Guests from the greater Kanawha Valley area packed the governor's mansion for the party. (The second-largest, for the north-central region, was Saturday.)
Guests formed a receiving line that looked like something you'd see on an A-ticket ride at Disney World, stretching from the entrance to the mansion, up and down the staircase in the foyer and into the first-floor library. They also dined on chicken cordon bleu, fish and roast beef, partook of three open bars, and danced to a live band under a huge white tent that filled most of the courtyard behind the mansion.
Guests included Secretary of State Betty Ireland, Treasurer John Perdue — whose name has come up in some Democratic Party circles as a possible 2006 candidate to run against Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. — and Supreme Court Justices Elliott "Spike" Maynard and Brent Benjamin.
Also, Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, and former Kanawha County senators John Mitchell and Larry Rowe, and Delegates Bonnie Brown, D-Kanawha, Danny Wells, D-Kanawha, and Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha.
Not everyone was from the area, however. Delegate Cindy Frich, R-Monongalia, attended the party, as did Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Center CEO Ted Arneault.<
Also attending were Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson, Transportation Secretary Danny Ellis, Environmental Protection Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer, West Virginia Media Holdings President Bray Gary, and the current and three past state Democratic Party chairmen: Nick Casey, Mike Callaghan, Steve White, and Pat Maroney.
Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said costs for the holiday parties, which come out of the governor's mansion's operating budget, will not be available until after charges come for all of the dinner/dances.