CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Third parties again spent a lot of money this election season.
But the big-ticket spending pushes, just as in the 2006 elections, again failed to sway voters.
Third parties this election year spent more than $2 million, compared to $1.4 million in the 2006 elections.
Two high-profile, big-dollar ad campaigns sought unsuccessfully to influence races.
The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce spent $1.5 million in an attempt to salvage state Supreme Court Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard's doomed re-election campaign.
Money also was used to try to win Republican Beth Walker a seat on the Supreme Court and to oust Democrat Darrell McGraw from the Attorney General's post.
All those efforts failed.
Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party spent $103,969 to try to oust incumbent Republicans from the House of Delegates and to block one GOP candidate's attempt to get back in.
The incumbents kept their seats. The party had one success in keeping former Delegate Cindy Frich from getting re-elected.
That situation was reminiscent of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's spending $1.9 million two years ago to try to oust Democrats from the House of Delegates. Blankenship's push - through the And For The Sake Of The Kids campaign - targeted 42 Democratic candidates. All but one failed.
Robert Rupp, a political scientist at West Virginia Wesleyan College, says there are a few reasons for the lack of success, despite the big bucks.
The big spending by third parties in the last two elections is rooted in the 2004 state Supreme Court election, Rupp said. That year, Blankenship spent more than $3 million on an advertising blitz aimed at incumbent Justice Warren McGraw.
The campaign helped assure victory for Justice Brent Benjamin, a Republican. Benjamin defeated McGraw in that year's general election.
But Rupp says the circumstances then were a "perfect storm" for Republicans, especially in the Supreme Court race, and that's probably why the third-party tactic worked.
George Bush defeated John Kerry in a landslide in West Virginia for the presidency, for example.
Warren McGraw also was a vulnerable candidate, having had a tough battle in the primary against challenger Jim Rowe, Rupp noted.
Coming off that victory, Blankenship probably thought lightning could strike twice, Rupp said.
But West Virginians tend to favor their incumbents, Rupp believes He said that's likely why Blankenship's 2006 efforts failed, and it's also probably why the Democratic Party's effort this year failed, too.
But incumbency isn't always a candidate's ace in the hole.
In the Supreme Court elections this year, Maynard's campaign began struggling not long after it began. It was about the same time photos of the justice and Blankenship together on the French Riviera surfaced in connection with a pending appeal.
Maynard's foes latched onto the photos to portray Maynard as not balanced m his office.
Still, the state Chamber of Commerce waged a nearly half-million-dollar campaign to help Maynard. but he lost in the primary election.
Walker showed well in the primary but was trailing in the polls heading into the general election.
Nevertheless, the chamber pumped $403,174 into a media blitz to help get her elected That effort failed, too.
Perhaps the best money spent by the chamber was the 5694,858 it spent to try to take down Darrell McGraw McGraw still won the election over GOP challenger Dan Greear. but by only a 5,312-vote margin. There were other groups attacking McGraw that bolstered the chamber's investment in the election
"As for the chamber, I am surprised at their track record in state politics," Rupp said in an e-mail. "So much money spent with such few results. It suggests a need for better spending or a different approach "
The efforts by both the Democratic Party and the state chamber were a little too late in the game. Rupp said.
The chamber didn't begin its Maynard campaign until April, just a month before the primary. By then, Maynard's foes had gained a foothold. The group's Walker and McGraw campaigns didn't start until it was almost time for the general election
The Democratic Party's campaign against the Republican candidates didn't begin until October.
Rupp said the very existence of third parties in state elections suggests somewhat of a breakdown in the party system in West Virginia
"But the fact that they usually lose suggests that system is not that broken," he said. Contact writer Justin D Anderson at ius...(8ldailvina!t.con> or 304-348-4843.