All four major party candidates for governor of West Virginia appeared on the same stage Thursday to talk about economic development, the state budget and their visions for the state.
Former U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, businessman Jim Justice, state Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler and state Senate President Bill Cole all spoke, separately, at the West Virginia Manufacturer's Association convention at the Charleston Civic Center.
Goodwin, Justice and Kessler will face off in the Democratic primary in May, while Cole is unopposed and will be the Republican candidate in November.
Kessler, who has served in the state Senate for 19 years, spoke in detail of his legislative accomplishments and laid out a specific plan for state government that includes free or assisted community college and more drug treatment facilities, both funded by an increased tobacco tax.
"It takes an investment, it takes some money, but I can't think of a better investment in the world than making sure a kid is productive," he said.
Justice, who has never run for office, gave a speech without policy proposals, instead stressing his business success, love of West Virginia, ability to promote the state and electability.
"I'm a marketer. I'm a marketer in chief. That's what I am. Really and truly," Justice said. "Somebody's got to sell us."
Goodwin fell somewhere in between, touting a vision for the state based on rebuilding infrastructure and attracting new businesses by increasing quality of life to bring people to West Virginia.
"My thesis is that it's not businesses that decide where to locate, it's people that decide where to locate," Goodwin said.
That's a thesis that contrasted with Cole, who repeatedly stressed the importance of appealing directly to businesses and executives, citing his passage of a right-to-work law, corporate-friendly legal reform and rollbacks and sunsetting of regulations.
"We have to open the doors to business to be able to thrive," Cole said. "Knock on the door of the businesses that are already here and say 'How's it going for you? What can we do to make it better?'"
With the state facing projected budget deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars this year and next, Kessler stressed the need to increase tax revenue.
He said his campaign was focused on investing in people - through education and drug treatment - and investing in infrastructure - roads and broadband - both of which will require tax money.
"You don't fix roads and fix potholes on wishes and spit," he said. "You need to have asphalt and that costs money."
States facing budget deficits generally have three options - raise taxes, cut spending or do some of both.
Justice opts for none of the above.
"We do not need to be taxing our people more," he said, but "we cannot possibly cut our way out of this mess."
Higher revenue will come with more job growth, which Justice said he would bring about through ingenuity and will.
"I can do what no one has ever done, no one, because I have a creative mind like nobody's business and I won't take no," he said. "I can pick up the phone and call anybody and he'll take my call."
Goodwin advocated using bonds, public-private partnerships and "a chunk of the Rainy Day Fund" to create an investment pool for infrastructure development. He said he would freeze tuition at state colleges and push for a "sort of GI bill" for laid off coal miners.
Justice has said he sees a "real possibility" that coal jobs will come back in large numbers, a prediction at odds with global forecasts, market trends and industry analysts.
Kessler has said the coal industry isn't coming back the way it once was: "It's not our salvation, it never was our salvation."
Goodwin was largely in the same boat. On Thursday, he spoke about the "resource curse," the theory that countries (and states) rich in natural resources often fail to develop other institutions and diverse economies. Resource-rich countries (think Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela and others) tend to have worse democracies, more corruption and high levels of poverty and inequality.
"The wheels of yesterday's economy are slowing, all of our anger, tears and wishful thinking will not change that," he said.
Cole, meanwhile, who is not yet facing an opponent, said we need to cut down the size of state government. As his Legislature wrestles with this year's budget, which will have to be passed in a special session sometime this spring, he called for more cuts.
But, Cole said, not across-the-board cuts to nearly every agency, as the state has seen in recent years.
"We need a governor that will go in with a scalpel that will reshape, reform, modernize state government," Cole said. "Some poor sucker is going to walk into that job in January and he's going to be facing a budget crisis of monumental proportions."
He did not say what programs or agencies he would cut.
Reforming and rolling back regulations, Cole said, was a job for the governor who must hire cabinet secretaries and other administrators to run the regulatory departments.
Cole spoke repeatedly of "the old status quo bunch," referring to the Democratic Party which held the Legislature for more than eight decades until 2014 and has held the governor's office since 2001.
At only one point in the four speeches did a candidate specifically mention another. Goodwin, speaking against tax credits focused on individual economic development projects, said it was "wrong headed for the state to give Jim Justice $25 million to build a sports palace at The Greenbrier."
Justice is actually eligible for up to $9.5 million in tax credits for the football facilities that brought the New Orleans Saints training camp to White Sulphur Springs. But he could receive millions more for several other projects, under a tax credit that was broadened and extended in 2014.
The tax credit law passed after lobbying from Larry Puccio - lobbyist for The Greenbrier, aide to Sen. Joe Manchin, former Democratic Party chairman and consultant to Justice's campaign.
The tax credit law was supported by Kessler. Cole did not vote on the bill because he owns a home at The Greenbrier.
There will be one event with all three Democratic candidates on stage together before the May 10 primary election. Kessler has been calling for debates since last fall. Both he and Goodwin have been eager to debate this spring, and have agreed when approached by media outlets.
But Justice has declined, saying he will only be participating in the April 16 event hosted by the state Democratic Party.
That event is billed by the party as a "forum," not a debate.
Justice has led in every public poll so far, and pointed to his popularity as a reason to support him.
"They're good people, they can't win," he said of Goodwin and Kessler. "In the primary, there's only one person that can win, that can win the general election, and if you think differently you're crazy."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.