CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Following a pricey, headline-grabbing primary, the race for two seats on West Virginia's Supreme Court has been a relatively quiet affair - until this week, anyway.

A $403,174 ad bought by a coalition of pro-business groups, in support of the sole Republican running, has helped underscore the stakes.

Up for grabs are two 12-year terms on the five-member court, the state's only appeals forum.

The Democrats nominated Margaret Workman, a former justice and circuit court judge, and Menis Ketchum, who boasts the field's longest legal career.

Beth Walker, the GOP contender, is the youngest, at 43, and newest to the practice of law. However, her 18-year career, particularly in employment law, has helped earn her the influential backing of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

The race has taken a back seat to other contests during the fall season, including the tightening presidential battle between Republican Sen. John McCain and Democrat Sen. Barack Obama for West Virginia's five electoral votes. The outcome of the presidential campaign could influence whom voters choose among the Supreme Court hopefuls, said Marybeth Beller, a political science professor at Marshall University.

Beller cited how state Democratic leaders have urged their rank and file to vote a straight party ticket. An estimated 105,300 did so in the 2006 general election, about 22 percent of all ballots cast that year.

Recent polls, though, showed McCain between 6 and 12 percentage points ahead of Obama, despite the state Democratic Party's nearly 2-to-1 advantage over GOP voters.

"Obviously, some Democrats aren't going to feel comfortable about that," Beller said of the straight-ticket prospects. "It's hard to predict what's going to happen with the court."

Workman, 61, boasts the only judicial experience in the field. She had been a Kanawha Circuit Court judge for seven years before being elected to the Supreme Court in 1988.

Serving alongside a succession of 11 fellow justices during her tenure, Workman wrote more than 160 precedent-setting rulings between 1991, the earliest year for online court records, and 1999. Her colleagues included all the sitting justices except Justice Brent Benjamin.

Workman stepped down from the bench in 1999, before the end of her term. Amid unsuccessful campaigns for Congress and the state Senate, Workman has handled an array of civil cases. Her caseload in Kanawha Circuit Court includes about three-dozen filings this decade, general civil as well as domestic-relations cases, records there show.

Ketchum, of Huntington, has campaigned on his 41 years as a lawyer. Admitted to the State Bar in 1967, the 65-year-old has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than nearly every other active attorney in the state. He has represented plaintiffs as well as defendants, although all the cases he's had in Kanawha Circuit Court this decade have been for plaintiffs.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Following a pricey, headline-grabbing primary, the race for two seats on West Virginia's Supreme Court has been a relatively quiet affair - until this week, anyway.

A $403,174 ad bought by a coalition of pro-business groups, in support of the sole Republican running, has helped underscore the stakes.

Up for grabs are two 12-year terms on the five-member court, the state's only appeals forum.

The Democrats nominated Margaret Workman, a former justice and circuit court judge, and Menis Ketchum, who boasts the field's longest legal career.

Beth Walker, the GOP contender, is the youngest, at 43, and newest to the practice of law. However, her 18-year career, particularly in employment law, has helped earn her the influential backing of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

The race has taken a back seat to other contests during the fall season, including the tightening presidential battle between Republican Sen. John McCain and Democrat Sen. Barack Obama for West Virginia's five electoral votes. The outcome of the presidential campaign could influence whom voters choose among the Supreme Court hopefuls, said Marybeth Beller, a political science professor at Marshall University.

Beller cited how state Democratic leaders have urged their rank and file to vote a straight party ticket. An estimated 105,300 did so in the 2006 general election, about 22 percent of all ballots cast that year.

Recent polls, though, showed McCain between 6 and 12 percentage points ahead of Obama, despite the state Democratic Party's nearly 2-to-1 advantage over GOP voters.

"Obviously, some Democrats aren't going to feel comfortable about that," Beller said of the straight-ticket prospects. "It's hard to predict what's going to happen with the court."

Workman, 61, boasts the only judicial experience in the field. She had been a Kanawha Circuit Court judge for seven years before being elected to the Supreme Court in 1988.

Serving alongside a succession of 11 fellow justices during her tenure, Workman wrote more than 160 precedent-setting rulings between 1991, the earliest year for online court records, and 1999. Her colleagues included all the sitting justices except Justice Brent Benjamin.

Workman stepped down from the bench in 1999, before the end of her term. Amid unsuccessful campaigns for Congress and the state Senate, Workman has handled an array of civil cases. Her caseload in Kanawha Circuit Court includes about three-dozen filings this decade, general civil as well as domestic-relations cases, records there show.

Ketchum, of Huntington, has campaigned on his 41 years as a lawyer. Admitted to the State Bar in 1967, the 65-year-old has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than nearly every other active attorney in the state. He has represented plaintiffs as well as defendants, although all the cases he's had in Kanawha Circuit Court this decade have been for plaintiffs.

A lawyer in West Virginia since 1990, Walker has handled scores of cases in the state's southern federal court district and in Kanawha Circuit Court, West Virginia's largest and busiest. The dozen or so she's worked on in the circuit court this decade have involved employment law or discrimination allegations.

Walker has represented the employer or defendant in all but one of those cases. In that exception, she obtained last year a small settlement for a former official at Putnam County's Museum in the Community.

The state Chamber of Commerce has tapped Walker over the years as an expert on employment law and personnel policy. This week, it unveiled a $403,174 TV ad campaign to boost her candidacy.

The chamber provided about a third of the funding, according to its disclosure filing. The U.S. Chamber accounts for just under half, with the rest of the money coming from two allied groups: the American Tort Reform Association and Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

The chamber hired Mentzer Media Services to produce the ads. The Maryland-based firm's resume includes attack ads in 2004 from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry's military record in Vietnam.

The ad buy it's handling for the West Virginia chamber this year reflects the only third-party spending in the Supreme Court general election campaign reported to the secretary of state's office.

As for the candidates' campaigns, Ketchum raised and spent the most since the primary. His $293,263 in contributions is slightly more than Walker's nearly $291,000, while Workman raised about $124,000. Ketchum had spent nearly $413,000 as of Oct. 19, compared to $170,000 by Walker and just $28,653 by Workman. Most of Walker and Ketchum's money has gone toward TV ads.

Walker ran unopposed in her party's primary. Workman and Ketchum emerged from the Democrats' May contest after a four-way battle that included Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard.

The incumbent had been under a shadow after photos surfaced in January showing him in Monaco with Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Massey had several cases before the court at the time of their July 2007 meet-up, and the photos attracted national media attention. Each man cited their longtime friendship and denied any wrongdoing, while Maynard subsequently agreed to disqualify himself from all Massey-related cases.

The resulting questions regarding conflicts of interest contributed to Maynard's defeat, and remain a lingering issue in the race. The three nominees have addressed the topic at candidate forums, and Beller cited some of their recent campaign ads.

"They're bending over backward to say that they will recuse themselves to avoid a conflict of interest," she said. "They at least perceive that voters are very aware of Massey Energy and the perceived influence their CEO has had on the court."