Here in sunny South Florida, the campaign for slot machines pitches new jobs and potential profits to
improve schools.
But to under-employed campaign workers in Washington, D.C., looking for a job after the 2004
election, it's being sold as an opportunity to land some off-season work on a political campaign -- and
get a tan and a $12-an-hour paycheck.
''Unemployed? Cold? Pale? Looking for a way to get some quick cash and a tan? The Campaign for
Better Schools and Jobs is hiring for Lead Canvassers,'' reads a Feb. 19 online job posting.
The paid canvassers are going door-to-door in Broward and Miami-Dade, said Russ Oster, a campaign
consultant advising the pro-slots group, Yes For Better Schools and Jobs.
The job posting demonstrates two very different approaches being taken by pro- and anti-slots
campaigns before March 8, when voters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties will decide whether
they want slot machines at five racetracks and two jai-alai frontons.
Armed with $3.7 million, donated mostly by the casino companies that would profit from a gambling
expansion, Yes for Better Schools and Jobs has been able to hire the region's top political consultants,
plus pay for extensive polling, mailings and television advertising.
The anti-slots campaign has been relying on grass-roots outreach among its motley membership: the
Christian Coalition, animal rights groups, leading local politicians and some business groups.
''There's no matching their money,'' said Broward Mayor Kristin Jacobs, the highest-profile member
of the coalition.
Slot-machine backers acknowledge that their large checkbook has given them the ability to pay for
one of the most sophisticated issue campaigns in Florida history.
They're also able to field-test some of the successful techniques perfected before the November
presidential race by get-out-the-vote groups like America Coming Together.
''What we're doing is running a local campaign of an unprecedented measure,'' Oster said. ``We're
combining that with a methodical effort that was very successful with groups like ACT. Part of that is
getting boots on the ground.''
''People feel so passionately about slots that they have to bus them in from out of state?'' asked Robin
Rorapaugh, a political consultant who is coordinating the anti-slots campaign. ``I guess it just shows
how deep their pockets are and how desperate they are to win this election.''
But the pro-slots coalition counters that its committee has been scrupulous about disclosing its
finances, which makes everything they do more obvious than the anti-slots campaign. Rorapaugh and
her fellow consultant Dan Lewis haven't been transparent with their finances, slots backers argue.
''We operate straight up,'' said Dan Adkins, ae Hollywood Greyhound Track executive and chairman
of Yes for Better Schools and Jobs.
Rorapaugh and Lewis argue that their campaign is a volunteer effort that hasn't met the $500
reporting threshold for raising or spending money. They were calling their group ''Remember the
Lottery'' until last week when Adkins registered the name himself.
Yes for Better Schools and Jobs also has been effective at hiring dozens of influential political
consultants in both Broward and Miami-Dade. That includes putting on the payroll people like Barbara
Effman, a political consultant and president of the county's largest Democratic club, the West Broward
Democratic Club. Her efforts have drawn the ire of anti-slots crusaders including Hollywood Mayor
Mara Giulianti, who has argued that her city will suffer the ills of slot machines without getting any
financial benefit from the potential new casinos.
''People who run campaigns and who lobby are being paid big sums just to be a consultant,'' complained
Giulianti.
Effman was paid $10,000 to promoter slot machines, a task she said has been easy -- underscoring the
fact that in South Florida, gambling is already part of the landscape and no amount of money or
grass-roots organizing will change people's minds.
''I'm leading them in the right direction,'' Effman said. ``But I have to tell you, I'm not running into too
many people who are against it. It's a real easy sell.''