Our views: ; West Virginians want much faster progress; Tuesday's election results reflect real impatience with the status quo

WEST Virginia's political climate is changing, at a rate manypeople could not have imagined a few years ago. That pace likelywill accelerate in the next 14 months.

Consider:

When Sen. Robert Byrd died, Gov. Joe Manchin, a conservative,fiscally responsible, pro-economic-growth Democrat, won the Senateseat over the even more pro-growth Republican candidate, John Raese.

Then every Democrat and his brother ran for the Democraticnomination to succeed Manchin as governor. Senate President Earl RayTomblin, another conservative Democrat who has worked hard toimprove the state's financial footing, won the day handily.

Tomblin prevailed again Tuesday against an even more growth-focused Republican, businessman, Bill Maloney.

But it wasn't a comfortable victory.

Tomblin is an experienced politician much praised for his abilityto broker compromises. He enjoyed widespread support - from laborgroups that had trashed him in the primary to business groupsgrateful for his work on policy changes that have improved WestVirginia's fiscal situation and economic prospects.

But a substantial portion of the electorate was not satisfiedwith what many interest groups were.

In a special election expected to generate little interest, 25percent of registered voters made the effort to cast ballots.

Tomblin, who has been on ballots since 1973, won 150,751 votes -almost 50 percent of the vote.

Republican Maloney, who has never run for public office, captured142,906 votes for almost 47 percent.

In a state where Democrats have a 2-1 advantage in voterregistration, that's a surprisingly thin margin for Tomblin.

Maloney tried to harness public dissatisfaction with longstandingpoverty and the policies of progressive Democrats like PresidentBarack Obama. Those themes surely contributed to Maloney'ssurprising showing.

But the president wasn't on the ballot Tuesday.

On Election Day 2012, Obama likely will head the Democraticticket. That could make a big difference.

West Virginians have had it with business as usual. They wantpolicies that will fix the state's economy, and they want it fast.

The party that delivers pro-growth policies quickly likely ownsthe foreseeable future.