Tribes’ ad campaign aims to undermine rival casino
The ad must have played hundreds of times on local cable in the past month.
Clark County Commissioners Betty Sue Morris and Steve Stuart “continue to ignore the public” as they work to revive a casino agreement with the Cowlitz Tribe that was invalidated by the state, the ad says. “They’re wrong. Remind commissioners Stuart and Morris that they work for us.”
The political broadside is being paid for by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, who operate what would be a rival tribal casino in Oregon.
Nobody’s revealing how much it costs, and the Grand Ronde don’t have to say, since the ad avoids campaign-disclosure laws by not asking you to “oppose” or “vote against” the sitting politicians.
Instead, the ad flashes the phone number of the county commissioners’ office and asks viewers to tell the county to drop a 2004 deal with the Cowlitz Tribe, which the county is defending in court after a state board threw it out.
So, how many people actually call 397-2232?
So far, the answer is 195 - but 45 were actually calling to cheer the commissioners on.
Jennifer Clark, the commissioners’ receptionist, keeps the tally.
Stuart, who will be up for re-election in 2010 and has sought a middle ground on the casino issue - criticizing the casino’s site plan but saying he doesn’t know whether a big casino would be good or bad for the area - said Friday he checks in on Clark’s tally “about once a week.”
He’s more interested in callers’ explanations for their positions.
“I have a lot of respect for people who are from this community who are weighing in,” he said.
But he hates the ad, which identifies its sponsor as “Citizens for a Healthy Clark County.”
“Citizens” is a strange-bedfellows group of casino opponents, some within the county, bankrolled by the Grand Ronde tribes.
“I do not believe the Grand Ronde tribe cares about Clark County,” Stuart said.
Grand Ronde spokeswoman Siobhan Taylor said the tribes haven’t sought to hide their backing of the ads.
Taylor noted that the Cowlitz Tribe is financially supported by the Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribe.
Taylor expressed surprise that the ads - along with print versions that ran in The Columbian and the Battle Ground-based Reflector last month - don’t mention the Grand Ronde by name.
A one-time full-page ad in The Columbian goes for $4,950; in The Reflector, it’s $1,428. Comcast doesn’t disclose the size of cable ad campaigns.
Stuart also said the ad misleads viewers about his decision to defend the deal in court. He’s supporting the deal on principle, he said, because he doesn’t think the state should have the power to throw it out.
Even if the county wins its appeal, Stuart said he doesn’t expect the tribal deal to survive as written, so he doesn’t see himself as “trying to revive” it.
“The only thing not misrepresented in that ad is the spelling of my name,” Stuart said.
Actually, the phone number is accurate, too.