Alabama lottery plan drawing little protest

Jay Reeves

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- As Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman campaigns yet again on a lottery proposal, Baptist morals watchdog Dan Ireland is once more spending the fall preaching against gambling -- in Tennessee.

Opponents led by the religious right killed a Siegelman-backed lottery plan in 1999 and they figure they can do it again should Siegelman win his re-election bid against Republican nominee Bob Riley.

"I don't think the people see it as a real threatening problem," said Ireland, a Southern Baptist minister and head of the anti-gambling Alabama Citizens Action Program. He is working to defeat a proposed lottery in Tennessee.

The Siegelman campaign said lottery opponents shouldn't be so self-assured.

"What we encounter more than anything is a lot of supporters. It is still the issue people are most interested in," Siegelman spokesman Rip Andrews said.

Siegelman campaigned for governor on a lottery 12 years ago and lost, but he resurrected the idea in 1998 and won, defeating Republican incumbent Fob James.

Voters in a statewide referendum the next year overwhelmingly rejected Siegelman's lottery plan, which would have funded Georgia-style college scholarships and classroom technology initiatives. Churches were widely credited with energizing voters to kill the plan.

Siegelman this year is promoting a lottery to fund public education, but opponents aren't doing much to fight it aside from backing Riley, who opposes a lottery.

"You're going to defeat the lottery by electing Riley," said lottery opponent Jim Cooper, the owner of a Birmingham construction company. "A lot of the big Christian businessmen have given to him."

Cooper was instrumental in rallying lottery opposition in 1999, but he isn't actively fighting the current plan. He briefly ran for the GOP nomination to oppose Siegelman but dropped out of the race last year before Siegelman began promoting a lottery plank in his platform.

Cooper said he doubts Siegelman could get legislators to pass another bill allowing a statewide lottery vote.

"Probably the blessing to our side is that Siegelman did bring up the issue and made all the Republican candidates take a position in stone on that," Cooper said.

While not involved in the governor's race, Ireland said he sent a letter asking pastors to quiz legislative candidates about their position on a lottery.

"The governor can't put it on the ballot. The legislators can," he said. In Alabama, a constitutional amendment to create a lottery requires approval only by the legislature to be placed on the ballot, but the governor can influence legislative action.

The Christian Coalition says its survey of state legislative candidates found a majority of candidates in both the House and Senate oppose a lottery.

"The lottery is dead in Alabama," Christian Coalition state President John Giles said at a Thursday news conference.

But a Mobile Register and University of South Alabama poll published in June showed that a majority of Alabamians favored a statewide lottery, particularly one with its proceeds going for public education. During campaign speeches, Siegelman's biggest applause usually comes when he mentions the lottery.

"Opponents should be more concerned," Andrews said. "The support is stronger than it ever has been."