Tribes to Stop Using Paid Circulators for Petition
Lincoln, Neb. --- Three Indian tribes said Friday that they would start to collect signatures for their casino proposal only through volunteers. This move follows recent negative publicity about strategies employed by paid circulators for some petition drives.
The Winnebago, Santee Sioux and Omaha tribes are the three tribes that is pushing for the initiative that will allow the operation of an off-reservation casino. They are banking on the revenues that may be derived from the said casino to provide a better way of living for their impoverished reservations and at the same time provide jobs for the unemployed.
Based on the income of casinos in Council Bluffs, Iowa, one located near Omaha could bring in about $100 million to $200 million a year in profits, said Ben Thompson of Affirmative Public Policy Solutions, the Omaha-based consulting firm who is tasked to handle the organization of the initiative campaign.
"This issue is too important to the tribes and to Nebraska for it to be tarnished by the deceptive tactics used by other petition circulators and paid civic activists," Thompson said. "Members of the public have been misled and are understandably frustrated by what they perceive to be a misappropriation of their right to exercise the initiative power," he adds.
Attorney General Jon Bruning said earlier this week that he is investigating allegations that people were being offered a chance to win prizes in exchange for signing petition initiatives. Allegedly, the paid circulators were telling people going to the College World Series Monday in Omaha that they could spin a wheel and possibly win a prize if they signed the petitions.
The tribes had been working with FieldWorks LLC, a political consulting firm based in Washington, DC, to hire, train and supervise circulators.
Thompson says: "We hope the exclusive use of volunteer petition circulators will increase the level of respect accorded to them as they exercise the First Amendment rights shared by all citizens of Nebraska,"
The three tribes are expected to acquire at 115,000 signatures by July 7 in order to be able to put the issue on the ballot to be voted upon this coming November elections.
Two other gambling petitions are being circulated. One petition is by Boyd Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas and Political Insight, Inc., a Mississippi political consulting firm. The petition calls for casino gambling. The other is a petition by a group of keno parlor operators that would authorize video keno in the state.