Reporter’s Notebook: Compare and Contrast | News, Sports, Vacancies

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Starting Tuesday, the 2024 general election is a week away. And on Tuesday, voters will finally get their first side-by-side comparison of the two major party candidates for governor.

Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Democratic Huntington Mayor Steve Williams will face off at Fairmont State University on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. The event will be moderated by WV MetroNews Talkline anchor Hoppy Kercheval and will air on MetroNews radio stations and will also be streamed live on wvmetronews.com.

It’s a shame that we’re only now seeing the debate between Morrisey and Williams. This really should have happened before early voting began. Lord knows Morrisey has received a lot of coverage from me and others in the lead-up to May’s contested GOP primary. But Williams ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Of course, I interviewed Williams during the primaries. I even had an article about Williams in your papers over the weekend. And it’s not that no one knew who he was before this election. But the challenge going forward is to put Morrisey’s platform and Williams’ platform side by side to compare and contrast them.

Debates are a good opportunity to ask both candidates the same questions and see how they answer them. This gives voters interested in public policy something to guide them. And for those who are simply unsure about either man, the debate gives voters more information to make a decision.

Williams faces an uphill battle, one he has acknowledged publicly. As I reported last week, GOP voter registrations continue to rise. In fact, GOP voter registration increased by 5,082 voters between September and the Oct. 15 voter registration deadline. Democratic Party voter registration fell by 467 voters over the same period, according to these October data.

As of October, Democratic voter registration now stands at 29% of the more than 1.2 million registered voters in the state, compared with 41% identifying as Republican. Another 25% are not registered at all. And although it has never been quantified, a certain percentage of those still registered as Democrats tend to vote Republican.

I’m not citing these numbers to make Democratic candidates feel depressed. But the only way a Democratic candidate—even a conservative Democratic candidate like Steve Williams—can sway voters is to be able to look better than Morrisey on the debate stage. People can still be swayed.

Perhaps this is where I have respect for Williams and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Glenn Elliott. They both know the political landscape in West Virginia and will continue to fight for every convincing voter until the polls close at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 5th. election trail. He doesn’t call.

I’m a fan of elections and believe in Eliot Ness’s quote from the movie The Untouchables: never stop fighting until it’s over. That’s probably why I’m disgusted that Republican Gov. Jim Justice not only rejected the idea of ​​Elliott in the U.S. Senate race, but twice left the state to campaign in battleground states with his dog on behalf of the former Republican president. Donald Trump. .

Justice is so confident of his victory that he already considers the election almost over. And, of course, history shows that justice can win elections by large margins. But I still think he should show a little respect for the process and his opponent. Plus, Justice is still fundraising as if the election isn’t over yet.

But if I have any criticism of the Williams and Elliott campaigns, it would be to talk to more Republicans. They both say they do, but both times I followed them on the campaign trail, they seemed to be reaching out to fellow Democrats or like-minded policy makers. But victory on Election Day is impossible without Republican votes.

It’s easy for anyone to get locked into their own echo chambers. But the purpose of a general election is to try to reach all voters. This even means moderating your political views to some extent. Former Republican governors Arch Moore and Cecil Underwood did not win their elections in 1956 and 1968 without Democratic support. They needed to develop a platform and agenda that the then Democratic majority could support.

I still believe that running a government requires a healthy balance of conservative and liberal ideas. Candidates must figure out what that balance is to attract voters. On November 5th we will see if Williams and Elliott can find balance.

If you’re listening to Tuesday’s Morrisey-Williams debate, stay tuned for post-debate updates from me, WV MetroNews statewide reporter Brad McElhinney and West Virginia Watch reporter Amelia Nisely. The discussion will be moderated by WAJR’s Dave Wilson.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at [email protected].