Cohen is for approval of the referendum, which would allow Las Vegas-style slot machines at
racetracks and jai-alai frontons, but said he had not agreed to work for its passage.
The condominium leader said he never talked to anyone from Yes for Better Schools and Jobs, which
is leading the campaign for approval of the March 8 referendum. So Cohen said he could come to only
one conclusion.
"They are buying votes," said Cohen, a Democratic leader in Carriage Hills in west Hollywood.
Stacey Brenan of Yes for Better Schools and Jobs quickly denied the group is buying votes, but
conceded it is paying influential Broward residents to spread the pro-slots message. Some of the
payments are listed in the latest financial expenditure forms filed by the group on Feb. 15.
"We're running a campaign," Brenan said. "We're paying people to get the word out."
State law draws a distinction between buying votes and paying campaign workers. It is illegal to pay an
individual to vote a certain way. It is legal to pay someone to campaign in favor of an issue.
"It's not out of the ordinary to pay somebody for helping arrange events or for passing out literature.
In the old days, everybody did everything on a volunteer basis. Now everybody says, `What are you
going to pay me?'" said Barbara Miller, a Hallandale Beach-based campaign consultant working for
the pro-slots forces.
Joe Rosen and Marvin Simon are two long-time condominium leaders who say no pro-slot-machine
money has been sent their way.
Rosen, of Sunrise Lakes in Sunrise, said all he has been offered is a breakfast today, along with other
condominium leaders, at The Clock restaurant in Plantation.
Simon, longtime leader of Pine Island Ridge in Davie, said, "I've been offered nothing." He is
undecided on the issue.
Rosen and Simon aside, the financial expenditure forms are a Who's Who of Broward political
operators.
In the past two months, the pro-slot-machine committee paid $8,000 to Arthur Kennedy, a Fort
Lauderdale black leader with a well-respected get-out-the-vote operation. Kennedy is the former
Broward teachers union leader and the district aide for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar.
The forms reported another $10,000 paid to BSE Consulting, which is run out of the Sunrise home of
Barbara Effman, a West Broward Democratic Party leader and political consultant.
Shirley Sumner, a Sunrise Lakes condominium leader, got $257 for what is described in the financial
documents as an "event."
Political consultant Russ Oster got $24,000, and get-out-the-vote consultant Judy Stern of Fort
Lauderdale got $4,123. Miller received $16,000.
Jim Horne, the former state education secretary who is the leading spokesman for the pro-slots effort,
got $6,039.
The largest expenditures did not go to Broward firms: $926,250 was paid to Pro-Media, a
Massachusetts firm doing media work for the campaign; and $644,837 was paid to Mission Control, a
Connecticut firm responsible for printing and mailing ads.
"They apparently have to buy support," said Robin Rorapaugh, a political operative with the anti-slots
operation, Remember the Lottery.
Remember the Lottery reported Feb. 15 that it hadn't raised or spent enough money to file a campaign
finance report. Rorapaugh said the organization was emphasizing speaking at meetings, taking part in
debates and sending e-mails.
If the March 8 referendum is approved, slot machines would be allowed at Dania Jai-Alai in Dania
Beach, Gulfstream Park and the Hollywood Greyhound Track in Hallandale Beach and Pompano Park
Racing in Pompano Beach.
A separate referendum on the same day in Miami-Dade County will ask voters to allow slot machines
at Calder Race Course, Miami Jai-Alai and Flagler Greyhound Track.