Columnist Jeff German: GOP rift over casino contributions widens in Washington

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1999 | 10:43 a.m.

A deep split is developing within the national Republican Party over whether it should accept contributions from the casino industry.

About three years ago, former Republican National Committeeman Haley Barbour attracted considerable national attention when he came to Las Vegas for a fund-raising rendezvous with casino moguls at Steve Wynn's exclusive Shadow Creek Country Club. Wynn himself wrote a check to Barbour for $250,000.

That was three years ago.

On Monday it was learned that a South Carolina committeeman has asked the RNC to consider a resolution to ban the party from taking donations from the casino industry and contributing its own money to candidates who support gambling. The RNC meets next week in Washington.

The proposal is backed by the conservative pro-family members of the GOP -- people such as James Dobson, a religious-right leader who went on a tirade against the industry last week, and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., one of the authors of legislation that created the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

But the resolution is not supported by the moderate members of the Republican Party.

Over the past couple of years, key GOP players in Washington, including presidential candidate Bob Dole, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House Majority Leader Dick Armey and ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have been to Las Vegas for campaign fund-raisers.

Nevada Republican Party Chairman John Mason has written to Chuck Yob, chairman of the RNC's resolutions committee, to voice his concerns about the proposal, which was written by Buddy Whitherspoon of South Carolina.

Mason said in the letter that the proposal is "insulting" to the casino industry and "contains some of the most scurrilous rhetoric" he has ever heard about gaming.

"I strongly urge you and the committee to reject Dr. Witherspoon's resolution and its patently false accusations regarding an industry, which has been good to this state, our country and our party," Mason wrote.

The proposal faces an uphill battle next week. But it has heightened debate on the subject and threatens to spill over into the 2000 presidential race.

Regular readers of this space are well-informed about the troubles that have plagued the National Gambling Impact Study Commission the past 18 months.

No one has been more critical of the infighting at the nine-member panel that at times has hampered its two-year review of the gaming industry.

But let me assure everyone that the alternative national gambling commission organized by several pro-gaming state legislators is not a threat to the real federal panel created by Congress.

"It's just a road show," acknowledges one casino industry insider.

Others suspect the new panel, which includes San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, is getting financial support from the gaming industry and can't possibly be taken seriously.

Why Del Papa agreed to serve is mind-boggling. Maybe she was looking for another excuse to travel outside the state. The new panel's 10 members, it turns out, plan to hold four or five public hearings across the country this year and then deliver their own report to supposedly balance the findings of the Gambling Impact Study Commission.

Del Papa should know better than to try to undercut the real commission, which features three members with strong ties to the casino industry here. Former state Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, MGM Grand Inc. Chairman Terry Lanni and international Culinary Union President John Wilhelm all have done an excellent job of keeping the anti-gaming forces on the commission in check.

Stop playing in the minor leagues and get your priorities straight, Frankie Sue. Your constituents want you to spend more time resolving problems in your own office instead of second-guessing the work of the Impact Study Commission.

This alternative gambling panel is nothing but a joke.

Sen. Harry Reid is working behind the scenes on a proposal that could lead to a vote on censuring President Clinton if he's acquitted at his impeachment trial.

Reid, the Senate's Democratic whip, is helping Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., put together the proposal.

Reid is among those who are worried the president could prevail at the impeachment trial and face no reprimand at all for lying about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky.