In the midst of the 2010 election cycle, in an effort to win a GOP majority in the Alabama legislature, Del Marsh, finance chairman for the Alabama Republican Party, met with Robert McGhee, governmental relations adviser for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and the tribe’s tribal council. The tribe’s then-lobbyist, former Lieutenant Governor Steve Windom, arranged the meeting.
At the 2009 meeting, Marsh said he told the tribe, “As long as someone is operating legally in the state, we have no issue. I’ve got no issue. That was pretty much the gist of the conversation.”
Marsh said he did not ask the tribe for a donation, but he wanted to keep the tribe from contributing to the Democratic candidates. “All I was trying to do, quite honestly, was to keep them from getting involved in other races on the other side. They’ve got the ability to spend a lot of money,” Marsh stated.
Subsequently, the tribe contributed $550,000 to the RSLC just before and after the 2010 election, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service. The tribe gave $100,000 in July 2010, $250,000 in October 2010, and $200,000 in January 2011. The RSLC directed the money to Alabama legislative campaigns. Those donations have come under scrutiny since Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, who at the time was chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, has been accused of using the group to launder money.
Marsh said he found out later that the tribe had contributed to the RSLC, at Windom’s suggestion. Hubbard said he did not know that Marsh had met with the tribe until after the meeting occurred. However, according to a September 2011 internal RSLC memo to RSLC board of directors, published by Politico in August, former RSLC President Scott Ward told RSLC lawyers that Hubbard said he would raise money for RSLC if the group would contribute the same amount to Alabama for Republican candidates.
The RSLC’s Alabama PAC reported spending $1.4 million in Alabama in 2010, contributing to the Alabama Republican Party and two PACs aiming at gaining GOP control of the Alabama legislature.
The memo said, “It would appear, then, to an outside observer that Hubbard was raising money for RSLC that was either politically toxic or in excess of Alabama contribution limits, and then channeling that money through RSLC back to himself in order to get around the governing Alabama campaign finance laws.”
Hubbard and Ward have said the memo “is a complete fabrication.” Hubbard said he did not solicit funds from the Poarch tribe and he did not know about their contributions until after the election. Hubbard added he did not make a deal with the RSLC to exchange money. But he stated he did approach the RSLC about making Alabama a priority state for funds. Hubbard noted he suggested the RSLC to various donors who, for whatever reason, chose not to give directly to the Republican party.
Hubbard added, “Always it was understood, and it was never agreed any other way, that there was no guarantee that any money that I raised in Alabama would be sent back to Alabama. However, of course my hope was that we were going to be a targeted state so you could reasonably assume that at least some of that money would come back to us.”
Hubbard and the RSLC have maintained that the money from the Poarch tribe did not end up in Alabama. RSLC officials have said the gambling funds went to an administrative account to pay the group’s overhead costs. Hubbard said the RSLC assured him that any funds from gambling sources would not come to Alabama.
Republicans did take control of the Alabama legislature in the 2010 election, and the new majority named Hubbard as House Speaker and Marsh as president pro tem of the Senate.
House Minority Leader, Democrat Craig Ford, said it’s ridiculous to believe the RSLC did not give Poarch money to Alabama to influence the legislative races there. “They are dancing around dandelions trying to spin it,” Ford said.
The Poarch Creek Indians’ gambling operations, which include three Alabama casinos, reported $322 million in net earnings in 2012, the most recent year available.
