By Mannix Porterfield/REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

For a youngster who once hung out at the old Pete & Bob's Drive-In in the 1950s until her owner-father called curfew on her, Carole Jean Jordan has come a long way in politics.Especially for a family that displayed little interest in politics, save for a grandfather with an aversion to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
But today, the girl whose father, Pete George, co-owned the onetime Beckley landmark, Jordan heads the Republican Party in Florida, a state that held the 2000 presidential election in limbo over a controversial recount.Hard work, grassroots and lot of the party," she explained when asked how a girl from a small town in West Virginia wound up with a key political post."My family was pretty non-political, so when we moved to Florida, I got involved," she said during a break in the two-day West Virginia GOP convention in her hometown.Initially registering as a Democrat, Jordan said she soon discovered a deeper kinship with the principles of the GOP.
As a businesswoman, Jordan said she realized other choices were on the horizon.
"The Republican Party appealed to me and what I believed in - lower taxes, more personal freedoms, that type of thing, that was much more in line than liberalism," she said."I believe in a hand up, not a handout."Jordan was a Florida elector, chosen by Gov. Jeb Bush well in advance of the hassle that erupted election night - one that held the nation spellbound while Al Gore and George W. Bush waited in suspense.
"We had no idea what we would be getting into," she said with a laugh."Normally, it's just a perfunctory job. You sign your name and verify the election. It turned out to be an incredible experience. We went on every national television network - NBC, CNN, Fox. We were targeted by a lot of dissidents, the people that believed you should go back on your promise. When you're chosen as an elector, you're chosen because you support the nominee."So intense was the pressure at one point that some 2,000 e-mails shut down her service.This time around, she said, the GOP in Florida is working furiously to make sure Bush carries his brother's state by a safer margin."As chair of the Republican Party, I can tell you we're just pulling out all stops to leave no proverbial stone unturned," Jordan said."We plan to work the hardest. We have the most intense grassroots campaign I've seen in my lifetime. We realize that the country is very close, closely divided. It's very important to us that we turn out every single vote. The most important person to us is the person at the individual precinct. They know who their neighbor is, they know what their neighbor believes in and they have the ability to turn them out."Besides Jeb Bush, the GOP claims the cabinet, a majority in the Florida legislature and 18 of the 25 members of Congress.
"We are the largest Republican state in the United States if you measure it in all that," she said.Jordan felt a twinge of nostalgia in driving along her old haunts in Beckley, but there are some noticeable changes.Pete & Bob's, a rendezvous of teen-agers, is now occupied by a Captain D's, and the street has gone from Valley Drive to Robert C. Byrd Drive. Another family business, an Amoco gas station, likewise has surrendered to the changing times."What was interesting, my grandmother, who came over here from the old country and lived at Stanaford - granddaddy operated the hoist there - had a boarding house," she said."When she moved into town, she's the one that financed the drive-in and eventually the gas station. She was the matriarch. Those women are the basis of my beliefs - hard work, patriotism. They kissed the ground when they got here. It's fascinating to think about what they did."
Immigrants such as those in her family tree survived terrorism not unlike the brand Iraq and Afghanistan have witnessed, she said.Jordan attended the old Lincoln Elementary and Woodrow Wilson High before leaving Beckley at age 16 to resettle in Vero Beach, Fla. While here, the Vine Street resident was crowned Raleigh County Teen Queen and had been a student at the former Mrs. Beard's Dancing School."It was fun having the drive-in," she said. "So many people remember it."
Like most kids of that era, she passed the time at her father's drive-in, known for its way of fashioning a hot dog with a unique relish."Daddy would tell me to go home at curfew time," she said.The family eventually opened a No. 2 Pete & Bob's on the 19-21 By-Pass, but it ultimately became Phil's, and that enterprise, too, was swallowed up decades later.Jordan is confident Bush can recapture Florida in the fall and hang on to West Virginia's five electoral votes in the process.

