Okay, bring it in. C’mon, gather ’round. Take a knee. Smoke ’em if you guttem. Put down the goddamn cell phones before I smash every last one of them. I need you all to listen. It’s important.
In few weeks time we will playing the biggest game of our lives. I don’t care where you go from here and what you do in life. If you are victorious on November 4th and pass the ant-casino referendum you will have a beaten the largest and most powerful and moneyed group of individuals, institutions, wise guys and government entities ever assembled for for a campaign. Their game plan is to mislead and divert voters’ attention to the same old pro and con casino arguments.
So what we have to do is not let these people hi-jack our campaign. We must channel former MA Governor Ed King in his victorious 1978 Democratic primary win over Mike Dukakis by repeating our short concise complaint in every interview, speech, and advertisement. Corruption is running amok at the Gaming Commission!
If King mentioned the weather the media would have written about that rather then his issues. So he kept his answers short and interjected his three things at each opportunity. And he was great at finding the opportunities.
I am in favor of the anti-casino amendment and urge you to vote for it because
“The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is corrupt.”
Say this over and over again.
Getting all the facts into a ten second sound bite can’t be done. So you use it to name the names of the people who agree that the process has been corrupted.
Mayor Marty Walsh, former attorney general Scott Harshbarger, former state inspector general Gregory Sullivan.
Start making a list. Who out there with cred wants to help?
Now I know what you are thinking. You’re saying this is another over-the-top the world is coming to an end speech by Coach to get us pumped.
To that I say, “Wrong Title IX breath.”
Immediately after Wynn was granted the license our opponents pounced and everywhere we looked we saw flawless execution of their game plan.
According to them nobody saw this coming. Suffolk Downs had the whole thing in the pocket. They had Bobby DeLeo using the speaker’s office to push it behind the scenes. Then they hired top guns Tom Riley and Doug Rubin. Add in the jobs and the history it was a can’t miss.
Now we all know this is not true. Anyone following this, like the press says they’re doing, saw the writing on the wall for Wynn months ago. Mayor Walsh’s letter makes that clear.
So rather than we repeat the the facts uncovered so fars here is a link to the Mayor’ letter. (the letter itself is not important. Skip it and go to page 3 where he states the facts that make it clear as clear that the mob has gotten their grubby hands in the commission and the commissioners are allowing it or they are dumb patsies.
Here’s my synopsis of the facts.
The other part of the false narrative reported by the media is to ignore the power behind Wynn. Suffolk Downs had present day Steve Grogan and Tim Thomas while Wynn had Tom Brady and Tukka Rask.
Bill Weld and Steve Tocco were Wynn’s local faces. Everyone on the board accept for the NJ state trooper has a tie to Weld/Cellucci. That administration had boatloads of suspicious characters hanging around because Bill Weld handed the day to day operations off to Cellucci who had close to a million dollars in gambling debt. This of course allowed a bunch of people to do a bunch of things as everyone looked the other way and lead to the feds declaring the Big Dig the largest rip off of taxpayers ever.
Their main capo running the Big Dig, Jim Keriosotis, pleaded guilty to tax evasion last week and soon will be in the can. It wasn’t his first conviction you know.
You need to know all this. You need to know your facts. Use them but be aware that the media will use the weakest point and spin it. Don’t discuss the governor’s or the attorney general’s or any other politician’s role.
Okay, you have all that? Good. Because you need to know that we can’t win this thing with conventional advertising and media awareness.
No. Just about everyone needed to effectively run the traditional game plan is playing for the other team whether they admit or not.
Hire the most creative ad people available. It will take good money to get their work viewed, heard,and read with all the noise from other campaigns. But it can be done.
Don’t let the media use people presenting the traditional anti-casino argument as the norm.
You cannot win without GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNING and SOCIAL MEDIA. The kind we all know you are capable of doing when you put your mind, body, and soul in to it.
Canvassing and social media screaming about the corruption. Its not about the social effects of gambling or the economics.
This campaign is about one thing. Corruption in Massachusetts government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmY7ttVNiWo
theloquaciousliberal says
The election is on Tuesday, November 4th.
Unless you plan on voting No on Question 3. Then, by all means, consider November 8th to be the important day.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
see how far their power extends. I’m telling you, these guys are that good.
