File photos
From left, Treasurer John Perdue and former state lawmaker Riley Moore.

CHARLESTON — The race between Democratic Treasurer John Perdue and Republican Riley Moore, the grandson of Arch Moore, could be seen as a metaphor for West Virginia’s changing politics over the last decade: the last of the traditional Democrats versus a representative of a growing Republican electorate.

But if Perdue is scared, he certainly isn’t showing. Perdue is seeking an unprecedented seventh term as the treasurer of West Virginia. Moore is seeking the office after losing re-election to the House of Delegates in 2018.

One offers steady experience who has guided the state through technological changes over the last 24 years. The other wants to bring new ideas and innovations to an office that does far less than what it used to do before the late A. James Manchin oversaw more than $279 million in state investments.

Both are making their case to voters across the state ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

BIG JOHN PERDUE

At 6-feet-6, Perdue earned the nickname “Big John Perdue” given to him by the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd. His height even became a catchy political jingle during his 2010 race in the special primary election for governor of West Virginia, a race he lost to former Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin.

“I love my job. With that said, I do this because I love being a public servant,” Perdue said. “I love helping people and the job’s not quite done yet.”

A Boone County native, the 70-year-old Perdue was first elected treasurer in 1996. Before that, he worked for the late Gus Douglass, who was state agricultural commissioner for 44 years. Perdue left the Department of Agriculture in 1989 to work for former Gov. Gaston Caperton. Since winning his first election as the state’s banker in 1996, Perdue has served six terms in office.

Perdue is the 24th person to hold the office of state treasurer and is the longest serving state treasurer in West Virginia history. Perdue took that record from Richard Talbott, a Democrat from Barbour County who served from 1932 to 1950.

In 2016, he became the last remaining Democrat on the Board of Public Works, consisting of the state’s constitutional officers: governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor, agriculture commissioner and superintendent of schools. Aside from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, Perdue is the only other statewide elected Democratic officeholder.

Perdue’s active participation in the West Virginia Democratic Party and his support for Democratic presidential candidates was a frequent line of attack by Republican opponents in the last three election cycles. He doesn’t apologize for that support. But Perdue has willingly worked with Republican officeholders, including the Republican-controlled Legislature and Board of Public Works.

“I think the people of West Virginia know I’m a Democrat,” Perdue said. “I believe that when you’re elected, you serve people. You don’t serve a party and I’ve always looked at it that way. I think people look at me that way. They know I’ll be there for them. And I think when I returned the trust back to the office, that meant a lot to a lot of West Virginia that ‘he’s here to serve us.’”

A recent example of Perdue’s bipartisan work is the announcement last week of an executive order by Gov. Jim Justice to lift regulatory caps on the West Virginia Development Authority’s Broadband Loan Insurance Program to allow internet providers to more easily participate in the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction next month. Perdue participated in the announcement, which will allow companies to bid for $766 million in federal funding available over 10 years to expand internet access to unserved and underserved rural parts of the state.

Perdue said high-speed broadband expansion is key to raising rural West Virginia out of poverty, improving educational outcomes for young people and creating opportunities.

“We need to get this in rural West Virginia,” Perdue said. “I really believe that if we bring broadband and technology and change education and get business to be able to look at West Virginia and say, ‘I can locate there.’ With technology today, it doesn’t matter where we’re located. If we have the right people working for us, trained to be able to go out in those workforce jobs, we can compete for those jobs. I really believe that it’s important and I want to help with that.”

As treasurer, Perdue manages more than $16 billion in state money. He oversees the Board of Treasury Investments, the West Virginia Retirement Plus deferred compensation plan, the SMART529 college savings program and WVABLE, a savings program for people with disabilities. The office manages multiple funds, disburses money from other funds, and makes payments approved by the State Auditor’s Office.

Perdue is proud of all of these programs, but the programs wouldn’t be possible unless people felt comfortable giving the state money to invest. When Perdue took office, it was still reeling from poor money management of the A. James Manchin years. Perdue turned the reputation around, making sound and conservative investments, making the state a safe place to invest. The Board of Treasury Investments has received numerous positive ratings from bond agencies, such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s

“That was one of the hardest things to do, to return that trust back to this office that had been lost,” Perdue said. “That’s the most important thing I’ve accomplished…is putting the trust back into this office.”

Most people are probably familiar with the office through the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. The State Treasurer’s office returns millions every year to West Virginians, including stocks, bonds, insurance proceeds, cash, and safe deposit boxes’ contents. The treasurer’s office just unveiled last month a new unclaimed property online database that’s friendly with mobile devices, better tracking of claims and tighter security.

Since Perdue took office, more than $224 million has been returned to West Virginians through the surplus property program. The program has 2.25 million accounts worth $308 million.

