Mahoning Co. Dem Party wants casino gambling petitions stopped

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Democratic Party filed a request today for a temporary restraining order to stop those circulating petitions for a casino gambling proposal claiming two people asking for signatures provided false information.

Judge James Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court met briefly with party Chairman David Betras and county Commissioner John A. McNally IV, both attorneys, behind closed doors who are representing the party. The judge took the request under advisement and could render a decision as early as today.

Betras has been adamant that he’ll fight this gambling initiative, proposed for the November 2009 ballot, because it doesn’t include a casino in the Mahoning Valley. If approved, the proposal would allow casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

The legal filing against the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, the group behind the casino proposal, included video taken of two petition circulators in Columbus incorrectly answering questions about the initiative. The two incorrectly said the issue would create factory and industry jobs, that a casino could be built in Youngstown and that it wouldn’t change the Constitution.

In response, Bob Tenenbaum, a spokesman for the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, said today that the organization would have removed the two circulators if the information was provided to them.

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