JimC says
Good to see you bury the hatchet for a good cause.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
n/t
Peter Porcupine says
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140918/OPINION/409170340/-1/OPINION0306
Gumby says
I’m reading the facts in Mayor Marty Walsh’s letter, as linked from your post. WOW what a thoroughly damning sequence! The only thing I had personally heard about the corruption on WBUR was that Chairman Crosby wasn’t recusing himself. Nothing about the felons, nor about the commission’s illegal involvement.
People can disagree about casino policy, but everyone can agree on corruption!
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
.
John Tehan says
We’re taping the episode tomorrow, it should be on YouTube early next week and on the air a couple of weeks after that. I’ll also be putting it on PegMedia if you want to air the show in your town – I’ll post links when it’s ready.
We have a LOT to discuss, and much of what you’ve posted these last couple of weeks will be on the agenda, EB3!
John Tehan says
I should add: John is the founder of Repeal the Casino Deal, and Brian is the Field Director for the campaign.
Trickle up says
very good advice to all.
It’s natural to think that once you have explained something you can move on to the next thing. But that is not how it works.
hlpeary says
As one who usually sides with EB3, I am not sold on his current proposal. What I have come to hate most about politics is the incessant over the top accusations hurled at opponents to sway (albeit deceive) voters. To say “the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is corrupt.” as EB suggests falls into that category to me. Is Mr. McHugh corrupt? What did Mr. McHugh specifically do that was corrupt? Did he take bribes? Did he have a personal interest in the outcome? Did Gov. Patrick knowingly appoint people who were corrupt? If Mr. McHugh is corrupt, prove it before you assassinate his character.
mjm238 says
Let’s face it: If you don’t shout, the electorate doesn’t pay attention. the proponents of casino gambling will continue to shout 10,000 jobs $400 million in revenue. Equally unprovable and doesn’t seem to be working for New Jersey. I believe every job and every dime of revenue will be at the expense of existing Massachusetts businesses. And on top of that we are inviting some pretty sketchy people into Massachusetts.
Christopher says
…is a lot more important than proving the predicted outcome of a policy choice. The former is personal and the latter political. In other words if you were to accuse me simultaneously of being corrupt and not being a very good forecaster, I would be outraged by the former and take it very personally whereas the latter would get a shoulder-shrug by comparison. Corruption is a crime and must be proven; bad predictive abilities not so much.
SomervilleTom says
Proof is for a courtroom. Even in a courtroom, “preponderance of evidence” is different from “beyond reasonable doubt”.
This is a campaign, and a campaign where a collection of slimy people are loudly trumpeting all sorts of self-serving “facts” that are pure hogwash. I don’t feel the need to “prove” that the enormous sums of money spent by an assortment of petroleum companies and right-wing extremists are personally benefiting people like James Inhof regarding climate change in order to conclude that a significant number of the voices that add to the climate change denier cacophony are corrupt.
In a campaign, spotlighting the appearance of corruption is a high enough standard in my book. Yes, the facts supporting those allegations should be publicized — EB3 has done that.
Christopher says
…between campaign contributions and policy stances. I’m pretty sure that does not meet the legal standard of corruption. In fact unless the contributions are themselves illegal or they are bribing the lawmaker personally there is no crime. Playing by the rules cannot by definition be corrupt. I also personally set the bar to the highest standard of evidence even outside the courtroom. Even absent an actual prosecution the moral thing to do IMO is to assume innocence unless guilt can be proven. I also prefer to focus on the merits of the case rather than the personalities – in other words WHAT is right rather than WHO is right.
SomervilleTom says
Suppose you were about to develop a privately owned summer camp where you will your own children and the children of your neighbors. You decide to hire highly-qualified professional help, because of the importance of the role and the vulnerability of those who will be served. Knowing what you know about Mr. McHugh (and, for that matter, the entire cast of characters), would you hire him?
The close relationship between organized crime and gambling has existed as long as organized crime and gambling have existed. One begets the other — denying that is denying human nature.
This is not “character assassination”, it is realistically seeing the players for who they are.
SomervilleTom says
This was intended as a reply to “If you accuse…”, which was the final comment on the page when I attempted to reply.
The “Reply” and “POST A COMMENT” buttons are at best confusing when attempting to reply to the last comment on a page. I’m reasonably certain I clicked “Reply”. My reply was instead posted as a new top-level comment.
SomervilleTom says
I agree that the corruption is the weapon that is most powerful and most likely to succeed in repealing our casino gambling law. Voters who are appalled by corruption are going to be voting for governor on the same ballot that they are presumably marking to support casino repeal.
If a surge of anti-corruption voters is the result of this anti-casino campaign, what is the likely impact on the gubernatorial race?