An article by Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News on 4/15/12 has been on my mind for weeks….it has festered and makes me more frustrated as the days go by. The article can be seen at the end of this post…..
I go to Winstar World Casino in Oklahoma on a regular basis to play poker. It is one of my favorite pastimes and I cannot do this in my home State of Texas or legally on any online poker site. Twice a week usually, I make the one hour drive up I35 to Exit 1 in Oklahoma and spend my time and money to indulge this endeavor….I am a recreational player. I am also not a young, irresponsible, degenerate gambler….I am an old lady…..a grandmother and think it is a shame I must go to another State to play my game.
Each week I am amazed by a number of things….for one thing nearly all of the cars in the parking lot have Texas license plates. This casino is the third or fourth largest casino in the world with thousands of slot machines. In addition to the cars, there is a fleet of buses that run on a regular schedule to pick up Texans at bus stops and senior and community centers throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. One walk through this place makes it obvious that the Chickasaw Nation is bringing in millions and millions of dollars……
For every hand played in every game an “ante” or some kind of fee is charged and we are told that a large portion of that goes to the State of Oklahoma and is primarily for the benefit of the State Education System.
Now to the point of all of this……. In Mr. Slater’s article he reports on a $100,000 donation that the Chickasaw Nation gave to our Governor Perry during the final days of his Presidential bid. When the donation was made it was abundantly clear that the campaign was ending….. it was clearly not to benefit the campaign in any way. You will also see a chart at the end of the article that demonstrates the financial state of Mr. Perry’s campaign at the time.
My conclusion after going through all this information is that there has probably never been a Governor that has done more for Oklahoma than Governor Rick Perry. While we are cutting budgets and our educational system continues to slide, Texas contributes to Oklahoma so that the children of Oklahoma get a proper education.
Now add to the money being spent at Winstar to all of the other casinos in Oklahoma and don’t forget Louisiana…. they take care of all the East Texas gaming needs. We are sending untold amounts of money out of state and each time the Texas Legislature meets, Governor Perry makes it known that he will veto any bill that puts gaming on the Texas ballot. He has been completely loyal to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, his Religious Right supporters and the State of Oklahoma…..
What really makes this donation by the Chickasaws relevant is that it was openly made by them and not masked by making a donation to one of the other mostly religious groups or PACs that he gets money from….. it is out in the open and nobody seems to care. It has long been said that the Native American groups make major donations to the Christian groups and superPACs that send Perry money ….but now they don’t even bother to cover.
Yep……it is my belief that Rick Perry is probably the best Governor that Oklahoma has ever had….bar none!!!!
The following is the article by Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News on 4/14/12
“With Rick Perry’s presidential bid a distant memory, the big-money superPAC that backed him has largely gone dormant. But not completely. The Make Us Great political committee headed by a lobbyist and former Perry chief of staff reports raising $100,000 in the last quarter. The PAC didn’t have to report its fundraising from January through March until this month. The $100,000 came Jan. 13 from the Chickasaw Nation in Ada, Oklahoma. Six days later, Perry was out of the race. The Make Us Great super PAC raised $5.5 million last year for Perry’s campaign. Much of that money came early — particularly from two big-givers, Dallas industrialist Harold Simmons and Houston home builder Bob Perry, who both jumped on board shortly after Perry entered the race in August. But as the governor’s campaign collapsed, so did his fundraising – both for his campaign directly and for the Perry-friendly superPAC.
The end of Perry’s campaign was sealed by Nov. 9, the night of infamous “Oops” debate in which he famously couldn’t remember what agencies he’d promised to abolish once he got to the White House. By the end of the year, few people were willing to give him money. But Chickasaw Nation contribution came Jan. 13 – long after Perry’s campaign was on the skids and his imminent departure from the race was a strong rumor in political circles. So why would Chickasaw Nation, which represents casino gambling interests in Oklahoma, so heavily back a governor about to go back being governor? One possibility: lots of Texans travel to Oklahoma to gamble at Chickasaw Nation casinos. If Texas were to legalize casino gambling, it would be strong competition. Perry has been a staunch opponent of legalizing casinos in Texas. As governor, Perry has collected $148,000 over the years from Chickasaw Nation and thousands more from other out-of-state gambling interests. The $100,000 to his political superPAC in January might not have been enough to buoy his presidential bid, but it’s money in the bank that Perry can now use for other political purposes. The next legislative session will likely take up casino gambling again. For the Chickasaw Nation, clearly it’s banking on the governor staying true to his opposition.”
This link will show a chart of the money history for the Perry Campaign and article illustrates the money trail………
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/02/collapse-of-the-perry-money-ma.html
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