Both sides claim victory in casino petition issue

By David Skolnick

The two caught on tape providing incorrect information about the casino initiative.

YOUNGSTOWN — A judge denied a request by the Mahoning County Democratic Party to stop a committee and those working on its behalf to collect signatures in support of a gambling issue.

In his decision Friday, Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court also requires the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, the group backing the initiative, and those obtaining signatures on petitions to not misrepresent “the contents, purpose or effect” of the proposal.

Both sides hailed the judge’s decision as a victory.

“We’re required to follow the law, and that’s what we attempted to do all along and will attempt to do,” said Bob Tenenbaum, the committee’s spokesman. “There’s nothing in that ruling that states there was wrongdoing by the committee.”

The Mahoning County Democratic Party filed a complaint Thursday seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the committee from circulation pro-issue petitions after party officials received a videotape of two people collecting signatures on behalf of the committee providing false information.

Tenenbaum said the two people were working on behalf of the committee and lied on tape. They’ve been fired, and any petitions the pair circulated will be thrown out, he said.

Mahoning Democratic Chairman David Betras, co-counsel for the plaintiffs on the case, said the judge ordered the group to “obey the law. If this scheme were truly a good deal for Ohio, the backers wouldn’t have to lie about it to entice people to support it.”

He added that a court is now watching what the committee is doing.

Betras also said this issue isn’t over.

Because the judge granted a temporary restraining order regarding the misrepresentation of the proposal, a hearing on this issue for a preliminary injunction is to take place in the next two weeks.

The committee will respond to the political party’s lawsuit quickly and “try to get it dismissed,” said Tenenbaum, who called the legal action “politically motivated.”

The committee has until July 1 to submit petitions to the state with about 404,000 valid signature to get the measure on the November ballot.

The proposal would allow casinos to be built in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Voters have rejected four previous attempts since 1990 to legalize gambling in Ohio.

Betras is publicly campaigning against this latest gambling proposal saying he thinks the Mahoning Valley is getting short-changed.

While each county would receive proceeds from the casinos, if the issue is approved, the lion’s share of the funding to local governments would go to the four cities in which the casinos are located.

One of the people videotaped incorrectly said a casino could be built in Youngstown if the issue passes.

The videotape was filmed by Sandy Theis, a former journalist and currently a consultant for the MTR Gaming Group, owners of horse racing tracks and casinos. MTR opposes the committee’s gambling proposal.

On the tape, T.C. Brown, another former newspaper reporter, asks two petitioners a number of questions about the issue.

Among the false information given is: the issue isn’t a constitutional amendment and that a casino could be built in Youngstown.

“Lying for the purpose of collecting signatures is a felony,” Theis said.

“Bob Tenenbaum can’t change that, so he is trying to deflect attention away

from his campaign’s problems.”

skolnick@vindy.com