W.Va.'s GOP and 2008

In the wake of the West Virginia Republican Party's annual summer conference, The Associated Press looks at some of the challenges facing the Mountain State's GOP as it readies for the 2008 election cycle.

After a rough 2006, the Republicans are losing their only statewide executive branch officeholder, face a popular incumbent Democratic governor, and are searching for a challenger to U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Then there's the six-figure debt, and a brewing anti-GOP storm on the national front, according to political analysts.