According to a deed filed last August in Raleigh County, Bailey and his wife bought a $160,000 house in Beckley.
Bailey confirmed Friday that he does in fact have a house in Beckley. He said the family moved there after they determined that the cost of the mortgage payment was less than the $900 a month his wife was spending for gas to commute from their home in Pineville to her job in Beckley.
The Baileys' children enrolled in Raleigh County schools last fall.
Bailey said he plans to live in Beckley after he leaves the Legislature and that if he wins election as secretary of state in 2008 (he filed pre-candidacy papers for the office last fall), he plans to commute to Charleston from Beckley.
Bailey speculated that Republicans who don't want him to run against Secretary of State Betty Ireland are raising the fuss over his residency.
However, Bailey said he maintains his legal residency in Wyoming County and he will keep his house in Pineville for as long as he serves in the Legislature.
When the state Council of Churches called a press conference last week, the buzz at the Capitol was that they would be making a blockbuster announcement: purportedly, that Massey Energy chief executive Don Blankenship would be underwriting an ad campaign to oppose table-games legislation.
That didn't happen, and council Executive Director Dennis Sparks said afterward that he hasn't spoken with Blankenship. Nor, he said, had any of the three delegates — Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell; Patrick Lane, R-Kanawha; or John Overington, R-Berkeley — who attended the council's legislative strategy session Thursday.
Furthermore, Sparks said, in light of the outcome of the November elections, he would be concerned about whether Blankenship's support would be a help or a hindrance.<
While the House can't seem to find no-show Delegate Ron Thompson, D-Raleigh, they can't seem to get rid of former Delegate Cindy Frich, R-Monongalia, who lost her re-election bid in November.
Frich attended January interim meetings, which is not uncommon for lame-duck legislators, though it can create the uncomfortable scenario where both the outgoing legislator and the successor show up for the same committee meeting.
She was also spotted Wednesday at new Speaker Rick Thompson's swearing-in ceremony, at the State of the State address and at a legislative reception that evening sponsored by the state Business and Industry Council.
On Thursday, she told me she was just tying up some loose ends and insisted she was not planning to stay or do any lobbying this session.
Speaking of Speaker Thompson, given that the media made such a fuss in 2001 when Bob Wise became the first governor in 96 years to have a mustache, Thompson has that record beat.
Thompson is the first speaker to sport a beard since David Shaw, D-Barbour, who was the state's 19th speaker, serving from 1893 to 1895.
(Thanks to the folks over in the legislative information office for the research.)
The reception season got off to an early start this session. In addition to the Business and Industry Council reception Wednesday, the West Virginia Coal Association hosted its legislative reception Thursday.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Sen. Bill Sharpe, D-Lewis, who is scheduled to undergo major surgery in Morgantown early this week.
Indications are that he will miss a significant portion of the 60-day session while recuperating.
Finally, in the 10-year history of Tamarack, I'd wager there have been at least 10 studies concluding with alarm that the place is losing money.
No doubt, it never has and probably never will be a revenue-producer for the state, but don't dismiss its intrinsic public relations value, either.
Case in point: When I was home for Christmas (in suburban Richmond), our neighbors of 40 years came to visit, and the first thing they asked me was, "How far are you from that arts and crafts center on the Turnpike?"
Seems that they travel to Tennessee frequently to visit relatives, and they always make the return trip via I-64 so that they can spend the night in Cross Lanes to go to the dog track and stop at Tamarack for breakfast and shopping the next day.
Is $2.7 million a year a reasonable expense to portray West Virginia in a positive light to out-of-state visitors? Who knows? I guess the state could take that money and buy an ad during the Super Bowl.
To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, e-mail philk@wvgazette.com or call 348-1220.