Obama Stars, Sort Of, in West Virginia Governor's Race

By Julie Sobel  //  September 12, 2012 | 3:31 p.m.

President Obama continues to be the villain of the West Virginia gubernatorial race, as the Republican Governors Association released their first television ad in the contest.

Republican nominee Bill Maloney has already released an ad containing the line, "Barack Obama promised our children change. But the change he's promised has darkened," and in Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's first ad he says, "Since the day I became governor, I fought the Obama Administration's war on coal."

Wednesday, the RGA released an ad saying that "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck -- Earl Ray Tomblin's plan for state retirees' healthcare sure does look like another plan we've seen: Obamacare."

It's no surprise that Obama has been a focal point in the race: He's deeply unpopular in West Virginia, and Tomblin won't commit to supporting the president in the election. He needs to keep his distance to win, and Maloney needs voters to associate the governor strongly with the president.

Maloney and Tomblin also faced off in a special election last year, and the RGA used the same strategy then: Tying Tomblin to Obama and to Obama's health care plan. While Tomblin won, his victory was extremely narrow and he didn't have Obama at the top of the ballot. Still, this year the race isn't considered one of the cycle's most competitive gubernatorial contests, and this is the first we've seen of the national committees engaging there. Without a lack of polls so far in the race, it's hard to gauge how close it is this year. Maloney, a self-funding businessman, was a first-time candidate last year and exceeded expectations.

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Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief
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