| By Bob Weaver
Nearly 400 people have registered to lobby the West Virginia Legislature this year.
That's nearly three times the number of House of Delegates and state Senate membership combined.
They represent 480 businesses, associations and special interest groups.
Mountain State Blue Cross and Blue Shield has seven lobbyists.
Appalachian Power, the state Chamber of Commerce and the associations for hospitals and independent oil and gas operators each have six.
A week after leaving public office, Gov. Joe Manchin's former longtime chief of staff Larry Puccio has registered to lobby for health, gambling and coal companies in the 2010 legislative session.
Puccio is lobbying for West Virginia United Health System, Charles Town Races and Slots, CONSOL Energy and The Greenbrier resort.
Nothing in state ethics laws prohibits someone in Puccio's position from registering as a lobbyist immediately after leaving public office.
Puccio had worked for Manchin since 2001.
Other high-level state officials make a quick shift to the private sector.
Retired state schools Superintendent David Stewart shifted to a job with Charleston architectural firm ZMM.
It was the same firm to which Stewart and the WV School Building Authority issued multi-millions of dollars in contracts for services in building a number of new consolidated schools.
ZMM Architects said at the time, Stewart would help with efforts to secure business with West Virginia colleges and universities and help plan, design and finance public school projects.
"Stewart's hire with this firm only validates the dynamic behind wholesale school consolidation in West Virginia," said then, Lincoln County school board president Carol Smith. "Follow the money and you'll find the answers."
Stewart was a leader in the consolidation movement, overseeing the closure of hundreds of community-based schools in the state, claiming that curriculum would be improved, and that larger schools can be operated more efficiently, producing better results.
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