By Caitlin Huey-Burns - October 5, 2011 
 
 Democrats breathed a temporary sigh of relief Tuesday night as the gubernatorial race in West Virginia that was too close to call on the eve of the special election ended in their favor. Acting governor and longtime state politician Earl Ray Tomblin defeated Republican businessman Bill Maloney with 50 percent of the vote to 47 percent. 
 
 Though Maloney appeared to have late momentum, Tomblin's victory is far from surprising. The Mountain State traditionally trends Republican in presidential elections but tends to elect Democrats to local and statewide positions. The legislature is predominantly Democratic, as is the congressional delegation. In 2010, the state sent Democrat and then-Gov. Joe Manchin to the Senate in an election year that favored the GOP. 
 
 But Republicans were able to narrow the gap between the two candidates in this race’s final leg. A Public Policy Polling (D) survey released on Monday put the contenders in a dead heat. PPP was the only firm polling this race, and since April, it found the momentum increasingly shifting to Maloney. In the final week of the campaign, the Republican Governors Association blasted the airwaves with an ad tying Tomblin to President Obama’s health care law, which is unpopular in the state. The spot, which accused Tomblin of standing behind the law when many other governors were challenging it, aired statewide and in the expensive Washington, D.C., media market, which encompasses West Virginia’s Republican-rich eastern panhandle. The efforts there paid off, as Maloney wound up winning much of that area. 
 
 The GOP sought to capitalize on the president’s grim 28 percent approval rating in the state and Maloney's compelling personal narrative. A political outsider, businessman and coal mining expert, Maloney worked on the rescue plan that eventually saved the famously trapped Chilean miners last year. 
 
 Maloney’s campaign had described its get-out-the-vote efforts as “robust” in an interview with RealClearPolitics on the day of the election. “We are feeling pretty good,” said spokeswoman Michelle Yi, who noted that voter turnout would be key in determining the results of the race. The campaign was operating phone banks in Charleston and Morgantown on Election Day in an effort to encourage potential voters to get to the polls. And if Maloney lost, it was not for lack of trying, the campaign insisted. “He never let off a day," said Yi. “He went to every event, shook every hand knowing he’d have to work for this.” 
 
 In the end, however, Tomblin and the Democrats were able to make this contest about West Virginia and held tight to what history had shown in previous cycles: Voters here tend to side with the Democrats in local elections. 
 
 But Tomblin’s success Tuesday doesn’t mean Democrats in other races can rest easy with Obama either on the ballot or hovering over it. Tomblin hardly embraced the president or his policies during his election bid, even dodging a question posed by Hotline On Call about whether he’d support Obama in 2012. The president was intentionally and notably absent from this race. Instead, Tomblin’s campaign put out an ad featuring Manchin, the popular former governor and current senator. 
 
 The race also featured a handful of unique characteristics that likely won't be replicated elsewhere. The governor-elect racked up endorsements from groups that traditionally back Republicans, such as the National Rifle Association and the state’s Chamber of Commerce. Notably, organized labor aggressively attacked Tomblin in the Democratic primary. The AFL-CIO ran ads against him, slapping him with a poor pro-union grade before ultimately backing him after he won the primary. And, of course, this was a special election in an off-year where voter turnout is typically lower than in regular elections and local issues take precedence. 
 
 But this isn’t the last we will hear of the West Virginia governor’s mansion. Tomblin was elected to serve the remainder of Manchin’s term, which means he will be up for re-election again in November 2012, just 13 months from now. 

 Democrats dodged a potentially embarrassing defeat last night when West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin prevailed in a special election over Republican challenger Bill Maloney. The Republican Governors Association spent a big sum on ads tying Tomblin to President Obama, but the Democrat managed to eke out a 3-point victory. 
 
 In a memo released overnight, the Democratic Governors Association argues that the special election campaign has some positive lessons for Democrats up and down the ticket in 2012. Among them: 
 
 Republican Bill Maloney tried to capitalize on the challenging national atmosphere by positioning himself as an outsider, non-career politician who would bring change to West Virginia. But Maloney’s momentum didn’t translate into victory because the DGA and Tomblin successfully communicated to voters that he was an outsider, millionaire businessman who used West Virginia to get rich and whose risky, radical positions would have taken West Virginia off-course. ... Continue Reading Bottom Line: Last night’s result was a clear blow to national Republicans. Despite huge expenditures by the RGA, West Virginia voters were not swayed by attempts to nationalize the race. Instead, they went with a proven West Virginia tax-cutter and job-creator in Earl Ray Tomblin. Nationally, Democrats have seen setbacks in recent special elections. Tonight, Earl Ray Tomblin and the DGA beat the trend and showed the limitations of the Republicans’ money and attempts to tear down the President. 
 
 As the White House is fond of saying, it's always risky to extrapolate national implications from special election campaigns. West Virginia still leans solidly Democratic on the state level and Tomblin had a political machine at his disposal that other Democrats won't have in 2012. 
 
 Still, it's easy to see how the Tomblin/DGA approach — campaigning as an embattled incumbent against a "millionaire businessman" with "risky, radical positions" — could apply to the presidential race.
– Acting West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin pulled out a slim win in last night’s special election in West Virginia, despite a late charge from Republican challenger Bill Maloney, who strove mightily to shackle Tomblin to President Obama. West Virginia tends to vote for Democrats in everything except presidential elections, and Obama has a mere 28% approval rating there, Real Clear Politics explains, so Maloney ran ads complaining that Tomblin, unlike some other governors, was not fighting “Obamacare.” The attacks hit home, especially in the state’s Republican-leaning eastern panhandle, and Maloney’s poll numbers were trending upward. But Tomblin stayed focused on local issues, running ads featuring his predecessor and current Sen. Joe Manchin, and held on for the 50%-47% win. The Democratic Governors Association hailed the victory as a “clear blow to national Republicans,” attributing the win to Tomblin’s ability to depict Maloney as “an outsider millionaire businessman” with “risky, radical positions,” a strategy Politico thinks might work elsewhere.