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Traficant faces struggle in casino plan, possible election bid, analysts say
CANFIELD —Ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. vowed to bring an Indian gambling casino to the Mahoning Valley — something currently not permitted under state and federal law.
In his first press conference after seven years in a federal prison for conviction on a variety of felonies, including racketeering and tax evasion, Traficant also said Thursday that he’s looking at three congressional districts in which to seek office.
Stuart Rothenberg, a nationally respected political analyst, said Traficant would have an uphill battle getting elected.
“Traficant is a caricature,” he said. “We’re in an environment of change. Most people don’t think of a congressman who served time in prison as their idea of change.”
Rothenberg is editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, a political newsletter, and is a columnist for Roll Call, a newspaper that focuses on national politics.
Traficant would be shunned by political officials during a campaign as well as if he somehow is elected to Congress, Rothenberg said.
“National Democrats and Republicans will ignore him,” Rothenberg said. “A prison term and time changed things. There are new political realities.”
Traficant wouldn’t say which congressional districts he’s considering. His associates previously have mentioned the 6th and 17th districts, and it’s believed the other district is the 16th, just west of the Valley.
Traficant, who served more than 17 years in the U.S. House before being expelled in July 2002, expects to decide by late January if he’ll run, what district and with what party affiliation, if any.
Just as he did before heading to prison in July 2002, Traficant talked tough during the press conference at the Hampton Inn & Suites here.
Traficant said the $787 billion federal stimulus bill didn’t provide enough money for the Valley. He said he would have made sure there was more money for the area or it wouldn’t have passed if he was a congressman.
The bill passed the House 244-188, meaning Traficant’s one vote wouldn’t have made a difference.
While meeting with the press, Traficant insisted he committed no crimes despite being convicted of 10 felony counts, including bribery, racketeering, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
“I’ve suffered great financial problems,” he said. “All I had to do is say, ‘I’m guilty,’ and I’d have been out of jail. But I wasn’t guilty.”
Traficant claimed local grocery store owner Henry Nemenz “admitted to me that he was pressured to lie before the grand jury” during the former congressman’s criminal investigation.
Reached by telephone, Nemenz said Traficant’s claim is “not true at all. I don’t know where he’s coming at by saying that.”
Nemenz added, “I certainly wasn’t told to lie, and I didn’t lie.”
Nemenz said Traficant paid him only $25,000 for an $89,000 pole barn-riding arena at the ex-congressman’s family horse farm in Greenford in 1994.
Traficant announced that he’s working with the Itana [Indigenous Tribal Affiliates of Native America] Indian Nation to build a gambling casino at an undisclosed Valley location.
But that’s a lot easier said than done.
To apply for a federal gaming license, “you have to be a federally recognized tribe, and there are none in the state of Ohio,” said Ted Hart, a spokesman for the Ohio attorney general.
He referred further questions to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. A bureau spokesman didn’t return a call seeking a comment left by The Vindicator.
Also, David Betras, the Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman and an attorney, said he understands “that no tribe has a valid claim that would enable them to build and operate a [gambling] casino in Ohio.”
Referring to the Indian casino proposal, Betras said, “We need tangible results, not empty promises.”
“I have no reason to believe that this project will move forward,” he added.
Ron M. Allen, manager of the Provo, Utah-based Tribal Associates Group, Itana’s business arm, said in a telephone interview that getting federal recognition could be done “right away or take decades.”
The constitutional amendment, approved by Ohio voters last month, permits Las Vegas-style gambling casinos to be built in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo by two specific companies that funded the casino campaign.
Allen said that vote may pave the way for an Indian casino in Ohio.
He acknowledged he hasn’t read the constitutional amendment’s language, and doesn’t know if financial backers could have a financial interest in the proposed gambling facility.
The amendment reads that casino gaming in Ohio “shall be conducted only by licensed casino operators of the four casino facilities.”
He pegged the cost of building a casino at $125 million.
Under the plan, The Traficant Company, created by the ex-congressman, would raise the money needed for the proposed casino.
When asked why his company would associate with a convicted felon, Allen said Traficant was “exonerated” of his convictions.
Allen’s explanation of Traficant being “exonerated” was the congressman told him so as did other people.
He couldn’t explain how someone convicted of 10 felony counts, who served seven years in prison and is on supervised release for the next three years, is considered “exonerated.”
A previous effort by the Eastern Shawnee Indian Nation to open a casino in Lordstown failed in 2005 after it could not establish a historical connection to the Valley.
Traficant said he’s “90-percent confident” the casino can be built here despite Itana not having federal recognition.
“If the state of Ohio opposes this, I don’t know what political clout I carry, I really don’t, but I’m going to maximize every opportunity to oppose every one of those turkeys if they come out and try to hurt this project,” he added.
skolnick@vindy.com