WEST VIRGINIA
      Nov. 6, 2012 U.S. Senate

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+Joe Manchin (D) i
 399,908
 60.57%
John Raese (R) 240,787
 36.47%
Bob Henry Baber (M) 19,517
 2.96%

660,212
Registration: 1,246,559.  
Plurality: 159,121 votes (24.10 percentage points).
 WV Sec. of State


Notes:  Sen. Joe Manchin (D) defeated businessman John Raese (R) and Bob Henry Baber (M).  The Manchin-Raese race was a re-match of the 2010 special election in which Manchin defeated Raese by a narrower margin of 283,358 votes (53.47%) to 230,013 (43.40%).

Raese, president and CEO of Greer Industries, was making his fifth statewide campaign in West Virginia; he was the Republican nominee for Senate in 1984, challenged Gov. Arch Moore (R) in 1988, and was again the Senate nominee in 2006 and 2010.  He was unopposed in the May 8 primary.  In the Democratic primary, Manchin defeated environmental specialist Sheirl Fletcher by 79.94% to 20.06%.

There was just one debate; Manchin, Raese and Baber met at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown on Oct. 2.

While Manchin was riding to a comfortable win, a very different story was playing out at the top of the ticket, where President Obama was an unpopular figure.  The Romney/Ryan ticket easily carried the state's five electoral votes, gaining a plurality of 179,386 votes (26.76 percentage points).

 According to the FEC (1, 2), the Manchin campaign had total receipts of $5.1 million, made total disbursements of $3.7 million and finished with $1.8 million in cash on hand while the Raese campaign raised and spent $1.6 million—substantially less than in the 2010 special election.


Campaign Managers:
Joe Manchin:  Fiona Conroy
(Mar. 2012)  Campaign manager to Gov. Bev Perdue (NC), Sept. 2011-Feb. 2012.  Executive director of the PA House Democratic Campaign Committee, May 2009-Sept. 2011.  Account executive at Mack/Crounse Group, Apr. 2006-May 2009.  Various campaigns, July 2003-May 2009.  Creative coordinator for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Dec. 2008-Jan. 2009.  Presidential administrative fellow at The George Washington University, May 2004-May 2006.  M.A. in political management (2006) and B.A. in political science and history (2004) from The George Washington University.
John Raese:  Bob Adams [Robert P. Adams]
President of Opinion Strategies, LLC from Mar. 2010.  Executive director of the League of American Voters, July 2009-Mar. 2012.  Owner of Great Inflates, LLC, a WV-based party rental company, 2003-09.  Director of media relations for ALEC, 2000-04.  Director of communications and senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, 1999-2000. Account executive at CRC Public Relations, 1998-99.  Communications coordinator for National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, 1997-98.  National Center for Public Policy Research, 1995-97.  Press assistant to U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts (OK), 1995.  B.A. in mass communications from Towson University, 1994.



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