Gov. Robert Wise (D) Elected 2000, 1st term up Jan. 2005
Born:	Jan. 6, 1948, Washington, D.C.
Home:	Clendenin
Education:	Duke U., B.A. 1970, Tulane U., J.D. 1975
Religion:	Episcopalian
Marital Status:	married (Sandy)
Elected  Office:	WV Senate, 1980-82; U.S. House of Reps. 1982-00.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1975-80; Dir., WV for Fair & Equitable Assessment of Taxes, 1977-80.
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Bob Wise, a Democrat, was elected governor of West Virginia in 2000. He grew up in Charleston in an affluent family and graduated from Duke and Tulane Law School. He returned home to start a law practice geared to low- and middle-income clients, and led a movement to force coal companies to pay higher taxes. A strong advocate of West Virginia culture--he is renowned for his clog dancing and sensitive to stereotypes about his state--he urges West Virginia students to make their careers, as he did, in their home state. In 1980, he was elected to the state Senate, at 32; with the support of the teachers' union he beat the state Senate President in the Democratic primary. In 1982, he ran for the 3d District House seat (it was renumbered the 2d in 1992), occupied by a Republican who had won in the Reagan year of 1980. It was widely assumed that the Democratic nominee would win the seat and hold it for a long time, and there was serious competition. But Wise, after just two years in office, beat the state House majority leader and a former Kanawha County sheriff with 45% of the vote and then knocked off the Republican incumbent 58%-42%.

In the House, Wise had a generally liberal and often interesting voting record; he supported some conservative policies--repeal of the assault weapons ban, the flag amendment, welfare reform. His biggest legislative success was a 1990 amendment to provide benefits for workers displaced by compliance with the Clean Air Act, with a $250 million cap. He moved to delay EPA's 1998 Clean Air guidelines which would require reductions of nitrous oxide in West Virginia to 44% below 1990 levels, the biggest drop in the nation.

In May 1999, he announced that he would run for governor. Incumbent Republican Cecil Underwood had won in 1996 largely because Democratic nominee Charlotte Pritt, backed by labor unions, was seen as too unfriendly to business and too far to the left; outgoing two-term Democratic Governor Gaston Caperton made little effort to hide the fact that he preferred Underwood. Once in office, Underwood gamely set about running for re-election and in 2000 proceeded to disperse $16 million from the governor's discretionary funds to presumably worthy projects throughout the state. Wise ran with the support of the state's teachers' unions and the United Mine Workers, but sought to avoid the split between labor and business so prominent in the gubernatorial primary of 1996. He had spirited opposition from Jim Lees, who had run third in the 1996 primary and was now spending large sums of his own money on his campaign. He profited from the split among Democrats on mountaintop mining. Articulate liberals and environmentalist groups wanted to abolish the practice, and brought a lawsuit in federal court to do so; most elected officials, including Wise, were against, though in August 1998 Wise called for a moratorium on new permits for mountaintop mining pending the outcome of the court case. In October 1999, a federal judge ruled that mountaintop mining violated federal environmental laws; Wise backed Senator Robert Byrd's attempt to overturn the ruling through legislation. Lees outspent Wise 2-1 in the final two months before the May primary and was endorsed by the Charleston newspapers, the state Sierra Club and the social workers association, but Wise won 63%-37%.

In the general election, Wise said that the economy was not growing fast enough and issued a 28-page job growth plan. He charged that Underwood had failed to implement the CHIP child health care program and had taken the side of big insurance companies on HMO regulation. Education funding would come from taxing and regulating video poker machines--called 'gray machines' in West Virginia--which were then unlicensed and untaxed. In September, Underwood unleashed a series of ads stressing his support for the partial-birth abortion ban and prayer in schools; he touted his support for mountaintop mining and criticized Wise for seeking a moratorium in 1998. Wise got key endorsements from leading state Democrats. Caperton and Senator Jay Rockefeller, who had backed Pritt ardently in 1996, backed Wise in 2000. Senator Byrd, who seldom endorsed other candidates, cut a TV spot for Wise and traveled across the state urging West Virginians to vote for him. Byrd's support may have made the difference. While George W. Bush was carrying the state 52%-46%, Wise won 50%-47%; 21% of Bush voters voted for him. He did especially well in Charleston's Kanawha County, his home base, and in the northern panhandle; his support in the southern coal counties was below historic Democratic levels, and he carried only one county in the Republican-leaning eastern panhandle, though he had represented much of the area for eight years.

In 2001, Wise got the legislature to increase teachers' salaries and legalize and tax gray machines to fund Promise scholarships for college. Interestingly, such programs tend to redistribute money from the less affluent (who are more likely to play video poker) to the more affluent (who are more likely to have children who get good grades in college), but similar programs advocated by Democratic governors have been highly popular in Georgia and other states. He called a special session in October 2001 to deal with the crisis in malpractice insurance: Rates were rising, insurance companies were dropping coverage, and doctors were abandoning specialties or leaving the state. Wise got the legislature to authorize state issuance of malpractice policies and for review by a medical specialist of malpractice cases before a court could hear them. He wanted state insurance to be cheaper than private insurance; the legislature disagreed, except in the event only one company offered coverage--which appeared to be the case in late 2002. But problems continued and in late 2002, doctors and hospital groups were seeking additional curbs on malpractice cases. He also got an increase in the coal industry tax to fund cleanup of abandoned mines.

In 2002, Wise got much of his agenda through, with some changes: The legislature voted for a bigger increase in teachers' salaries than he asked, but restored half the cuts he asked for in higher education and gave him $1.5 million, not $3 million, for a Sunny Day Fund to give him flexibility to attract businesses to the state. Wise vetoed a bill passed by large majorities to give women risk information 24 hours in advance of having an abortion. As revenues came in lower than expected, Wise made spending cuts in late 2002, and the possibility of state payroll cuts loomed in 2003. Wise remained opposed to tax increases, though some legislators called for an increase in the cigarette tax.

Wise comes up for reelection in 2004. Republicans surprised many when they beat the chairmen of the state Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees in November 2002, but Democrats still have large majorities in both the Senate and the House of Delegates. Among those mentioned as possible Republican candidates in 2004 are state Senate Minority Leader Vic Sprouse and Underwood's tax and revenue secretary Robin Capehart; Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito seemed uninterested in seeking the office her father Arch Moore won in 1968, 1972 and 1984. Wise's political fortunes took a turn for the worse in May 2003 when he admitted to an affair with an employee of the state development office. The relationship was revealed after the woman's husband alleged in divorce papers that his wife was involved in a relationship with a man he identified as Wise. "That weasel-faced bastard," said the angry cuckold to the Charleston Daily Mail. "Typical Democrat."

Update: September 23, 2003
On August 12, 2003, Wise announced he would not seek a second term as governor. "I must continue working to heal the pain I caused my family," he said in a statement announcing his decision. "I do this by being a full-time father and husband."

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Office
State Capitol, Charleston 25305, 304-558-2000; Fax: 304-558-2722; Web: www.state.wv.us/governor.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2000 general	Robert Wise (D)	324,822	50%
	Cecil H. Underwood (R)	305,926	47%
	Other	17,299	3%
2000 primary	Robert Wise (D)	174,202	63%
	Jim Lees (D)	101,774	37%
1996 general	Cecil H. Underwood (R)	324,518	52%
	Charlotte Pritt (D)	287,870	46%
	Other	16,171	3%