CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor's race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president's health-care plan.

Tomblin, who has been acting governor for the past year, will finish the final year of a term left vacant by Joe Manchin, a well-liked Democratic governor who stepped down after he won a U.S. Senate seat.

The race featured negative ads from both sides and narrowed in the final weeks. The national parties spent millions of dollars on each campaign.

With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Tomblin had 50 percent of the vote compared with Republican Bill Maloney's 47 percent, according to unofficial results.

Obama lost West Virginia in 2008 and remains wildly unpopular here, but Tomblin got a replay of last year's U.S. Senate special election, when Manchin beat back efforts to tie him to Obama.

GOP candidates

boycott Univision

MIAMI — Four Republican presidential candidates are boycotting a proposed debate sponsored by the Spanish language Univision network because of allegations that the media giant tried to strong-arm Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio, a possible vice-presidential pick, with a controversial story about a relative.

Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann all issued statements Tuesday saying that Univision needs to make amends before they would appear at the debate, tentatively scheduled for two days before Florida's Jan. 31 primary.

The four made their separate announcements throughout the day at the behest of three Florida Latino Republican lawmakers who noted that Rubio's office and Univision insiders said the network publicized an embarrassing story about the senator's brother-in-law because Rubio wouldn't sit down for an interview on the show "Al Punto," which has espoused a liberal line on the hot topic of immigration.

Univision has called the allegations of a quid-pro-quo "absurd," and said that the July story of the 24-year-old drug bust was reported fairly and accurately.

Univision reaches 95 percent of the 13.3 million Latino households in the United States, where Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic.

Also

Bishops' voters guide: The nation's Roman Catholic bishops have released a voter guide for the 2012 election that repeatedly calls abortion "evil" without making revisions that some conservatives had demanded for an even tighter focus on the issue. The document, called "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," also highlights social concerns such as ending poverty and war.

Book sales: "This is Herman Cain," a newly released memoir by the businessman and Republican presidential candidate, was in the top 10 on Amazon.com as of Tuesday afternoon. Interest in the book has soared since Cain unexpectedly won the Florida straw poll on Sept. 24.