Study: gambling interests gave $700,000 to candidates over six months

Monday, April 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The study by The Public Access Project showed that in the final six months of 1996, riverboats, racetracks and their owners gave $446,309 to Republican campaigns and $250,318 to Democrats, said Richard Means, who heads the Chicago-based organization.

"We have a 500-pound gorilla loose in the Capitol," Means said. "And when that guy says he's hungry, there's going to be some people scurrying around, looking for bananas."

Over the last two years, gaming interests and their owners have pumped $1.7 million into political warchests, Means said. If the contributions of lobbyists are included, then the total would hit nearly $2.5 million, he said.

Gov. Jim Edgar's campaign fund received $53,880 from gambling interests in the last six months of 1996, making him among the biggest individual recipients, the study said.

The study of the election year came as the sponsor of a far-reaching bill to expand gambling in Illinois said he had dropped plans to bring the measure up for a vote.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said he would shift his focus to negotiating with Edgar, a Republican, for an overhaul of the state's gaming laws.

Lang said his bill would have fallen about five votes short. Lang had not requested a meeting with Edgar, who opposes a wide expansion of gambling, said Mike Lawrence, a spokesman for the governor.

Even if donations from the gambling industry do not actually win influence in Springfield, they at least give the appearance of impropriety, said Rep. Rick Winkel, R-Champaign, who is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit campaign contributions from racetrack or riverboat interests.

Edgar opposes the bill because he does not believe any legal industry should be excluded from making campaign contributions, Lawrence said.

Among the biggest donors over the last six months were the ownership interests for the Empress Riverboat Casino Corp., which gave $90,520, and a group of interests with ties to Arlington International Racecourse Chairman Richard Duchossois, which gave $74,100, Means said.

In third was a tribe of Chippewa Indians from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., that owns five Michigan casinos. The tribe gave $60,000 to the Illinois Democratic Party at the end of last year, largely because it has considered opening casinos into Illinois, Chippewa spokesman John Hatch said.

"Indian tribes, with their newfound revenues, have taken up contributions as a way to get access," Hatch said.

Lang said he saw no evidence that lawmakers' positions had been compromised by contributions from the gambling industry during his one-on-one conversations to drum up support for his bill to expand gambling. He returns most donations from gambling interests, he said.

Lang's bill would have increased the number of riverboats in the state, added 14 casino licenses and raise taxes on the most lucrative boats to help leverage a $10 billion school bond construction program.

The Public Access Project is a not-for-profit group dedicated to improving access to government records.