AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

3. Editorial Influence

Chapter 3 EDITORIAL INFLUENCE THE ELECTION OF OKEY PATTESON as Meadows's successor was a given and allowed the governor's office to continue the development and implementation of poliCies already in place. Patteson, who had been successful in the sale of motor cars and real estate in Mount Hope, had learned his political craft in the precincts and as sheriff of Fayette County. The move to Charleston as the first executive assistant to the governor in the state's history gave him on-the-job training and positioned him to run for the highest office in state government. As Meadows's assistant, Patteson occupied an office next to the governor's and worked closely with him on a daily basis, conferring with Meadows on all the matters that flowed across the chief executive's desk. Patteson did his job well and seldom irritated people, no small accomplishment in and of itself. He had warmth, and was skillful in his handling of sensitive issues. He made himself indispensable. And sitting where he did, he was able to build a power base that spanned the entire state. When election time rolled around, it was a foregone conclusion that the party and its powerbrokers would elevate him to the number-one position. Times were good in West Virginia when Patteson moved into the governor 's office in early 1949. The postwar boom had not yet spent itself, and the state treasury was overflowing with surpluses. No governor in decades had enjoyed such prospects as Patteson did on the day of his inauguration. I had become directly acquainted with his political style and personal magnetism in the late days of the 1948 general election campaign. As editor of the Register, I was attending a buffet luncheon Patteson was hosting for a group of business and professional people at the Black Knight Country Club EDITORIAL INFLUENCE 27 in Beckley. As the guests departed afterward, I stood talking with one of Patteson's people when, with a rather neat maneuver, Patteson himself and his aides suddenly surrounded me. Patteson said quietly, "Tom, let's talk." We sat down in a corner of the ballroom as the waiters cleared the tables, and for the next half hour Patteson outlined his platform. He spoke ofwanting to become the "road-buildingest governor in history," of wanting to strengthen public-school education, of other improvements he wanted to make in state services. Finally, he looked me straight in the eye and said, "I've got to have your endorsement if I'm to be elected." Although I knew he was fueling my vanity, I was realistic enough to recognize that there was some logic in what he said. Outside of Charleston, no one area of the state had more political clout in those years than Beckley. Patteson and Governor Homer Holt, Neely's predecessor, were both from Fayette County. Current Governor Meadows, u.s. Senator Harley Kilgore, and Congressman E. H. Hedrick were all from Beckley. As a consequence of the goodwill and influence dispensed from their offices, much of the strength of the majority political party was centered in the circulation territory of the Register, a newspaper with a loose affiliation to the Democratic persuasion and a prime endorsement prize. Like Patteson, his two primary opponents had solicited the Register's support. Also like Patteson, former House Speaker and attorney James K. Thomas of Charleston had accepted with grace my explanation that our newspaper did not take partisan stands in the primaries. Former judge and political boss R. D. Bailey of Pineville was another matter. In his role as reigning sovereign of neighboring Wyoming County, it was difficult for Bailey to comprehend that the prerogatives he considered his due did not extend into Raleigh County and the offices of the Democratic paper he read every day. I would have firsthand experience with his exercise of those prerogatives some years later during a libel suit. Patteson's approach was as pleasant and charming the second time around as it had been during the primary. "I've been reading the Register since I was a little boy," he said, "and I've come to think of it as my hometown paper. You 28 CHAPTER THREE can understand what I mean, Tom, when I say I need your support in my campaign for governor. To be perfectly frank, it would be a political embarrassment if I had to admit...