Blankenship's Political Spending Reaches $7.5m

Don Blankenship's status as the George Soros of West Virginia politics kicks up a notch with a recent court filing that sheds new light on his 2006 election activities.

As The Associated Press reports, the Massey Energy Co. chief has disclosed contributing nearly $400,000 to conservative advocacy groups last year -- including at least one that then echoed his main campaign targeting Democratic legislators.

This spending is in addition to the more than $110,000 he contributed directly to his slate of GOP candidates and the $3.5 million he plowed into his main "And For The Sake Of The Kids" campaign.

The revelations come from a list detailing $4.08 million in political spending by Blankenship, compiled by his lawyers in his federal lawsuit against Gov. Joe Manchin. Lawyers for Manchin requested the information as they challenge his claim that the governor has violated his free speech rights.

The list encompasses spending from November 2004 to late December 2006, and so also includes his campaign against the 2005 pension bond issue. Though it does not include the 2004 election, Blankenship earlier estimated spending $3.5 million during that cycle "to unseat Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw, a Democrat, and elect Republican Brent Benjamin in his place," the AP article notes.

And with the Oct. 5 court filing bringing his known to-date total to about $7.5 million, Blankenship is expected to weigh in on next year's two-seat state Supreme Court race.