Kerry has a chance to learn from Gore’s West Virgina mistakes

[JohnLocke]

Kerry has a chance to learn from Gore’s W.Va. mistakes
by Robert Rupp -- The Charleston (WV) Gazette
Saturday, March 20, 2004

Although ramps have not yet sprouted in West Virginia, the presidential campaign of John Kerry has begun. It’s only March, and Kerry has started his election efforts in the Mountain State at least a half-year earlier than Al Gore did in 2000.
To understand Kerry’s strategy in West Virginia, one needs to look at various explanations for Gore’s historic loss here in 2000. For more than seven decades, West Virginia had never voted for a first-time Republican presidential nominee. The state had rejected Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. Yet in 2000, Gore lost the state, and with it his chance to claim an electoral majority.
There is a learning curve in American presidential politics, so expect candidate Kerry to learn from the mistakes of Gore in 2000. Explanations for Gore’s defeat can be summed up by (1) his absence, (2) his state organization, (3) his stance on guns, and (4) his vulnerability on steel.
As for (1), a candidate should visit early and often. In 2000, Gore rarely visited the Mountain State. His absence highlighted the unprecedented activity of George Bush, who set the record for the number of appearances by a Republican presidential nominee in West Virginia.
So expect Kerry to come often to our small state, with its 5 electoral votes. It is not by accident that he started his West Virginia campaign in Huntington, for that city was the showcase of Republican efforts in 2000. In October of 2000, candidate Bush not only spoke in Huntington, but spent the night, before going on to his first presidential debate, where he mentioned Huntington. Suddenly, the nation was aware that a Republican candidate was interested in West Virginia.
(...)
In eight months, pundits will tell either one of two stories — how the Kerry campaign restored West Virginia to its Democratic presidential tradition, or how Bush once again captured a Democratic stronghold. Whichever the result, the record shows that Kerry’s early appearance in West Virginia the day before St. Patrick’s Day signals the determined effort by a Massachusetts politician to do what it takes to win.
In this regard, the model for Kerry’s effort in West Virginia should be not just the mistakes of Gore in 2000, but also the accomplishments of John Kennedy — another Massachusetts liberal who came and conquered the Mountain State.
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Rupp is a presidential historian at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
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[JohnLocke]

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