled many of the state-erected barriers to economic growth - a broken workers' compensation system, uncompetitive tax rates, an unfair legal climate. The governor also has...

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin appears in a new television ad firing a gun, while telling viewers he will "take on Washington and this administration and get the federal government off our backs and out of our pockets." Manchin's Republican opponent, John Raese, has attacked Manchin as a sure "rubber stamp" for President Obama and Washington Democrats if elected to the U.S. Senate and the strategy may be working, with the well known governor trailing in the polls. In the newly released ad, Manchin tries to change that perception by promising to "repeal the bad parts of Obama care," using...

Republican John Raese now holds a six-point lead on Democratic Governor Joe Manchin in West Virginia’s shockingly competitive U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in West Virginia finds Raese with 50% support, while the state’s highly popular governor earns just 44% of the vote. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. These findings now move this race from a Toss-Up to Leans GOP in the Rasmussen Reports Election Senate Balance of Power rankings.

An aggressive conservative group linked to former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove is launching a get-out-the-vote blitz in West Virginia to help Republican John Raese in his bid for U.S. Senate. The group, American Crossroads, says the effort will be extensive and will use enhanced voter files and data on early and absentee voting patterns to target Republican and independent voters with mailers and phone calls. The Mountain State is the ninth where American Crossroads is investing. The others are Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire and Washington.

The NRSC is going up with an ad in West Virginia on Friday, a sure sign that Republicans believe their chances in the state are on the rise. The ad, which is backed by a $1.2M buy, hits on the campaign strategy businessman John Raese (R) has already been using: Tie Gov. Joe Manchin (D) to Pres. Obama. "Joe Manchin supports Barack Obama's big government agenda," the narrator says. "Manchin supported Obama's stimulus plan, which wasted $800B...Big spending, more government, less freedom. We don't want a rubber stamp for Obama, we can't afford Joe Manchin in Washington." The ad, first...

The NRSC is highlighting West Virginia governor Joe Manchin's recent claim to West Virginia Gazette reporter Alison Knezevich that he wouldn't have voted for Obamacare: "I wouldn't have voted for the final version of that thing with the way that it came out." The NRSC points out a YouTube clip of Manchin saying he was "totally behind health care reform." But that was from September 2009. Manchin, now the Democratic candidate for Robert Byrd's vacant Senate seat, could have easily changed his mind between then and the vote on the "final verion" of "that thing" in March 2010. But he...

These days, it’s hard to get shocked by polling results that show Republicans surging in once-safe Democratic constituencies, but the latest survey from PPP in West Virginia manages to do it. Republican John Raese, given virtually no chance at all to win the Senate race against popular Governor Joe Manchin when he declared his candidacy this summer. Raese has now just jumped into a lead, albeit within the margin of error, as Manchin collapses: