Governor sues over poker ads

Web posted October 23, 1998

By Margaret N. O'Shea
South Carolina Bureau

With Election Day little more than a week away, the Beasley campaign wants a state court to stop video poker magnates' illegal spending to influence the outcome of South Carolina's governor's race.

Gov. David Beasley could be irreparably harmed if the court does not intervene in a race awash with gambling money -- much of it undisclosed in violation of state ethics laws, the lawsuit contends.

The election is Nov. 3. A judge will not be available until at least Nov. 2, according to Circuit Judge John Kittridge, who would assign the judge. No one has asked him to schedule a special hearing for a temporary restraining order, he said.

NEWS

•Nasty campaign •Organized gambling

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Filed Thursday in the Court of Common Pleas in Greenville, the lawsuit targets unknown hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a ``Ban Beasley'' campaign by Collins Entertainment of Greenville, South of the Border at Dillon, and related business enterprises of both.

Fred Collins of Greenville is principal owner of Collins Entertainment, often identified as South Carolina's largest video poker operator. Alan Schafer of Dillon is a principal in South of the Border enterprises, including Schafer Co. Inc. and Ace-Hi Advertising. They are referred to the court documents as ``Collins'' and ``S.O.B.''

Mr. Beasley's Democratic election opponent, Lancaster attorney Jim Hodges, is not a defendant in the lawsuit. But the lawsuit says some of the illegal activity was coordinated with Mr. Hodges' campaign, which should be required to reimburse the money spent by Collins Entertainment and South of the Border.

If the court decides the video poker moguls constituted a political committee, they would be required to disclose their expenditures to the South Carolina

Ethics Commission. If the court determines that illegal expenditures were coordinated with the Hodges campaign, it could be required to cover them.

The Beasley campaign contends that Collins Entertainment and South of the Border violated the disclosure requirement and contributed more money to Mr. Hodges than the law allows. The limit is $3,500 per election cycle. And contributions to benefit a specific candidate, campaign or political party must be reported.

The claim that the Hodges campaign was involved hinges on an incident reported last week, when Mr. Hodges asked Mr. Collins not to air a TV advertisement modeled after ads he and Ace-Hi Advertising have run on radio stations across the state. The same ad is played when a caller is placed on hold at Collins Entertainment.

The ``Ban Beasley'' campaign, under way since January, has consisted of the radio spots, newspaper ads and billboards.

The TV ad would have featured children yelling, ``Ban Beasley!'' Set to a Caribbean limbo beat, the ad had an announcer asking, ``How low can you go?'' in public education. The commercial referred to South Carolina's low literacy rate and low college-entrance scores against the backdrop of children walking under a limbo stick until they fell.

Mr. Collins, who calls himself a maverick in cahoots with nobody, said he decided not to buy the television spots after Mr. Hodges asked him not to.

According to the lawsuit filed by the Beasley campaign, that was coordination. The lawsuit also says Mr. Hodges' failure to stop previous expenditures by Collins Entertainment and South of the Border also was a form of coordination.

Mr. Hodges said his telephone call to Mr. Collins was just the opposite.

Both said the Democratic nominee asked Mr. Collins to steer clear and let Mr. Hodges run his own campaign.

``I felt at the time, and still feel today, that we do not need to resort to gutter politics by outside political parties to effectively communicate our message,'' Mr. Hodges said. ``Coordination involves asking someone to help in your campaign, not asking someone to stay out of the way.''

Mr. Collins told The Augusta Chronicle this week that he would spend $1 million if that's what it takes to defeat Mr. Beasley, who accepted political contributions from the poker industry in his 1994 campaign, then tried to crush it in the Legislature.

But Mr. Collins said his motivation goes deeper than that.

``David Beasley is the first South Carolina governor to have a cabinet form of government,'' he said. ``He has had the resources and funding that other governors have not had to do something about education in South Carolina, and he has failed the people. He has failed the schools.''

Mr. Collins said education is ``my personal ministry.'' He serves on the board of his local technical college and has donated scholarship money to Clemson University, the University of South Carolina law school, Medical University of South Carolina, the College of Charleston and North Greenville College.

Mr. Schafer has not talked to other news media but told the Associated Press that he was working alone.

``I don't join anything. ... I'm a lone wolf and always have been,'' he said.

Frustrated by polls that show an unexpectedly tight race, Mr. Beasley has accused ``organized gambling'' of trying to buy the election, citing among his evidence a 1981 vote-buying conviction for Mr. Schafer in federal court.

The Dillon County millionaire, long active in Democratic politics, was found guilty of paying for absentee ballots that favored his candidate in a local race and was sentenced to a suspended prison term and probation, during which he was barred from political activity.

Mr. Schafer, now 84, had not been openly active in politics since then.

It was he who asked the late state Sen. Jack Lindsay, D-Marlboro, in 1986 to push through a change in state law that allowed payouts from video poker machines.

That change legalized video poker in a state that has an anti-gambling provision in its constitution, which prohibits a lottery. The state Supreme Court has a case pending now that would decide whether the poker games are a form of lottery.

An important plank of the Hodges campaign is a state lottery to help improve education in South Carolina. Mr. Beasley is opposed to a lottery, but recently said he would not stand in the way of a lottery referendum if voters want one.

Associated Press reports were used in this article.

Margaret N. O'Shea can be reached at (803) 279-6895 or scbureau@augustachronicle.com.