Ohio’s Issue 3: The Truth Behind TRUTH PAC’s Big Money Man
We are less than a week away from the general election and the opposition to Ohio Issue 3 has intensified their advertising. At one point this very evening, TRUTH PAC and Families Against Issue 3 ran ads back to back during the same commercial break on the same program. Are they afraid that Ohio might finally pass a legalized gambling issue and take billions away from out of state gaming facilities? It appears so.
On September 16th of this year I finally wrote my first post concerning Ohio Issue 3 and in that post I explain that I had been on the fence about it for quite some time. Once I made up my mind about the legitimacy of the proposal, I decided to give it my full backing. I suspect that the many organizations which are also backing Issue 3 did just as much, if not more, soul searching before committing to their support. Consequently, I suspect that Issue 3 has been well scrutinized by everyone who has thrown their support behind it.
But then there is TRUTH PAC and their allies Families Against Issue 3.
In my September 16th post I gave a little background about TRUTH PAC and the source of the funding. It originates from a gaming company headquartered in Chester, WV, called MTR Gaming Group Inc. MTR owns Mountaineer Casino and Racetrack Resort in Chester and just recently I found out they also own Presque Isle Casino in Erie, PA as well.
MTR derives an estimated 70% – 76% of their revenue at their Mountaineer facility from Ohioans. That my friends is the true reason for the opposition. Not mystical claims about casinos eliminating jobs and leading to higher crime rates. It isn’t about any of the bunk they are placing in their 30 sec. fictional stories that you mute the television for. No. It is about profit for a man named Jeff Jacobs – owner of MTR Gaming Group Inc.
As for the group known as Families Against Issue 3? Well there is some controversy about them as well. Their ads contain the same information as the TRUTH PAC ads and they cite the same “studies”. Complicating things further is the fact that Families Against Issue 3 is hosted on the same webserver as TRUTH PAC. Interesting….
Fellow Ohio Blogger Liza Renee has done what is nothing short of Yeoman’s work in investigating Families Against Issue 3 on her blog Glass City Jungle.
Since I started looking into this, there is another group that is claimed to have been created to oppose Issue 3, it is not openly connected to TruthPAC, but it is using the same ecampaignconnect.com client, it’s being called “Families Against Issue 3″ and is also connected to Grasstopconcepts.com. I’ve emailed the group asking for clarification, using the email that was included in the press release, this is what happened:
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
familiesagainstissue3@gmail.com
Technical details of permanent failure:
Account disabledTheir press release was then not posted.
Lisa was attempting to confirm the legitimacy of various groups for or against Issue 3 due to an email she received that was suspicious. This led her to find out that TRUTH PAC and Families Against Issue 3 are very well connected to each other. What I’m wondering is, are these churches that have Families Against Issue 3 signs on their lawns aware that they are helping to support MTR Gaming Inc’s hold on Ohio’s money?
I do understand the opposition by those who are truly opposed to legalized gambling in Ohio. However, a vast majority of the opposition to the Issue is due to TRUTH PAC and Families Against Issue 3 and their misinformation campaign. The Ohio Elections Commission has already sanctioned TRUTH PAC for misleading television advertisements. Soon after, I personally noticed an addition to one ad in particular which magically grew a study citation that it didn’t have before the OEC’s ruling.
The fact that the two groups are sharing the information and citations within their television commercials is enough to convince me that their association is more than what it appears.
Now how about some real TRUTH?
- Issue 3 WILL create just over 19,000 construction jobs and just over 15,000 permanent casino jobs which will be open for anyone to apply for.
- Issue 3 WILL keep an estimated $1 billion inside the Ohio economy.
- Issue 3 WILL mean tax revenue for the cities where they are located as-well-as each and every one of Ohio’s 88 counties by way of the 4th highest tax on gaming in the nation.
- Issue 3 WILL mean additional state income tax revenue from 34,000 newly employed taxpayers.
- Issue 3 WILL mean additional state income tax revenue from winners.
Don’t fall for the lie. Vote for Issue 3 and put 34,000 people to work and save Ohio’s economy.
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