Casino News Source: http://www.oregonlive.com
Gambling - If they get court clearance, backers of two measures will need to spend lots of money to get on the ballot
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
JEFF MAPES
With their ballot measures still tied up in the Oregon Supreme Court, backers of a proposed Portland-area casino face long odds of getting on the November ballot. But they are still talking about mounting a furiously fast -- and expensive -- campaign to collect enough signatures to qualify their initiatives by the July 7 deadline.
Lake Oswego entrepreneurs Bruce Studer and Matthew Rossman say they have arranged millions of dollars in financing from still-secret sources to finance an initiative campaign to build the state's first nontribal casino at the now-closed greyhound park in Wood Village.
Roger Gray, the political consultant handling the initiative drive, said he is still confident he can gather the needed signatures if the Supreme Court rules in the next few days on a legal challenge to the wording of the ballot title.
"We have this thing set to pull the trigger and go," said Gray, adding that he is considering the unusual step of sending canvassers door to door to gather signatures. The casino proponents need to collect more than 175,000 signatures for the two measures.
Several other experts on canvassing said the casino backers may well be able to gather enough signatures in just a few weeks if money is no object. In addition, they said the effort could lure experienced canvassers from other campaigns. That could make it difficult for other initiative drives to collect signatures.
"It's not impossible, but they'd have to spend in the area of a million dollars," said Bill Sizemore, the veteran anti-tax activist. "You do something like offer people $50 an hour to stand in front of the post office or the DMV."
In addition, Sizemore said it makes sense in this case to hire large numbers of canvassers to go door to door. Petition canvassers normally prefer to hang out in public places where they can collect signatures faster. But there are only so many places like Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Gray would not provide a cost estimate, but he said that "it is going to be significant."
Studer and Rossman have said they will reveal their financial backers before their initiatives go to voters.
The casino backers tried to begin their canvassing several months ago. But the attorney general has twice forced proponents to rewrite their initiatives to pass constitutional muster. One of the measures amends the Oregon Constitution to allow one commercial casino; the other sites the casino at the greyhound track and directs that 25 percent of the gambling revenues go to the state.
Patty Wentz of Our Oregon, a union-backed group active in initiative campaigns, said the casino measures would likely attract additional canvassers from other states because the gambling industry has a reputation for lavish spending.
"If this gets on the street . . . every other measure all of a sudden can't find signature gatherers," she said, "because they all go to the casino measures."
Jason Williams, executive director of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon, said he wasn't worried that the casino measures would hurt the prospects for his initiative to limit state spending. And he was skeptical that the casino backers could collect enough signatures before the deadline, no matter how much money they have.
He noted that opponents of gay marriage gathered 240,000 signatures in five weeks in 2004, and it took opponents of a tax increase just over three months to gather 148,000 signatures in 2003.
Sex and taxes are hot-button issues, Williams said, "but gambling isn't."
Jeff Mapes: 503-221-8209; jeffmapes@news.oregonian.com
|
|
World Casino Directory 
Gambling Forums 
