November 08, 2008 07:54 pm
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By Joe Hadsall
Globe columnist
One of the points of writing this column is to show that it is very difficult to prove that money buys actual votes.
But the case of Proposition A comes close.
The measure that removes loss limits from Missouri casinos and prohibits the construction of any more casinos passed last Tuesday night with a 56.2 percent majority. It garnered 1,573,988 votes during the election.
Prop A was marketed as the “Schools First Initiative,” pushed by the Yes on A Coalition. Supporters said that the measure would give about $100 million in new funding to public schools by increasing the state tax casinos pay from 20 percent to 21 percent.
Opponents — specifically area school superintendents — argued that the measure used students and teachers to touch on voters’ soft spots.
The measure did much more for casinos than schools, they argued, and even threatened to monkey with the state’s education-funding formula.
If you take a look at the state records it would appear that the coalition paid a premium price for votes.
According to a report filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission, the coalition raised more than $15 million since December 2007 — about a million less than Governor-elect Jay Nixon raised in more than three years.
The coalition had spent about $13.9 million eight days before the election. It bought the best that money could buy: Almost two thirds of that money, about $9.2 million, went to Winner & Mandabach Campaigns, an L.A. firm that specializes in winning elections.
On its Web site — wmcampaigns.com — it claims that it has handled more ballot measure campaigns than any other firm and has a 90 percent win record. The firm was called the leading ballot measure firm in the nation by ABC, according to its Web site.
Winner & Mandabach, in 2006, managed campaigns of Rhode Island racetracks opposed to a new casino in West Warwick and for Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., to install electronic gaming machines.
The firm is compensated in reports for campaign management, but also raked in expenses for broadcast cable, Web site development and many other expenses.
The firm organized a campaign blitz for Prop A. It hired petition management groups, several full-time employees and a bevy of other consultants.
The expense reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission read like the budget of a cutting-edge business start-up venture.
Here’s the kicker about all that money: It came from casinos. Pinnacle Entertainment (which owns Lumiere Place and the President Casino in St. Louis), Ameristar Casinos and the Missouri Gaming Association are the only listed donors in about a year’s worth of campaign reports.
A measure “in support of schools” didn’t receive a dime from schools.
The Yes on A Coalition also didn’t claim a single public school district as a supporter. It boasts hundreds of teachers as supporters, but given that a Carl Junction teacher protested the use of his name as a supporter, that raises skepticism about the other teachers and the methods of how their support was obtained.
The coalition didn’t get much support from newspaper endorsements, either. None of Missouri’s major dailies supported it, and the Globe and Springfield News-Leader opposed it.
But the advertising blitz worked. The barrage of ads featuring education professionals talking about Missouri children and money for schools led a majority of voters to pass the proposition.
The reason for a $15 million investment from casinos is obvious. Globe editorial board members noted that, according to the coalition’s own campaign materials, the passage of the proposition is likely to net casinos an additional $422 million per year.
If that doesn’t define the old maxim of spending money to make money, I don’t know what does.
But the claim of more money for schools remains to be seen — especially since the Missouri Legislature has ultimate authority on spreading money to schools, not the proposition.
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