Looking for Mr. B (Updated)

A certain delegate from Raleigh County was not the only conspicuous absentee during the 2007 regular session.

After pouring millions from his own fortune on an ill-fated bid to reshape the Legislature, by all appearances Don Blankenship sat out the ensuing session.

And unlike 2006, the Massey Energy Co. CEO, chairman and president also did not attend the State of the State address that helps kick off the 60-day session.

Another no-show was Blankenship's longtime lobbyist and political operative, Gregory Alan Thomas. As of March 6, the former GOP congressional spokesman and campaign consultant had not registered with the Ethics Commission to lobby for Blankenship, Massey or anyone.

The same goes for Robert Charles Cornelius, who had previously monitored legislative meetings and helped Thomas run last year's "And For The Sake Of The Kids" political campaign.

The only real exceptions are participants in Blankenship's failed political campaign who returned to minor jobs at the Statehouse (Amy Brooke Danford in the House, for instance, and Roman Stauffer in the Senate) during the session.

(Update: Danford replies, "I did not work for the legislature during the the 2007 legislative session nor was I involved in the for the sake of the kids campaign... I participated in the picture, but I was never affiliated with that organization." She also requested the removal of the link to her personal web site, cited in a comment below.)

Blankenship also has an employee in the Legislature. Delegate Troy Andes, a Putnam County Republican who works for Massey Coal Services, was elected to a two-year term in November representing the 14th House district.

Blankenship has remained busy on other fronts. He welcomed Tuesday's ruling by a state appeal board in the fight between Massey and state regulators over permitting a coal silo at a Raleigh County site that has drawn protesters nationwide.

Blankenship also recently opined that non-union mines are more profitable than their union counterparts (earning an op-ed reply from UMWA President Cecil Roberts).

Besides the disastrous 2006 political campaign (the Republicans actually lost seats in both chambers, despite his massive spending), Blankenship's year also ended on a sour note when BusinessWeek ranked him among the worst CEOs for compensation vs. shareholder returns.