Tacticians with history fight over Ohio casinos

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two notoriously aggressive tacticians are behind the daily barrage of accusations and attack ads in the latest ballot campaign to bring casinos to Ohio.

On the pro-casino side is Rex Elsass, an admirer of legendary GOP tactician Lee Atwater and one of the “Nasty Boys” of the 1994 U.S. Senate primary.

Elsass also conceived a series of infamous 2000 Ohio Supreme Court campaign ads that earned the state a reputation for some of the harshest campaigning in the nation.

On the anti-casino side is Roger Stone, who worked for Atwater, Nixon, Reagan and others.

Stone was as a volunteer at the Committee to Re-Elect the President, whose misdeeds were at the center of the Watergate scandal. Stone posed as a young socialist, donated to Nixon’s opponent and leaked word of the donation to the media.