New Englanders were still holding out hope that Bush would govern like moderate Republican presidents in the past. They were mistaken and punished him in 1992.
Dukakis ran an economically populist campaign. He was a typical, unoffensive, new deal type Democrat (despite the Bush campaign's best attempts to turn him into a leftist nutjob) and those Democrats typically did very well in West Virginia.
The standard pet issues of rich suburban dumbs, many of whom now vote Democratic. Not something poor rural dumbs care about.
