West Virginia Heads Down a New Political Road Less Taken - Republican

New York Times, Nov. 16, 2004

…Justice Warren McGraw of State Supreme Court, a fiery populist, was thrashed in his bid for re-election by a novice Republican candidate backed by business groups and coal operators.

And three Democratic state senators were unseated by Republican insurgents.

...Justice McGraw was vastly outspent by a phalanx of business groups led by the Chamber of Commerce and Don L. Blankenship, chief executive of Massey Energy, who poured $3.5 million of his money into an advertising campaign harshly attacking Justice McGraw.

…At the same time, the coal fields of the south, a Democratic redoubt for decades, have steadily lost population as mining jobs have dried up and young people have moved away ...