Governor
Jim Justice – Democrat
Tell us about your professional background and
how it would help you serve as governor.
Tell us about your professional background and
how it would help you serve as governor.
I am a businessman, not a politician. I know how to create jobs,
and I’ve put thousands of West Virginians to work. I know how to
grow jobs because I’ve done it in tourism, in the coal business,
in agriculture and in medicine. I can take this state where it has
never been before. I rescued The Greenbrier from bankruptcy, and
I can do the same for West Virginia.
I am a professional scientist, an experienced manager and
administrator, an adjunct professor at West Virginia University and
a successful sheep farmer in West Virginia. I am the president
of the national Technology Transfer Center in Wheeling and the
director of the U.S. Department of Defense David Taylor Institute.
I hold a Ph.D. in hydrodynamics, educated at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and I am involved every day in the creation
of new technological and industrial futures for West Virginia. I am
the only candidate that can actually solve problems in our state
rather than just spending money on slogans.
When I first took over The Greenbrier, it lost $1 million a week for
the first 38 weeks. The experts said I was crazy and that we were
doomed to fail. I turned it around and created hundreds of new
jobs by bringing the PGA Tour, the New Orleans Saints’ training
camp and the NBA to West Virginia, along with many other
ventures people said could never happen. We can do it—we just
need new leadership that can think big.
Tell us about your four-year plan.
We can’t wait four years or even two years. West Virginia needs
immediate action. I want to make big progress in 10 months.
Why did you choose to run for governor?
I am running because the people of our state are hurting. I could
not sit back and accept West Virginia being 50th in everything
coming and going. I want good for our people. I don’t want a
single thing for me—I won’t even take a salary.
If we elect another politician like Bill Cole, nothing is going to
change, and we will all die 50th. The problem in Charleston right
now is that the politicians are all talk and no action. The political
class is controlled by special interests. I can’t be bought. I just
want to create jobs. We need someone who has, in the words of
my dad, “done done it.” I want to use my experience of putting
people to work to help West Virginia families.
32
David Moran – Libertarian
west virginia executive
Tell us about your four-year plan.
I have published a three-point plan for the revitalization of West
Virginia based upon industrial technological innovation, the spirit of
West Virginians and the power of real education. These elements
will guide my administration of West Virginia as we pull ourselves
up from 150 years of governmental mismanagement and the
extraction industrial base that benefited the rest of the country
without allowing industrial development here in the mountains.
First, my administration will begin to bring the state budget into line
with the current revenues of our state. We cannot run West Virginia
as a federal welfare state. Our people must come to the realization
that our state has to be financed with real money, not with deficit
financing and deficits we pass on to our children.
Second, I plan to restrict, reduce or rescind all taxation that limits
or discourages human progress and individual productivity that the
Republican and Democratic administrations have inflicted upon us.
Why did you choose to run for governor?
My candidacy is built upon giving the people a viable choice in
leadership. We have been repeatedly deceived and disappointed
by the two major parties in this state. Our destiny lies in thinking
for ourselves and electing leadership that stands for progress
rather than politics as usual.