I stopped short at the headline in the Owatonna People's Press, County GOP rejects racino proposal, and the article's first three paragraphs were even more startling:
In spite of former Sen. Dick Day’s efforts, local delegates from his own party unanimously rejected a resolution supporting racino — an initiative to bring slot machines and video gaming to Minnesota’s horse racing tracks.
In December 2009, Day resigned from the state senate in the middle of his sixth term to pursue a career with for Racino Now, a lobbyist group backed by Canterbury Park, the Minnesota Quarter Horse Racing Association and other groups connected to the horse track industry.
Day has often said that 70 percent of Minnesotans are in favor of racino, which supporters say would generate millions of dollars in revenue for the state at a time when the legislature cased a billion dollar deficit. However, a resolution expressly supporting racino did not get a single supporting vote at the Steele County Republican Party’s County Convention on Saturday. The delegates also shot down a resolution to strike out a portion of the party’s platform that calls for the elimination of state sponsored gambling in Minnesota. [emphasis added]
The next paragraphs may provide one explanation for the stunner:
Day was not present at the time.
The vote points to a rift in the local Republican Party which first surfaced on the campaign for a nominee to unseat DFL Rep. Kory Kath in District 26A. So far, two Republicans have declared their intention to run — Ted Boosalis, who is firmly against racino, and Brandon Pofahl, a candidate backed by Day. According to Boosalis, the racino rumble turned ugly Saturday at the Republican County Convention in Waseca.
Day's years of leadership most likely provided some glue for area Republicans. With the decision of Owatonna mayor Tom Kuntz to forgo a rematch with Rep. Kath--and the election of Mike Parry to the Senate (he had registered a house committee with the state campaign finance board in order to challenge Kath)--a scramble in on for the Republican endorsement in HD26A.
While Parry's leadership gap is one factor (more on that in a bit), the fight over the house seat endorsement--only a weak away--looks to be less comedy and more drama.
Clearly, some of the Steele County delegates object to racino on moral and ideological grounds. However, in the hotly debated comments section below the OPP article, Steele County GOP chair Dave Thul supplies the actual language of the unsuccessful resolutions, along with reasons for their failure other than opposition to the concept of racino itself. Backed by the text of the resolutions, his explanation is logically sound.
Moreover, the anti-racino candidate does seem to be stretching the definition of "state-sponsored" gambling. Both racino projects under the Sparks and Juhnke bill are for permitting and regulating slot machines at private ractracks. Under current Minnesota law, the only state-sponsored gambling is the lottery; charitable gaming, some games of skill, parimutual betting and card tables at horsetracks are regulated by the state, while Minnesota's Indian gaming is regulated by the national Indian Gaming Commission and conducted under a tribal-state government compact.
Thus, Boosalis seems to be exploiting current anti-government sentiment by applying the label; perhaps he would like all gaming in the state to be exempt from all regulation.
I contacted Janesville attorney and Racino Now Executive Director Chris Johnson about the incident Boosalis alleged occurred at the Waseca County Republican convention. As it turned out, Johnson was the person Boosalis mentioned at the Steele County Convention. The OPP reported:
According to Boosalis, the racino rumble turned ugly Saturday at the Republican County Convention in Waseca.
“I have been against racino since day one and I will not waver my position based on polling. I need to tell you this, as soon as I gave my speech in Waseca I walked out to check a voice message and guess what happened?” Boosalis told delegates at the Steele County Convention. “A racino supporter literally accosted me out in the hallway. Here we have someone writing legislation for racino accosting me and yelling me out in the hallway. I will get shouted down, that’s just fine, but I’ll still vote no.”
Johnson disputes the Owatonna man's version of the encounter. While not a delegate at the Waseca County GOP convention, the small town lawyer said he served as parliamentarian for the gathering. After hearing Boosalis repeatedly describe racino as "state-sponsored gambling" at the Waseca County gathering, Johnson talked to Boosalis in the hallway about the details of the racino bill, hoping to educate the Owatonna businessman about how private businesses would own the racinos.
[ Update: Here's the link; see page 65. Note: the House web site is down; when it is working again, I'll link to a report on potential structuring of the racinos. Neither the House nor Senate bills appear to have "dropped" yet end note].
A well-known area Republican activist who managed Day's 2008 congressional campaign and served as a 2004 Republican National Convention delegate, Johnson denies yelling at Boosalis. He speculated that Boosalis's hyperbole about their hallway encounter at the Waseca Convention might stem from the latter man's perception that Day supports his rival for the Republican endorsement in the Kath seat.
While I don't know Mr. Boosalis, I'm inclined to give some credence to the polite attorney's version of the story; during the 2008 congressional campaign, Johnson was always professional toward me. After the November election, he shared Senator Day's amusement at some of Tild PhotoShopped images that had appeared on Bluestem. "Yelling" seems out of character for the genial young country lawyer.
The other factor shaping the Steele County conflict may be Senator Parry's newbie status. Lacking the gravitas and sense of humor of a seasoned legislator like Day, Parry is scrambling to establish his leadership in the district, and recent press and new media reports suggest the former one-term Waseca city council member isn't having smooth sledding.
OPP staff writer Clare Kennedy documents Parry's rough ride:
Nesbit brought racino up again [at Parry's Owatonna town hall] on Thursday, asking Parry where he stood on the issue. Parry voiced support for the push to expand gambling.
“I’m telling you right up front I believe we can use racino. I know I’ve had a couple people come to me and quote verses out of the Bible because they know I’m a Christian guy. The state has already allowed tribal gambling, the state has already allowed the lottery — this is something that we put forth and the citizens, if they want to gamble, they will gamble,” Parry said. “Let’s do something that’s voluntary, that’s a revenue source that’s not taxation, but let us control where that money goes. I would fully support it if we could take some of that money and put it towards education, because education needs it.”
Again, Nesbit told Parry that racino proposal goes against the state GOP’s own proposed policy.
“Granted, money is nice, but is it moral?” Nesbit said, who added what Day had said about the party platform. “That’s the problem — we spend hours and hours and hours making up all these resolutions (to alter the party’s platform), thinking we’ve got input into this whole situation then what do you guys do? You just go by the way you feel or by the way the pressure is coming.”
Parry argued that most of his constituents support racino — only two people urged him to take a stance against it while he was campaigning, he said. Because of this, Parry said the will of the public takes precedence over his own personal views regarding gambling.
“It’s a tough call, but am I here to represent the citizens,” Parry said.
This is a fascinating rationale on Parry's part, for it dents his reasoning about introducing bonding bills for a state trail and other local projects in SD26. Parry has thrown such bills in the hopper because local citizens asked for the project, but doesn't support them and won't vote for them if they come to the floor.
Now he'll vote for racino because citizens want it, despite his personal views on gambling. Is this the new "principled conservatism" we're hearing so much about these days?
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