Wednesday, April 29, 1998 | 10 a.m.
A leading House gambling critic has renewed a push to ban the casino industry and other special interests from contributing soft money to the Republican and Democratic parties.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., author of legislation creating a federal commission to study gambling's growth in America, told his colleagues on Capitol Hill last Wednesday that he would seek the ban during an upcoming House debate on campaign finance reform.
"I am deeply concerned about the obscene amounts of soft money going to both the Republican and Democratic parties," Wolf wrote in an April 22 letter to his fellow House members.
"And I want the opportunity to debate and vote on a total ban on soft money to the national political parties, especially the large sums coming from the gambling industry."
Wolf's singling out of the casino industry comes as House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., visits Las Vegas Sunday to raise money for the Nevada Republican Party and the speaker's own "Monday Morning" political action committee. The casino industry is expected to be well represented.
Gingrich is holding several events at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in conjunction with a fund-raising swing through the West.
In his letter, Wolf said he has seen "first-hand the willingness of the gambling lobby to throw around vast sums of money to protect and enhance" its own interests.
"Gambling leaves in its path many ills, including addiction, bankruptcy, suicide, the loss of revenue to local business, increased crime and corruption," Wolf wrote.
Earlier this month, Wolf sent a letter to Jim Nicholson and Roy Romer, who chair the Republican and Democratic national committees, urging them to stop accepting money from the gambling industry.
In the seven-page letter, he pointed out numerous examples of gaming's social and economic ills.
"What a message it would send to America's families for both party leaders to end political contributions from gambling," Wolf concluded. "What a dramatic step it would be to begin cleaning up the political process and the fund-raising mess that exists today. The time has come to just say no to gambling money."
Wolf's latest attack on the industry is not going over well with casino leaders.
"Gaming is a legal industry," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the industry's Washington lobby. "Why should a legal industry be prevented from participating in the political process?"
Fahrenkopf, a former RNC chairman, predicted Wolf's effort will fail.
Congress, Fahrenkopf said, isn't ready to enact campaign finance reform.
He said Wolf tried to persuade Nicholson's predecessor at the RNC, Haley Barbour, to sever ties to the casino industry, but was rebuffed.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he planned to lead a fight against Wolf's anti-gaming stand.
He accused Wolf of misstating facts about gambling's impact on society.
"This is a personal vendetta from Frank Wolf," Gibbons said. "I'm adamantly opposed to the approach he's taking with regard to this industry."
Wolf has acknowledged being influenced by one of gambling's fiercest adversaries, Denver radio talk show host James Dobson, an emerging leader in the politically active Christian right.
Dobson, the subject of a U.S. News & World Report cover story this week, is a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission Wolf helped create to take an in-depth look at the industry.
Gibbons said he's writing a letter to his colleagues responding to Wolf's newest campaign against the industry.
"Until we ban all corporations from having the ability to have their voice heard, we should not simply pick on one because an individual has a personal feeling about it," Gibbons said.
Since July 1995, when the AGA was formed, the casino industry has stepped up its political presence in Washington.
Much of its energy has been devoted to dealing with the Gambling Impact Study Commission.
During this time, news organizations and citizen watchdog groups in Washington have documented a significant rise in gaming contributions to both parties.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that Mirage Resorts Inc. contributed $250,000 to the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee in March.
The panel's chairman, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a strong opponent of campaign finance reform, has visited Las Vegas twice on fund-raising swings in the past five months.
He was here earlier this month to help Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., raise campaign funds for his bid to unseat Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
In November, McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., flew to Las Vegas on the Mirage corporate jet for an AGA-sponsored fund-raiser.
More than $100,000 was raised for Senate Republicans on that trip.
A year earlier, Gingrich was wined and dined in Las Vegas by Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn during another fund-raising trip.
Democrats also have found Las Vegas to be fertile fund-raising grounds.
Vice President Al Gore helped the Nevada Democratic Party take in more than $1 million last month at a political rally at Bally's hotel-casino.
President Clinton was in Las Vegas in November for a series of lucrative DNC fund-raisers.
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