MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Republican Bill Maloney said Thursday he's ready to finish what he started last year -- win the Republican primary in May and then defeat incumbent Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin in the race for West Virginia governor.

The Morgantown businessman came within 7,100 votes of winning a special election last fall, a result he said shows that voters are ready for a change from the longtime domination of Democrats.

"It was clear the people of West Virginia were ready to move beyond the bureaucracy and corruption that held our state back," he said. "We came as close as we did because our message resonated."

A self-made millionaire, Maloney said he can improve the economic progress the state has already made.

"We can make the business climate better. We can cut wasteful bureaucracy. We can eliminate wasteful regulation that holds back job growth," he said, "and we can elect a new president.

"We can make West Virginia better, and that's what it's all about," Maloney told a few dozen supporters who crammed into Ruby & Ketchy's, a diner near his home that he and wife Sharon frequent. "We started something last year, and it's time to finish it."

After a breakfast of buckwheat pancakes, Maloney headed for the Secretary of State's Office in Charleston to formally file his paperwork.

Tomblin, longtime president of the state Senate, is finishing the unexpired term of fellow Democrat and now-U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin. This fall's election is for a full, four-year term.

A spokesman for the governor noted that West Virginia has seen more than 1,000 new jobs and announcements of $1 billion in new investments just this month.

"Governor Tomblin is making good on what he pledged to do last year -- move the state forward and continue to foster a climate that leads to more jobs and lower taxes," said spokesman Chris Stadelman.

Tomblin headed for Houston on Thursday to promote West Virginia as the best site for a new multibillion-dollar chemical plant that converts molecules in a byproduct from Marcellus Shale natural gas into a widely used chemical compound. The chemical industry estimates a single West Virginia cracker plant would create more than 12,000 permanent jobs.

The trip came the day after lawmakers passed Tomblin's proposal to slash a cracker's property taxes for 25 years in exchange for an investment of at least $2 billion.

The only primary challenge Maloney faces so far is from fellow Morgantown Republican Ralph William Clark, who entered the race Jan. 17. Clark ran for governor last year but got less than 2 percent of the vote in the May primary.

Other candidates have until Saturday to file.

"The more West Virginians got to know Bill last year, the more they liked his plans to revitalize West Virginia," said Phil Cox, executive director of the Republican Governors Association. His group tried last year to link Tomblin to President Obama, considered unpopular in West Virginia.

Maloney loaned his campaign $2.45 million in the race, mostly to keep pace with the contributions Tomblin was attracting.

Maloney focused on the state's high poverty ranking and touted his experience as an employer. He vowed to take West Virginia in a new direction by aggressively targeting its tax structure, regulatory policies and court system. He also campaigned on his contribution to the rescue plan that freed the 33 trapped Chilean miners in 2010, where he provided drilling expertise.

Cox contends the more voters learned about Tomblin's 40-year political career, "the less they liked him."

Last fall, the governorship was the only race on the ballot and voter turnout was less than 25 percent. This year, the race shares a full ballot of legislative and other statewide races, as well as federal House, Senate and presidential elections.

Maloney said that he's long strived to be part of his community, and running for governor is "the ultimate of what you can do to give back."

He also talked about humble beginnings, living in two Morgantown trailer parks when he first started North American Drillers in the 1980s and then turning that beginning into "the American dream."

"It's something that, with a lot of determination and hard work, you can do," he said. "If you strive to do the right thing and work hard, you can get ahead."

He called anyone who has a problem with that idea "misguided."