The First 2011 WV Gubernatorial Straw Poll....

The first straw poll for the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial race took place yesterday evening in Charleston, and the results shed light on how the people of Kanawha County may vote.

Senator Jeff Kessler received over 22% of the vote, following Treasurer John Perdue and Speaker Rick Thompson. Kessler is the only gubernatorial candidate from the northern part of West Virginia, as the other five candidates live in or south of Charleston. For the only northern candidate to receive over 22% is nothing short of spectacular!

The most shocking number of the evening was the 6.2% that acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin received.

Overall, the evening was quite interesting. Attendees heard everything from serious campaign speeches, to the word “crossroads” used 1,000 times, to the Speaker singing “County Roads” while playing his guitar. I must admit I kept waiting for the doors of the Women’s Club to open and none other than former Governor Bob Wise to come in clogging!

There are several more straw polls already scheduled around the state between now and May 14^th, and after last night, this Politico in Stilettos feels like she hasn’t seen anything yet.

For more information on the straw poll, check out the article in today’s Gazette.

The battle for the Governor's Mansion begins!

UPDATED!

Rainmaker,Inc. speaking with independent expenditure against major 2011 gubernatorial candidate!

With the West Virginia GOP announcing they chose a Georgia real estate developer to run their party, and Senate President acting as Governor Earl Ray Tomblin hiring all of Senator Joe Manchin’s DC political and media consultants, I realized I hadn’t posted much lately.

Since I love political campaigns more than shoe shopping…

Natalie Tennant is officially kicking off her gubernatorial campaign tomorrow at 11am at Colasessano’s Pizza located in Fairmont. This Marion County native hired former Rockefeller state director Lou Ann Johnson to handle all the Secretary of State’s media relations. That being said, will Rockefeller endorse Tennant?

Rick Thompson hired Mike Plante as his campaign manager, and chose Michael Perry and Bob Shell to serve on his finance committee. For more on those two, check out Alison Knezevich’s post.

Treasurer John Perdue chose Chuck Smith, former state Democratic Party chairman, as his campaign manager.

Looking at a much larger campaign in 2012… I cannot help but wonder if Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis will choose the same person who ran her previous campaigns to run her United States Senate campaign, Linda Arnold.

Kicking through the political glass ceiling, one stiletto at a time

With the official announcement of Betty Ireland running for governor in the 2011 special gubernatorial election just moments ago and with Secretary of State Natalie Tennant’s hat already in the ring, it seems only appropriate to discuss how female candidates will fair in upcoming West Virginia elections.

Yesterday, The Economist posted an article that piqued my interest, “The glass elevator in American politics.” Long has the belief been held that in the American political arena, women continually keep hitting their hair-sprayed heads against a glass ceiling, however, I’m happy to report that with the help of the spikes on our stilettos, we’re breaking through now more than ever.

Ronni Marie Abney of the University of California and Rolfe Daus Peterson of Mercyhurst College, studied down-ticket races in California and found “that voters are, if anything, biased in favor of women.”

“In the Democratic races, women fared much better than men. This might be expected, because voters seem to associate women with more 'liberal' issues…and Democratic primary voters tend to be liberal.” Regarding Republican primaries, voters tended to be more focused on issues like law and order and defense, which seem a little more “manly.” Even this did not put female candidates at any sort of disadvantage. According to the study, “A male name carried no advantage.”

That being said, we have two females running for West Virginia governor in 2011. One was the first female Secretary of State, and one is the current Secretary of State. How do you think both will fair against their male opposition and possibly against each other?