Years ago, former Governor Arch Moore used to call me occasionally to chat about politics. He would identify himself as “your friend from the northern panhandle.”
I was flattered by the attention and once asked him to grade my work covering the West Virginia Legislature. There was a long pause, but he finally said, “I would give you a C minus.”
That was Arch Moore; charming, but also unafraid to ruffle feathers. With his death Wednesday at age 91, West Virginia lost one of it’s most dynamic, but also flawed political leaders.
The late Charleston Daily Mail political reporter Richard Grimes described Moore as “one of our strongest chief executives and among the most popular, and he became one of the most controversial.”*
The legacy of his unprecedented three terms as governor, strong leadership and dynamic personality is offset by guilty pleas to five federal corruption charges, which led to three years in prison and disbarment.
After prison, Moore was rebuffed when he tried to get his law license back. The state Supreme Court determined that “Despite the passage of time and the petitioner’s record since his disbarment, the record strongly suggests that there has been little change in the underlying attitudes and perceptions that directly led to the misconduct for which he was disbarred.”
Moore also infamously settled a $100 million lawsuit against Pittston Coal, for the clean-up of the Buffalo Creek disaster where 125 people died, for $1 million just before he left office in 1977. Many West Virginians never forgave him for that. The first poster to the Metronews story last night about Moore’s death read simply, “Buffalo Creek.”
Moore was notoriously bombastic, and uniquely skilled at stringing together powerful sounding phrases that sometimes had little meaning. Once I challenged his press secretary at the time, John Price, to listen to an upcoming interview with the Governor and tell me what he said. Price accepted the challenge, but confessed afterward he had no idea what the Governor was talking about.
Still, Moore could lead, and he did. He maximized federal funds and a road bond amendment to significantly improve the state’s highways. He fired 2,600 highway workers when they staged an illegal strike, but was integral in settling United Mine Worker disputes. It was Arch Moore who helped negotiate the end to the Moundsville prison takeover in 1986 and free the hostages.
Moore benefited from the passage of the Modern Budget Amendment just as he was taking office for the first time. That gave the Governor significantly more authority to control state spending… and he used it.
Ultimately, Arch Moore was a paradox, ebullient, dynamic and likable, but also duplicitous. His personal failures hurt not only himself and the state he loved, but also deeply disappointed the many West Virginians who supported him.
It’s unlikely West Virginia will ever see another political leader like Arch Moore and that, like his legacy, is a double-edged sword.
*(Editor’s note: Some of the historical and biographical information about Moore for this piece was gathered from The West Virginia Encyclopedia.)