But wasn’t that Huckabee coming in and rounding up all the evangelical vote thus freezing out Romney? At least that’s what I remember my brother telling me. I was a reluctant Romney support back then. I thoroughly disliked McCain (Still the case but more so!) but better then a RAT (barely!) I work with a lot of Navy & ex-Navy people (many of them former aviators) and their disdain for McCain is so thick you can cut it with a pair of scissors. But when it came down to McCain & the Zero, no contest there! They like me voted for McNasty.
My father was a GOP’er (served on the county & state executive committees) back when a WV GOP’er was as common as the WV Mountain Lion! People claim they see or here one but no one can prove it. That’s what being a GOP’er in WV was like back in the 1960s -1990s. Though they did have 2 GOP governors - Arch A. Moore (Capito’s father!)- a quasi-crook but a successful governor and Cecil Underwood - alright, reasonably honest (or he was good at not getting caught!) but ineffective.
But remember most of my perception from the 1980s on of WV politics comes through my brother & father. I have been in NoVa since 1980. I have always disliked NoVa but no work for a PhD Engineering Physics in WV other then academia, so I came here. Not too far away, I mean too return!
The first ever West Virginia Republican Presidential Convention took place on February 5, 2008 (Super Tuesday) to select 18 delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention. An additional nine delegates were to be selected in a primary election on May 13, 2008, for a total of 27 delegates to the national convention. Mike Huckabee won the Convention, and John McCain later won the primary as by that time he was the only one left.
Romney entered the convention with the most pledged convention-goers, but delegates for McCain defected to Huckabee. In the first round, the results were Romney 464, Huckabee 375, McCain 176, Paul 118, Giuliani 0. Since no candidate had a majority, Giuliani dropped out and the delegates took a second vote. At this second vote, most Paul and McCain supporters, acting on commands from party officials, shifted to Huckabee, ensuring him the majority. As a result of a deal with Huckabee's camp, Paul's delegates swung to Huckabee in exchange for 3 of the State's 18 national delegates.
By 2PM EST, it was over in WV. The headlines quickly blared not that "Huckabee Wins WV", but that "Romney Loses WV" from 2 o'clock until the last poll closed. Remember, this was Super Tuesday and the WV Convention and resulting headlines ended Romney's chances that year. It was just McCain's turn.
I also was a reluctant Romney backer that year and was amazed at the blatantly, in-your-face actions of the WV GOP until I thought back to some of the $#!t that the local Republican Club had pulled on my parents back in NYC in the 50s. It was just another in a long list of reasons for my disdain of the GOP and ANY OTHER political party. That is why I've been registered as an independent (non-aligned) voter since 1966.