Top of the mountain: MSU wins national championship

By Dave Morrison, Sports Editor(Taken from The Register-Herald, Wednesday, March 31, 2004)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Zach Moss grabbed the rebound and threw the ball into the air. And with that, the celebration began.
Mountain State's season-long mission to return to Kansas City and capture what the Cougars felt they'd let slip away was accomplished as they downed Concordia (Calif.) 74-70 at Municipal Auditorium Tuesday, March 30, 2004.Eddie Starks, who had a big free throw with 11.1 seconds left, ran to the Concordia end, grabbed the rim and swung wildly. Mersad Terzic spun on the floor near midcourt. Kortaa Hall and Zane Gilliard embraced while assistant coach Dave Barksdale pumped his fist madly. Maurice Davis did a gig on the Buffalo Funds sign and Lorenzo Davis and Marc Lewis held up the MSU on their warmups. Here come the Cooooooooouugars, and they're coming home champions.Mountain State finished off a remarkable year by avenging the title they lost 88-84 in overtime to Concordia last year and finished the season 38-1. Mountain State won its last 17 games.
MSU is the first state team to capture a college national championship since Marshall won the NAIA title in 1947.Tournament MVP and NAIA national player of the year Zach Moss had 22 points and eight rebounds to lead the win."We were runners-up last year, I was runner-up in '99 in high school. I told myself I wasn't losing this one," Moss said. "I feel like I'm sitting on top of the world right now. I was not going to be sitting on the sideline, the runner-up, crying. You know we lost Raynardo (Curry, last year's NAIA national tournament MVP) at the beginning of the year and we went through controversy all year. We got together, stuck together and we won it. We won it."
But not without a fight.Defending champion Concordia was hardly done, despite being down as much as 14 in the second half.The Eagles sensed blood when Moss went to the bench with his fourth foul with 7:11 left and then Adrian Jackson went down with an Achilles injury less than a minute later.
"I'm sure they sensed that they would make a run at us when Moss and Jackson went out," Bolen said. "When you lose the NAIA player of the year and your point guard, that's got to give the other team confidence that they're still in the game. But, like we've done all year, we had other people step up."
Like Dwight Anglade and Mersad Terzic, who had back-to-back buckets to push the lead back to nine with 6:08 left.The Eagles fired back, with a Tanner Luster basket inside and a Chris Victor three to cut the lead to four.After Starks missed a pair of free throws, Nick Vanderlaan hit a shot to cut the lead to two, 64-62.Anthony Walker then stepped up with a big trey to push the lead back to five and Gilliard added a deuce to make it seven, 69-62 with 4:07 left. But Jeremy Groth and Clint Hull made back-to-back threes to make it a one-point lead at 69-68.Moss returned and immediately made an impact with a move inside to push it to three before Luster returned the favor on the other end, making it 71-70 with 1:16 left.Concordia had two chances to retake the lead, but each time the Cougars' defense stepped up.First, Victor, who had five threes, missed a three-pointer that he was well-guarded on and Zane Gilliard hauled in the rebound.He was immediately fouled with 23.1 seconds left."I knew when he went up there he was not going to miss those shots," Coach Bob Bolen said."You play all your life for a chance like that," Gilliard said. "We had to watch them celebrate on us last year. I was thinking about that. No way did we want to watch that again."On the next trip down Groth, who had four threes, missed a long trey over the tenacious Cougars' defense."I thought we created on the defensive end," Bolen said. "We made them take a hard three and got the rebound. I think we had three key defensive stops at the end of the game." Starks grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 11.1 seconds left."It was my turn to step up," he said. "I knew if I made it we had the championship. They tried to call a timeout but that didn't bother me. I knew I missed two before. I wasn't missing this time." "And Eddie Starks came over there, looked at us and said no way was he going to miss those shots," Bolen said. "When he hit that first one, that iced it for us." Moss grabbed the rebound on a wild three by Concordia and immediately tossed the ball skyward."They kept chipping away, chipping away, but we kept fighting," Moss said. "We weren't going to lose this game."
"It's a great feeling," Bolen said. "When you think that only three teams out of 74 years have ever finished runners-up one year and champions next, I think, on any level, that's amazing."MSU led by 16 points at the half, 40-24, on the strength of another big run that had become synonymous with MSU during its 38-1 season.Up 22-19, MSU went on an 18-5 run over the final 6:15 of the first half to lead by 16 at the break, 40-24."The first half was disappointing because we didn't play as aggressive as we normally do," Concordia coach Ken Ammann said. "That team is so good that they will make you pay, and they made us pay in the first half."Vanderlaan led the Eagles with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Victor had 15, Groth 14 and Luster 10.  Cougars' Moss named NAIA player of the year (3-31-2004) By Dave Morrison, Sports Editor KANSAS CITY, Mo.