The dollar-in (actual amount of money put in the machines) for August was $11,356,688, which was down about 8 percent from the June figure of $12,352,629, but was up nearly $7,000 from July.

That seems to suggest that Kanawha County will follow the pattern of other localities across the country that have enacted smoking bans - after an initial drop-off, business rebounds, and frequently goes on to exceed pre-smoking ban levels as the businesses attract more customers from the non-smoking majority.

While the August dollar-in was down about 5 percent from August 2007 ($11,910,686) that month was something of a sales anomaly.

In fact, August 2008 dollar-in was only 1 percent down from June 2007 ($11,449,389) and also July 2007 ($11,491,420).

(I bet there are a lot of retailers in town who'd be overjoyed if their business were down only 1 percent from last summer.)

Meanwhile, the Lottery Commission has been tracking Kanawha County's weekly LVL revenue going back to May, and its tracking reveals an interesting fact: The downward trend in weekly revenue started not in July, but in early June.

Weekly revenues peaked the week ending June 7 at $889,659, then dropped sharply the next two weeks, before making a brief upswing the week ending June 21, then generally showing a decline until the final week on the chart, ending Aug. 30, when revenues jumped 12 percent to $687,515.

And what happened in early June? That's right: Gas went above $4 a gallon.

Lottery Director John Musgrave said those figures - including the fact the downturn in revenue preceded the smoking ban by nearly a month - makes it impossible to say how much of the drop is attributable to the smoking ban, and how much is the result of a lack of disposal income, given the current state of the economy.

Also, the August figures brought good news for Jean Angle, operator of the Pour House Sports Bar and one of the most vocal opponents of the smoking ban.

Her August LVL revenue was $11,894, up $6,228 from July - and also better than the bar's revenues for June 2008 ($11,091) and for August 2007 ($9,015).

If there was any question the Obama/Biden campaign is writing off West Virginia as a battleground state, the announcement Friday of the keynoter for Saturday's Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner should put it to rest.

Going into the week, state Democratic Party chairman Nick Casey was still optimistic that either Barack Obama or Joe Biden would visit Charleston after a scheduled joint appearance in nearby Ohio that afternoon.

Plan B, according to Gov. Joe Manchin, was to try for either Michelle Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The fallback was to have Manchin invite one of his fellow Democratic Governors' Association members.   

Saturday's speaker, in fact, will be Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, which is the state party's equivalent of a kid getting clothes for a Christmas present.

Speaking of which, Mark Blankenship of Mark Blankenship Enterprises said he was surprised by the amount of buzz that was generated over the polls he released last week on the presidential, Supreme Court and attorney general's races.

Blankenship, who was executive assistant to Gov. Cecil Underwood from 1997 to 2000, then worked for RMS Strategies in Charleston, said he started his opinion research firm about a year and a half ago.

His company now has two employees, and contracts out the surveying to an affiliated call center, Blankenship said.

"It's not a large firm, but it's not a nickel-and-dime operation either," he said.

He said no one commissioned the polls, which he paid for as a marketing effort to promote the company.

(My understanding is that, in the opinion research biz, political polls may get the headlines but things like consumer surveys and jury selection polling is what pays the bills.)

Despite his past ties to the GOP, and rumors he did internal polls for Massey CEO Don Blankenship (no relation), which he said he could not confirm or deny, Blankenship said there is no political motive to his polls.

"The intent is certainly not to influence anybody," he said.

In fact, he said he was bemused that some news accounts of his poll on the presidential race in the state (McCain 44 percent, Obama 39 percent) suggested the poll showed the race was tightening.

Since that's the first and only poll he's done to date on the race, Blankenship said there's no way to reach any conclusion about trends from it.

"It's a snapshot in time," he said.

Finally, while Democratic National Convention-goers may have gotten to mingle with celebrities including Jessica Alba, Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Garner, state delegates at the Republican National Convention also got to hang out with a star: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog filmed a segment with the state delegation that aired on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

In fact, Fayette County GOP Chairman Gary Lilly got to play straight man to an only slightly vulgar Triumph riff on Republicans cutting taxes.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 348-1220.