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Opponents call new campaign an attempt to deceive Ohioans
Saturday, June 03, 2006
James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Proponents of casino-style gambling in Ohio yesterday unveiled a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that makes no mention of gambling or casinos.
Instead, the new billboards and radio spots tout scholarships for high-school graduates — without saying they would be paid for through proceeds from slot machines at Ohio’s seven horse tracks and two downtown Cleveland locations.
Showing the deep pockets behind the push to expand gambling in Ohio, proponents are hitting the airwaves months before they learn whether their proposed constitutional amendment will qualify for the November ballot. The ad campaign also comes in the middle of a dust-up with Cincinnati developers left out of the proposal.
The Ohio Learn and Earn committee, which is sponsoring the measure, unveiled the radio spots at a news conference yesterday in Columbus. The ads say the Ohio Learn and Earn proposal that may be on the November ballot would make the scholarships a reality.
Linda Siefkas and Michael Hopcraft, who are handling public relations for the committee, declined to say how much the group will spend on media buys, but they said they expect to saturate the state with ads and billboards even as supporters of the measure circulate a petition.
"It’s a branding campaign for Learn and Earn," Siefkas said. "We’re not hiding the fact that this is about slot machines at the seven existing racetracks and two downtown (Cleveland) locations."
But the radio ads don’t mention that. Instead, set to an upbeat soundtrack, they emphasize the estimated $1 billion in revenue that would be set aside for college scholarships for Ohio high-school graduates. "A lot of good, a lot of good, a whole lot of good will come of this," the ads say.
Gambling opponents say the campaign smacks of desperation.
"This is the most deceitful one we’ve seen," said David Zanotti, president of the American Policy Roundtable and veteran of antigambling campaigns in Ohio.
"The past ones were at least more honest about what they were trying to do."
The strategy is typical for gambling proposals, said Thomas E. Nelson, an associate professor of political science at Ohio State University. Gambling opponents could gain points by suggesting that Learn and Earn’s reluctance to acknowledge the nature of the proposal is a deliberate attempt to mislead voters.
"What the opponents will have to do is show that it clearly is a political ploy and something they (supporters) don’t want to talk about," said Nelson, who is not involved in the campaign.
Ohio voters rejected proposals for casino-style gambling in 1990 and 1996. But supporters say they expect to find a more receptive climate this year because gambling has come to neighboring Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana and is ubiquitous on the Internet.
The Learn and Earn committee is being funded by racetracks across Ohio and Cleveland-area developers who hope to build casinos downtown. The group hopes to begin airing television commercials late this month, Hopcraft said.
It needs about 323,000 valid signatures by Aug. 8 to qualify for the November ballot. Circulators have gathered about 100,000 signatures, Siefkas said.
The campaign’s chairman is Charles J. Ruma, owner of Beulah Park racetrack in Grove City. The other central Ohio racetrack, Scioto Downs, is the only one of the state’s seven not backing the Learn and Earn measure. Scioto Downs favors allowing cities other than Cleveland to have casinos.
At the same time, casino interests in Cincinnati are squabbling with the Learn and Earn committee over both groups’ petition campaigns. The Cincinnati group fell short this week of the 1,000 valid signatures it needed to have its ballot language approved by the attorney general. Jerry Austin, a political consultant who is a spokesman for the Cincinnati group, suggested that a company his group hired to gather signatures might have sabotaged the effort because it also was working for Learn and Earn.
Both Learn and Earn and the company deny the allegation.
While urban casino interests wage their ballot campaigns, an American Indian tribe is pressing land claims that could allow it to build casinos in western Ohio, including Lima.
The Oklahoma-based Eastern Shawnee tribe this week asked a federal judge not to throw out its claim to 146 square miles of land. Attorney General Jim Petro had called on the judge to dismiss the claim.
jnash@dispatch.com
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