WEST VIRGINIA Hopefuls crowd gubernatorial primary

The state is considered a battleground in the presidential election.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- An extramarital affair that ended the 24-year political career of Democratic Gov. Bob Wise has led to the most crowded primary race for governor West Virginia has ever seen.
Ten Republicans, eight Democrats and one Libertarian will compete in the wide-open primary Tuesday in an election year in which West Virginia is a presidential battleground and one of 11 states with the governorship up for grabs.
The top vote-getters from each party will meet in November.
The governor's mansion has traded party hands four times in the past 20 years.
The Democrats were counting on a second Wise term that seemed assured until the 56-year-old former congressman and father of two admitted to infidelity nearly a year ago.
Wise became the first governor not to seek re-election since the state Constitution was amended in 1970 to allow a governor to serve a second consecutive term.
His exit flooded the Democratic field, which now includes a former CIA operative and the now ex-husband of the state economic development official with whom Wise reportedly had his affair. Another of the lesser-known candidates died in March but remains on the ballot.
On the Democratic side, the most recent Associated Press poll put Joe Manchin, the West Virginia secretary of state, ahead with 48 percent.
GOP contenders
With nearly four in 10 voters undecided, the GOP primary is far more open. Former state tax chief Rob Capehart and Army officer-turned-developer Monty Warner each garnered 11 percent in the AP poll. Auto dealer Dan Moore followed with 9 percent.
The gubernatorial campaigns have lacked polarizing issues, focusing instead on such perennials as jobs and taxes.
President Bush and John Kerry have garnered little mention by the candidates in either party.
Forty-four percent of likely GOP voters and 21 percent of likely Democratic voters were undecided in the survey conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
Though Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 among registered voters, Bush became the first nonincumbent Republican to carry the Mountain State since 1928.