Politico recently uncovered internal documents from the Republican State Leadership Committee that “detailed an investigation into alleged misconduct by multiple RSLC officials during the crucial 2010 election cycle.”The report, prepared in September 2011 for then-RSLC head Ed Gillespie, the former Bush adviser who later chaired the Republican National Committee and is now running for a Senate seat in Virginia, indicated the Alabama Republican Party had “essentially laundered ‘toxic’ money from the gaming industry by routing it out of state and then back into Alabama” via the RSLC.
According to the report, the RSLC took campaign funds from the Poarch Creek Band of Indians, which operates several tribal casinos in Alabama. Then the RSLC directed that money to a handful of conservative state PACs, mostly controlled by Mike Hubbard, the current the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives. Some of the money was sent to an anti-lottery group with ties to Jack Abramoff, the former “super-lobbyist” who was convicted on multiple felony counts for a similar scheme to launder Native American casino dollars to conservative lawmakers.
The authors of the report warned that the report could lead to “possible criminal penalties” and “ultimately threaten the organization’s continued existence” if it became public. They added, “the resulting media frenzy” would be “a political disaster for Alabama Republicans, a disaster with which RSLC will forever be associated.”
Formed in 2002 mainly as “a vehicle for donors like health care and tobacco companies to influence state legislatures,” the RSLC shifted focus to redistricting when Gillespie took over in 2010, according to ProPublica. Today it is the main source of funds for conservative for state-level politics. According to OpenSecrets.org, the group spent $40 million during the 2012 cycle and has raised $20 million so far in 2014.
Meanwhile in Alabama the Poarch Band has offered to enter into a Class III gaming compact with the state for years but state officials have not followed through. Robbie McGhee, the tribe’s government relations adviser, said recently that the tribe has held talks with the past two governors and several other lawmakers about a compact that would have relaxed state gaming laws in exchange for taxes on casino earnings. McGhee said the talks go well during political campaigns while candidates need the tribe’s money for support. But the talks end after the votes are counted.
Poarch casinos offer electronic bingo machines that state legislators say are nearly identical to regular slots. McGhee and others wonder why machines those machines are in use when lawmakers could allow real slots and accept millions in tax dollars.
