MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
Top casino lobbyist says his salary was source of donation to Mississippi's top election
By HYE JEONG
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - If a major player in one industry gives money to a political campaign, is the donation from an individual or from the industry?

The question was at the heart of an issue covered in news stories and editorials across Mississippi in July as people debated whether the state's two major gubernatorial candidates had broken a promise not to take contributions from casinos.

Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., president of the American Gaming Association, said in an interview that a donation from an industry representative is a personal act. He gave $2,000 in June to one candidate, Republican Haley Barbour. But Fahrenkopf acknowledged that "it probably came from my salary."

Fahrenkopf said he has been a longtime friend of Barbour, who was chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party when Fahrenkopf was chairman of the Republican National Committee during the Reagan administration.

Barbour and Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic incumbent, told the Mississippi Press Association in June that they would not accept money from casinos to help elect them in the Nov. 4 election.

That same month Musgrove and Barbour took money from people who work in the casino industry, which gave Mississippi $330 million in state and municipal casino taxes for the one-year period that ended in June, or 10 percent of the state budget.

Musgrove took money from several casino executives, including $40,000 in June from Jack B. Binion, president of Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corp. in Las Vegas.

Representatives for both candidates said the donations were from individuals.

But given Fahrenkopf's job as head lobbyist in Washington for the casino industry, is the donation really from him as a private citizen?

Larry Noble, executive director of Center for Responsive Politics, said a donation from a lobbyist is lobbying money.

Noble said his 20-year-old Washington-based research group on campaign finance follows a rule of thumb: "Lobbyist contributors are listed as who they are lobbying for."

It's possible to match up lobbyists to industry affiliations because the Federal Election Commission assigns a nine-digit ID to each lobbyist and lobby group. And donors must report all contributions of at least $200.

But Joseph Parker, a political science professor at University of Southern Mississippi who has followed elections in Mississippi for 28 years, looked at the donor issue differently.

"When an individual gives a contribution, it's as an individual," Parker said. "It's a way to avoid restrictions on corporate contributions."

Fahrenkopf criticized both candidates for promising to turn away contributions from the casino industry.

It's "stupid that [Barbour] wouldn't do it, but again, both of them are doing it for politics," Fahrenkopf said, adding that "you've got many people who think it's a sin," referring to gambling.

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