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Posted At : July 18, 2008 10:35 AM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories:
Pennsylvania,Politics
Seems that a variety of politicians -- up to and including Gov. Ed Rendell -- midwifed the deal whereby Don Barden stepped aside as developer of Pittsburgh's $780 million slot parlor in favor of Neil Bluhm. All of this footsie and phone-tag also involved ex parte communications by members of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Which isn't kosher because it's ... well, it's illegal for starters.
PBCB member Jeff Coy lived up to his name by saying that state Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) was just ringing him up to repeat things that Evans had said several times already and that Coy already knew. Oh, and the fact that Coy is the Democratic Party's man on the PGCB and Evans is an Democratic bigwig? Pure coincidence. Better still, board members received a warning this week about having just these types of conversations.
Whoops. You might say Coy didn't get the memo, metaphorically speaking. The two tampered regulators, Coy and Chairwoman Mary DiGiacomo Colins, will have to recuse themselves from next week's vote but that won't be sufficient to undo the damage.
Evans' ham-handed intervention was rationalized by the lawmaker to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the following terms: "it was important that select state officials referee the conference calls partly because it was important to Mr. Evans, who also is black, to preserve Mr. Barden's role as a minority owner." Whether or not that qualifies as tokenism, it certainly explains the contrivance whereby Barden gets 25% ownership without even a penny of equity. Damn! Where can I get a deal like that?
There's been so much ass-clownery involved in bringing casinos to Pennsylvania (it's like a "How Not to ... " primer) that this latest pratfall comes as little surprise. Still, when -- and not "if" -- Keystone State regulators vote through the Barden/Bluhm arrangement, it will be accompanied by an ineradicable taint that The Fix Was In.
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