Potawatomi’s Sweet Sixteen

How many D.C. lobbyists does it take to preserve a monopoly?

The Forest County Potawatomi Community – who have already spent millions in their quest to kill competition from the proposed Kenosha casino – is hoping 16 does the trick.

According to federal reports, the Potawatomi had 16 paid lobbyists promoting their anti-competition message in our nation’s capital during the first three months of 2008. Those lobbyists work for high-profile firms, and they targeted everyone from the House, Senate and the Department of the Interior to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. (It’s not the first time the Potawatomi have targeted the highest office in the land – apparently they think preserving their monopoly is so important that it deserves to be on the President’s “to do” list.)

We’ve got to give the Potawatomi credit where it’s due – they’ve certainly recruited an All-Star team in their fight against competition. Here’s just a sampling of the Sweet Sixteen lineup:

• The former legislative director and counsel for then-Senator Dirk Kempthorne. This lobbyist also served on the transition team when Kempthorne became Governor of Idaho. Coincidentally, Kempthorne is now the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which has the final say on the Kenosha casino proposal.
• Former counsel to the President of the United States and chief of staff to the Vice President
• The son of a sitting U.S. Senator
• A GOP insider who has served in high-level White House positions and as chief of staff to a former Cabinet member
• Another well-known Republican operative who served as chief of staff for a former Wisconsin Governor and Cabinet member. (Ironically, his former boss signed the 2000 Menominee Compact with the State of Wisconsin that authorized establishment of a Menominee casino in Kenosha in the first place.)

All this talent comes with a hefty price tag. Reports reveal Potawatomi shelled out $185,000 for federal lobbying during the first three months of 2008. That puts them on track to break three-quarters of a million dollars before the year runs out.

Second quarter federal lobbying reports are due at the end of this month, and we’ll provide an update then. We’re coming up on some state lobbying filing deadlines, too. When it’s all tallied, it wouldn’t surprise us if Potawatomi plunked down another $1 million on anti-competition lobbying this year. After all, they’ve got a history of spending millions to stamp out potential competition.

No one said preserving a monopoly was cheap. But imagine what could happen if Potawatomi devoted its considerable resources to enhancing competition and bringing more jobs and more revenue to Wisconsin, instead of fighting it.

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