“Unclaimed property help put us on the map,” Perdue said. “I can remember when I came here and found $100 million dollars laying in the treasurer’s office. That wasn’t taxpayer money, it was the people’s money, and I said, ‘Why is it here?’ And we started developing unclaimed property and we’ve become one of the best in the country at returning unclaimed property to the rightful owners.”

Perdue said there is still much left to do as treasurer, and he hopes West Virginia will see fit to select him for another term.

“I always say I’ve never forgotten that I work for you, and that’s the way I look at life,” Perdue said. “I’ve learned a long time ago that the best thing you can do is make sure that you serve all the people. And that’s what I try to do as a public servant.”

MOORE TO OFFER?

Riley Moore started his campaign for state treasurer within days of losing re-election for the 67th House of Delegate district encompassing part of Jefferson County during the 2018 midterm elections. He lost that seat to Democrat John Doyle.

Except for March and April when the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the state, Moore has traveled across West Virginia to introduce himself to voters and lay out the difference between Perdue and himself. Moore has also utilized social media and video conference calls to get his message to voters.

“The campaign’s been going actually really well,” Moore said. “In the COVID environment, I really feel like we’re rather thriving in this environment. We have a pretty technologically savvy campaign going on here. And I’m pretty technologically savvy myself.”

A Republican from Shepherdstown, Moore comes from a storied West Virginia political family. His grandfather was the late governor Arch Moore Jr. His aunt is U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. His cousin, Moore Capito, is a member of the House of Delegates representing part of Kanawha County.

Moore won his first term for the House in 2016, defeating agriculture lobbyist and former state Young Democrats president Rod Snyder in a close race. There was talk of Moore becoming the majority leader for the House Republican Caucus under House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, before Moore’s defeat in 2018.

Despite his pedigree, Moore isn’t afraid of hard work or getting his hands dirty. He worked as a welder, earning an apprenticeship certificate from the C.S. Monroe Technology Center in Virginia. After attending college, Moore served the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly a decade as a staffer for the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Moore now works as a director at Textron, an aerospace and defense contractor, and commutes from Jefferson County to Washington, D.C.

Moore believes he has more to offer West Virginia as the next state treasurer, including a platform based on greater accountability, transparency, and further modernization. Moore wants a complete audit of the State Treasurer’s Office with a goal of shrinking the office which employs more than 134 state workers.

“As we’ve seen, the payroll there increased $750,000 over the last five years,” Moore said. “I think we want to understand how somebody has stated they are modernizing an office and it’s working efficiently, and it costs more money. That doesn’t necessarily make sense to me, so we will want to get to the bottom of that. This is the taxpayer’s money, and I think we need to have a good accounting of that.”

Calling back to his days as a welder, Moore wants to create a specific educational savings account similar to the SMART529 program but targeted at helping parents save money for their children buy tools, equipment, and pay for apprenticeship programs.

While the State Treasurer’s Office says the SMART529 program also allows for saving for two-year community and technical college programs, Moore said the Jump Start saving program will focus on trades and helping West Virginians who graduate from two-programs purchase the equipment they need, and pay for their certificates and additional training.

“It would be a blue collar savings plan, which means individuals coming out of trade, technical or vocational programs would be able to save money to be able to buy tools, equipment, licenses, and certifications,” Moore said. “It’s not just about training these folks, but it’s also equipping them. It’s training and equipping them for the jobs of the future…it’s also really how we want to diversify and strengthen our economy.”

In the last planks of his platform, Moore wants to work with the auditor’s office and create a portal on the wvCheckbook.com website so West Virginians can look at all of the state’s investments. Moore believes this level of transparency will give residents more of a say in how their money is invested or decide to remove their investments. Moore also said he would limit himself to two terms and wants to see all Board of Public Works offices term limited.

“If I win, I will stand for one re-election, and I’m going to work with my former colleagues in the state legislature to institute term limits,” Moore said. “My first step towards instituting term limits is term limiting John Purdue to six terms here in November, so he doesn’t reach the seventh.”

Aside from believing that Perdue has held office for too long, Moore believes that Perdue doesn’t fit the political values of West Virginia’s electorate, which is switching from Democratic to Republican, unaffiliated, and other third parties. Moore cites Perdue’s past support of former president Barack Obama, former 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and current nominee and former vice president Joe Biden.

“I think Treasurer Purdue has set himself apart from the people of West Virginia,” Moore said. “I think he’s completely out of step with the rest of West Virginia as he’s come out now and endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and was a delegate for them to the (Democratic National Convention)…he state has shifted massively and is moving away from national liberal democratic policies. And (Perdue) has decided to move in the opposite direction.”