Ballotpedia's 2012 General Election Review Articles: West Virginia State Executive Officials

December 13, 2012

By Jennifer Springer

Charleston, West Virginia: Six state executive positions were up for election this year in the state of West Virginia:

• Governor of West Virginia - Earl Ray Tomblin (D)
• Attorney General of West Virginia - Darrell McGraw (D)
• West Virginia Secretary of State - Natalie Tennant (D)
• West Virginia Treasurer - John Perdue (D)
• West Virginia State Auditor - Glen Gainer (D)
• West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture

Five of the six incumbents ran for re-election. Only Commissioner of Agriculture Gus Douglass (D) chose not to run. Douglass announced during his 11th term in office that he would not seek re-election in 2012.

Heading into the May 8th primary election, gubernatorial incumbent Earl Ray Tomblin faced a familiar field of challengers: all four candidates in the race were also candidates in the 2011 special election in which Tomblin won the seat. In the primary election, both Tomblin and Bill Maloney (R) won their respective primaries and faced off in the November 6th general election. Heading into the general election, the major candidates spent approximately $1.8 million on campaign spending between September 24, 2012 and October 21, 2012.

Incumbent Attorney General Darrell McGraw (D) was likened to a cat on election day: "He always seems to lands on his feet." Despite prevailing in the past two general election races-his fourth and fifth for attorney general-by less than one percentage point apiece, the seemingly indomitable West Virginian sought a sixth consecutive term in office in 2012. McGraw lost to newcomer Patrick Morrisey (R) in his bid to defend the seat he had occupied since 1992.

Republican Brian Savilla, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates since 2010, filed to run in the 2012 election for West Virginia secretary of state on January 26. Two weeks earlier, incumbent Secretary Natalie Tennant (D) declared her bid for re-election. Tennant and Savilla ran unopposed in their respective parties' primary elections on May 8th, with Tennant winning the general election.

Incumbent Treasurer John Perdue ran for re-election in 2012. He was unopposed in the May 8 Democratic Primary and defeated Mike Hall (West Virginia) (R) in the general election.

Auditor Glen Gainer and his challenger Larry V. Faircloth both ran unopposed in the May 8 primaries. Gainer defeated Faircloth in the general election.

Democratic state senator Walt Helmick defeated Sally Shepherd, Steve Miller, Bob Tabb and Joe Messineo in the Democratic primary on May 8 to become the Democratic nominee. He then defeated Kent Leonhardt (R) in the general election to win the open seat.

Here are the candidates who won election.

Office	Incumbent	General Election Candidates	2015 Winner	Partisan Switch?
Governor	Earl Ray Tomblin	Earl Ray Tomblin Bill Maloney Jesse Johnson David Moran	Earl Ray Tomblin	No
Attorney General	Darrell McGraw	Darrell McGraw Patrick Morrisey	Patrick Morrisey	Yes
Secretary of State	Natalie Tennant	Natalie Tennant Brian Savilla	Natalie Tennant	No
Treasurer	John Perdue	John Perdue Mike Hall	John Perdue	No
Auditor	Glen Gainer	Glen Gainer Larry Faircloth	Glen Gainer	No
Commissioner of Agriculture	Gus Douglass	Walt Helmick Kent Leonhardt	Walt Helmick	No

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Governor

See also: West Virginia gubernatorial election, 2012

Governor of Delaware General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jack Markell Incumbent	69.3%	275,993
	Republican	Jeff Cragg	28.6%	113,793
	Libertarian	Jesse McVay	0.9%	3,668
	Green	Mark Joseph Perri	1.1%	4,575
Total Votes				398,029
Election results via Delaware Board of Elections

Attorney General

See also: West Virginia attorney general election, 2012

Attorney General of West Virginia General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Darrell McGraw Incumbent	48.8%	267,135
	Republican	Patrick Morrisey	51.2%	280,695
Total Votes				547,830
Election results West Virginia Secretary of State Election Results Center

Secretary of State

See also: West Virginia secretary of state election, 2012

West Virginia Secretary of State General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Natalie Tennant Incumbent	62.4%	339,235
	Republican	Brian Savilla	37.6%	204,440
Total Votes				543,675
Election results West Virginia Secretary of State Election Results Center

Treasurer

See also: West Virginia down ballot state executive elections, 2012

West Virginia Treasurer General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	John Perdue Incumbent	55.3%	295,996
	Republican	Mike Hall	44.7%	238,850
Total Votes				534,846
Election results West Virginia Secretary of State Election Results Center

Auditor

See also: West Virginia down ballot state executive elections, 2012

West Virginia State Auditor General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Glen Gainer Incumbent	57.5%	303,240
	Republican	Larry Faircloth	42.5%	224,517
Total Votes				527,757
Election results West Virginia Secretary of State Election Results Center

Commissioner of Agriculture

See also: West Virginia down ballot state executive elections, 2012

West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Walt Helmick	51.5%	268,879
	Republican	Kent Leonhardt	48.5%	252,783
Total Votes				521,662
Election results West Virginia Secretary of State Election Results Center

National picture

States with 2012 executive elections

There were 94 total seats up for election across 22 states this year, including 11 Governors, 9 Lt. Governors, 10 Attorneys General, 7 Secretaries of State and 57 down ballot seats.

• Before the election, 51 of these offices were held by Democrats, 38 were held by Republicans, and the remaining 4 positions were held by non partisan or Independent officers . After the election, Democrats hold 49 (net loss of 2 seats), Republicans 42 (net gain of 4 seats), and Independents/non partisans only 1 (loss of 3).
• Of the 69 incumbents who ran for election in 2012, 7 were defeated-6 Democrat and 1 Republican. Democratic Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau narrowly escaped that fate, having had to wait for her challenger to cancel a self-financed recount on December 11, 2012 before being named the official winner.
• Out of 25 total open seats, 13 were won by Democrats, 11 went to Republican, and 1 went to an Independent (nonpartisan) candidate. In all, there are 34 new state executives as a result of the election.
• From the gubernatorial perspective, after the November 2012 election, there are 30 Republican and 19 Democratic governors. If the GOP had taken five governor seats from Democrats on November 6, that would have given the party 34 -- the most for Republicans since 1922. As of December 2012, the number of Democratic governors in the country is at its lowest since 2001.

2012 State Executive Election Partisan Breakdown
Party	Before 2012 Election	After 2012 Election	Net Change
Democratic	51	50	-1
Republican	38	43	+5
Independent (Nonpartisan)	4	1	-3
TOTALS	931 vacant	94

2012 State Executive Election Analysis
Party	Open Seat Winners	Defeated Incumbents	New State Executives
Democratic	13	6	15
Republican	11	1	18
Independent (Nonpartisan)	1	0	1
TOTALS	25	7	34

See also

• Ballotpedia's 2012 General Election Review Articles: West Virginia Congressional Seats
• Ballotpedia:2012 general election preview articles
• November 6, 2012 election results
• State executive official elections, 2012
• Ballotpedia:Statewide projections for the November 6, 2012 elections
• West Virginia state executive official elections, 2012
• West Virginia down ballot state executive elections, 2012
• West Virginia gubernatorial election, 2012
• West Virginia attorney general election, 2012
• West Virginia secretary of state election, 2012
• Swearing-in dates of state executives elected on November 6, 2012

Footnotes