Blankenship to Skip 2008 Races

Following through on an earlier ultimatum, Massey Energy Co. chief Don Blankenship tells The Charleston Daily Mail "he'll have no major involvement in this year's state Supreme Court and statehouse elections."

Blankenship has previously estimated spending $7.5 million on West Virginia political efforts -- $3.5 million on his much-scrutinized 2004 Supreme Court campaign, and about $4 million since then.

A good deal of the latter amount bankrolled his 2006 attempt to deliver a GOP majority in the House of Delegates. " The effort backfired, with Democrats increasing their majority to 72 seats in the House," the article noted.

"Blankenship got some backlash from state Republican Party leaders, who said his advisers had failed to realize that many voters would be angered by his involvement," the Daily Mail reported. "Blankenship shrugged off the criticism."

The Monaco photos showing him with Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard have kept him in the news, as has a #1 best-selling novel that apparently caricatures him and a non-fiction book on the coal industry that is similarly unflattering.