1619-5-5 Kennedy, Muss form new group to lead drive for casino gambling. n KENNEDY, MUSS FORM NEW GROUP 02/04/1986
THE MIAMI NEWS
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami News
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1986 EDITION: THREE-STAR
SECTION: PAGE 1 PAGE: 1A LENGTH: 81 lines
ILLUSTRATION: David Kennedy: Stephen Muss (mugs)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: ROBERT JOFFEE Miami News Reporter
KENNEDY, MUSS FORM NEW GROUP
TO LEAD DRIVE FOR CASINO GAMBLING
Former Miami Mayor David Kennedy and Miami Beach hotelier Steve Muss say
they're forming a new group to lead the statewide drive for approval of the
casino-legalization referendum on the Nov. 4 Florida ballot.
In separate interviews yesterday, Kennedy said he'll be campaign manager
and Muss said he'll be acting chairman of the group, Citizens for County
Choice on Casinos.
Meanwhile, sources in the state's two major anti-casino political action
committees said they have agreed to merge.
Drugstore magnate Jack Eckerd, chairman of No Casinos Inc. , and state
Attorney General Jim Smith, chairman of Floridians Against Casino Takeover
(FACT) , will be meeting within a few days, "and in about a week I believe
you'll have one (anti- casino) group, " said Pat Roberts, Eckerd's executive
assistant.
County Choice's pro-casino campaign "will be tough, but it's winnable, "
said Kennedy, a seasoned political strategist whose statewide successes have
included his chairmanship of Reubin Askew's 1970 gubernatorial campaign.
Kennedy managed the 1972 Parks for People bond-issue campaign in Miami,
and last year's referendum that extended restaurateur Monty Trainer's lease on
city-owned property on Dinner Key. He also was the main strategist for his
wife, Rosario, in her successful City Commission campaign.
To make room for his new responsibilities', Kennedy said, he has resigned
from his position as deputy finance chairman of the gubernatorial campaign of
state Rep. Steve Pajcic, D- Jacksonville.
Muss, principal owner of the Fontainebleau Hilton Hotel and other prime
Miami Beach real estate, said he will campaign actively for casino
legalization. However, because of the demands of his businesses, he said, he
hopes someone else will take over as a full-time chairman of County Choice.
The November referendum proposes amending the Florida Constitution to
ermit casino gambling in hotels with 500 or more guest rooms in any county
where casinos also are approved in a subsequent county referendum.
The casino issue was officially qualified for this year's ballot in
December after a statewide petition drive collected 342,939 valid signatures
from registered voters throughout the state. The group that financed the
petition effort, Citizens for Jobs and Tourism, reported receiving more than
$600, 000 in contributions, mostly from Muss and other South Florida hoteliers
with facilities that might eventually qualify for casino licenses.
North Miami Beach lawyer Andrew Rubin, chairman of Citizens for Jobs,
said his group "accomplished its mission" with the petition drive but will
remain in business to assist County Choice and other pro-casino groups -- and
to defend the November referendum against any court challenge that might seek
to remove it from the ballot.
Miami lawyer Alan Axelrod, the attorney for County Choice, said he
expects it to be incorporated today or tomorrow and to be registered as a
political action committee within a week.
Once that happens, Kennedy said, County Choice can begin raising and
spending money.
County Choice already has signed up two political consulting firms that
had worked with Citizens for Jobs.
One firm is Winner/Wagner & Mandabach, of New York and California, a
veteran of referendum campaigns in 18 states over the past eight years. "We've
been retained to provide overall strategy advice and to produce and place
advertising, " said Paul
Mandabach, one of the partners.
Kennedy said the other firm is Washington's Peter D. Hart, which handled
polling for 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale.
Kennedy and Muss said they believe the current casino proposal avoids
unpopular features that helped turn Florida voters against a 1978 casino
referendum.
Kennedy said County Choice will urge the passage of enabling legislation
that would avoid the creation of "a Las Vegas or Atlantic City" in Florida by
forbiding such things as neon advertising.
In Miami Beach, he said, gambling wouldn't be a cure-all for the area's
economic ills, "but it would provide another amenity to help draw tourists. "
And, with appropriate state regulations, he said, Miami -- like London --
would be able to offer casino gambling without endangering its status as a
respectable financial capital.
Muss said he wants Florida voters to make "an informed choice" and hopes
they "won't listen to any rash promises by the pro-casino people or any rash
accusations or scare tactics by anti-gambling people."
KEYWORDS: MB ECONOMY GAMBLING SUPPORT OPPOSITION
TAG: 8601040654
19 of 30, 26 Terms
inn CASINO ISSUE EXPECTED 12/01/1984
THE MIAMI NEWS
Copyright (c) 1984, The '4iami News
DATE: Saturday, December 1, 1984 EDITION: WEEKENDER
SECTION: PAGE 1 PAGE: 1A LENGTH: 132 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: ROBERT JOFFEE and STEVE KONICKI Miami News Reporters
MEMO: A NATION OF GAMBLERS
CASINO ISSUE EXPECTED
TO GET ON 1986 BALLOT
* South Florida parimutuel operators worry casinos would kill their
business, Page 6A
On Nov. 4, 1986, if major Gold Coast hotel interests have their way,
Florida voters will be asked to add 187 words to their state constitution,
including "baccarat, blackjack, craps, keno, poker, roulette, slot machines"
and "casino gambling. "
However, as many of the same hotel interests learned six years ago, it's
a lot easier to put a casino-legalization amendment on the ballot than to
persuade people to vote for it.
The 1978 pro-casino campaign, the only one that ever resulted in a
statewide vote, was opposed by a powerful array of seemingly divergent