WHAT CAN MONEY BUY? CASINO GROUPS SPENT MILLIONS TO KEEP BOATS IN MOATS IN MISSOURI

Missouri's casinos spent millions of dollars in winning voter approval last November of a ballot measure legalizing gambling boats in moats.

They did so with the aid of a number of Democratic organizations and firms with close ties to the Democratic Party, campaign finance reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission show.

Missourians for Fairness and Jobs, the pro-gambling campaign organization, spent $10.3 million to win passage of Amendment 9.

In contrast, the anti-gambling group, Show Me The River Inc., spent $320,162.

Missourians for Fairness and Jobs spent more than that on paid campaign staff. The campaign coordinator alone was paid $114,000.

The campaign, funded almost entirely by casinos, funneled more than $120,000 to 37 Democratic political organizations in St. Louis and Kansas City to help get out the vote in the last few days before the November election.

The payments included $42,000 to the St. Louis City Democratic Central Committee in early October. Another $85,700 went to black political organizations in the two urban areas to get out the vote. Most of that -- $79,000 -- went to Freedom Inc., an influential and largely Democratic black organization in Kansas City.

Political township organizations in St. Louis County were paid nearly $11,000 to get out the vote.

A number of firms and people with ties to the Democratic Party also worked on the campaign.

Telephone Contact Inc., whose owner has ties to the Democratic Party in Missouri, was paid nearly $900,000 for efforts to register voters, get out the vote and other campaign activities.

John Hancock, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, said the Democratic political machine has aided the state's gambling interests.

"I think it is clear that the gambling interests in Missouri have staked their survival with the Democratic Party," he said.

"They are now, by far, the chief financial arm of the Democratic Party of Missouri," said Hancock.

Campaign finance reports obtained by the Southeast Missourian dealt only with the boats-in-moats campaign.

But Hancock said Democratic Party organizations throughout Missouri benefited from gambling money.

He said the Missouri Republican Party organization won't take money from casinos, but said he couldn't speak for individual Republican candidates or campaigns.

Hancock said the state party believes it is wrong to take money from an industry whose existence depends on the licensing and regulatory actions of state government.

But Missouri Democratic Party spokeswoman Maggie Thurman said the gambling issue didn't involve the state party.

"It doesn't have anything to do with the Democratic Party," she said. "This isn't about us."

She said what individual organizations choose to do in regards to gambling or other issues is their business.

The Missouri Riverboat Gaming Association, which represents the casino industry, referred questions about the 1998 campaign to Winner/Wagner and Mandabach's Washington, D.C., office.

A gaming association official said the Winner company ran the pro-gambling campaign. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif.

It received more than $3 million for marketing efforts, including television ads.

Winner company officials didn't return a reporter's telephone calls Friday.

Chesterfield businessman Mark Andrews Jr. chaired the anti-gambling Show Me The River campaign organization.

Andrews provided nearly half of the money raised by the group, much of it in the form of a loan.

"I hope to do some fund raisers to get back some of it," he said.

Andrews said he was surprised that the casinos sought the help of Democratic Party operatives and organizations.

"They found a Democratic machine in the state of Missouri that was very receptive to working on their behalf," he said.

The same scenario occurred in 1996 in Louisiana where the Democratic Party took on "the gambling agenda" in a U.S. Senate race, Andrews said.

Andrews said the actions of some Democratic Party organizations on the boats-in-moats issue doesn't reflect the views of all Democrats in Missouri.

Andrews said his anti-gambling group had supporters from varied political backgrounds -- Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals.

Andrews said a majority of voters who went to the polls in 71 of Missouri's 114 counties voted against the constitutional amendment to legalize boats in moats.

But the measure garnered strong support in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas where much of the pro-gambling money was spent.

The campaign spending by Missourians for Fairness and Jobs included more than $3,300 for election-day drivers in St. Louis and a taxi service in Kansas City to transport voters to the polls.

Andrews said the November vote will strengthen the gambling industry's hold on the state.

"I think legislators in Jefferson City are going to have a tendency to want to expand gambling even further," he said.

Andrews said lawmakers would be wrong to view the November election as a mandate.

"We still feel that the great majority of Missourians don't want it," he said.