The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which endured a bad stretch of about 10 years being run by two ex-managers from USA Today, has shown signs of critical, enterprising political reporting of late, taking on Frist and Ralph Reed in particular. If you're not from Georgia, you might have missed the story that Reed, the boy-faced Christian Coalition head and Abramoff associate, is running for lieutenant governor. Tomorrow the AJC has
another installment on Reed's role as a gambling lobbyist and Abramoff stooge.
Ralph Reed, who has condemned gambling as a "cancer on the American body politic," quietly worked five years ago to kill a proposed ban on Internet wagering -- on behalf of a company in the online gambling industry.
More quotes on the flip.
Reed, now a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia, helped defeat the congressional proposal despite its strong support among many Republicans and conservative religious groups. Among them: the national Christian Coalition organization, which Reed had left three years earlier to become a political and corporate consultant.
A spokesman for Reed said the political consultant fought the ban as a subcontractor to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff's law firm. But he said Reed did not know "the specific client" that had hired Abramoff: eLottery Inc., a Connecticut-based company that wants to help state lotteries sell tickets online -- an activity the gambling measure would have prohibited.
Reed declined to be interviewed for this article. His aides said he opposed the legislation because by exempting some types of online betting from the ban, it would have allowed online gambling to flourish. Proponents counter that even a partial ban would have been better than no restrictions at all.
Anti-gambling activists say they never knew that Reed, whom they once considered an ally, helped sink the proposal in the House of Representatives. Now some of them, who criticized other work Reed performed on behalf of Indian tribes that own casinos, say his efforts on eLottery's behalf undermine his image as a champion of public morality, which he cultivated as a leader of the religious conservative movement in the 1980s and '90s.
"It flies in the face of the kinds of things the Christian Coalition supports," said the Rev. Cynthia Abrams, a United Methodist Church official in Washington who coordinates a group of gambling opponents who favored the measure. "They support family values. Stopping gambling is a family concern, particularly Internet gambling."
Reed's involvement in the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 2000, never previously reported, comes to light as authorities in Washington scrutinize the lobbying activities of Abramoff, a longtime friend who now is the target of several federal investigations.
The sad fact is that, despite theses stories, Reed has the most name recognition of any candidate who has announced, of either party. At this point he has an excellent chance of winning.