Could This Be Your State?

I wrote this book review as part of our series on West Virginian authors. I got it in the issue published the Wednesday before the WV primary, just in time to hopefully get people to think before they went to the polls.

Don't vote till you read this book

By Elizabeth Thomas, Staff Writer

Dr. Allen L. Loughry II is a man on a mission to reform politics in WestVirginia one reader at a time. His book “Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Won’tPay for a landslide,” currently in its second printing, is the result of 10years of research and meticulously referenced notes regarding thepolitical and social history of West Virginia.Loughry clearly put his heart and soul into his book, put his money insomething he believes in and his career at risk, to expose the oftensordid, certainly corrupt background of the Mountain state since before itsinception.

The all-inclusive, 623-page volume with 160 noteworthyphotographs covers West Virginia beginning in 1861, two years before itseceded as a separate state. Abraham Lincoln said, “The admission ofthe new state turns that much slave soil to free.” However, as Loughrydescriptively relates, “The people who proudly call themselvesMountaineers have never been truly free from the depredations of politicaland financial corruption.”

Loughry said his passion for politics began at the age of 6 when he livedin Tucker County. His fervor for public service extended through manydedicated years resulting in his four separate law degrees including aDoctor of Judicial Science and a Master of Laws in Law, both from The American University, Washington College of Law; a Master of Laws in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of London, a Doctorof Jurisprudence from Capital University School of Law, as well as studying law at the University of Oxford. Loughry’s extensive resume can be viewed on http://www.reformwv.com/.

His current position is as a law clerk toJustice Elliott “Spike” Maynard of the West Virginia Supreme Court.Maynard has apparently been supportive of Loughry’s book having said itis “One of the best political books of all time. Loughry is a fearlessreformer who has written the most comprehensive, yet readable book onWest Virginia politics I have ever read.” (for complete quote and others bySenator Robert Byrd, former WV Governor Gaston Caperton and SenatorJohn McCain plus excerpts from the book go to http://www.reformwv.com/.

Loughry is nonpartisan in his revelations of indiscretions and corruption.He minces no words when he says, “If someone is a filthy corruptscoundrel stealing State money from the good people of this State, then itmeans absolutely nothing to me whether he or she is Democrat orRepublican as corruption should not be protected by the veil of eitherparty.”

The title, by the way, came from Joseph Kennedy when campaigning forhis son John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Catholic in a strongly Protestant state.In the “Logan Banner”, the day after the 1960 primary were the words“flagrant vote-buying, whiskey flowing like water, and coercion of voters.”

Vote buying is still not unheard of, particularly in the southern counties ofWest Virginia. A local reader of Loughry’s book, Joann Ingram, said sherecalls that back in the 40’s or 50’s “little bottles of whiskey were right atthe polls in Middlebourne.”Jim Hileman of Middlebourne also read the book. He said, “Anyone who has an inkling of interest in West Virginia history should read this book.”He agreed that it wouldn’t hurt every high school graduate to read “Don’tBuy Another Vote. I Won’t Pay for a Landslide.”

Loughry would like to make it clear that there are well-meaning men andwomen in West Virginian politics and that West Virginia is not alone instate and local level corruption. He claims that the same kind of book as“Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Won’t Pay for a Landslide” could be written forevery state and territory.Still, while it is not the only state to be corrupt, “it is the one with the mostcorruption, and so should be the one to lead the way to reform,” saidLoughry. He knows of no other state that has as many officials servingtime or has had a nose-biting judge incident.

Loughry has not written“Don’t But Another Vote, I Won’t Pay For A Landslide” to complain, but tooffer a solution.His “Contract with the Voter” on pages 509-514 can be a powerful tool ifpeople use it. Even with Loughry’s intimacy with his one-man revolution,he said it was “empowering” to sit with his delegates in Tucker Countyand get their answers to most of the 50 items in the Contract with theVoter.It can be printed out for use from http://www.reformwv.com/. The book can bepurchased at that address as well.

Loughry and his wife, Kelly, have a son age one and a half. Loughry said,“I want him to grow up in a better West Virginia.” The Loughry boy isnamed Justice.