Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor's race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president's health care plan.
Tomblin, who has been acting governor for the past year, will finish the final year of a term left vacant by Joe Manchin, a well-liked governor who stepped down after he won a U.S. Senate seat.
The race was fraught with negative ads from both sides and narrowed in the final weeks. The national parties spent millions of dollars on each campaign.
With 65 percent of precincts reporting, Tomblin had 50 percent of the vote compared with Maloney's 46 percent, according to unofficial results.
Tomblin, a veteran state lawmaker, fended off questions about his mother's greyhound-breeding business and efforts to tie him to Obama. Republicans were upset Tomblin didn't join a majority of other states who sued the administration over the health care plan.
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