With just one week before the vote on whether to allow slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade, opponents are gathering major momentum.
The anti-slots campaign, until recently the underfunded underdog with a bare budget, has picked up money and high-profile support. Their efforts began in earnest this weekend, with mailings paid for by a Broward pro-business group and e-mails that accused slots supporters of being ``greedy gaming interests.''
Slots opponents also collected a key endorsement Monday night, from the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. And Miami developer Sergio Pino, a Republican fundraiser with ties to Gov. Jeb Bush, pledged $100,000 of his own money to fight slot machines.
Gov. Jeb Bush, a longtime opponent of expanded gambling, reiterated his opposition to slot machines, and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez joined the chorus of Broward elected leaders who oppose the Las Vegas-style machines. Alvarez, speaking Monday morning at a Miami-Dade Christian Family Coalition breakfast, called the measure an attack ``on our whole value system.''
''Personally I do not believe in gambling,'' Alvarez said, urging the pastors in attendance to talk to their congregants. ``I believe it leads to problems. I don't believe people are being told the truth.''
Until this week, the battle has been dominated by slots advocates, who have raised $3.7 million, mostly from the parimutuel industry, which would benefit if slot machines are allowed at five racetracks and two jai-alai frontons in the two counties.
Their campaign, Yes for Better Schools and Jobs, claims that schools statewide could receive up to $500 million a year from taxes on proceeds from the slot machines. They also claim slot machines would create thousands of new jobs.
Opponents point out that no one knows how much money schools would receive, since lawmakers haven't settled on a formula for dividing the slots revenue -- and haven't even decided how to regulate the machines.
The pro-slots campaign stepped up its television advertising, with plans to run 30-second spots on South Florida broadcast stations all week. Campaign spokeswoman Stacey Brenan said Monday that the campaign would unveil multimillion expansion plans today for Hollywood Greyhound Track and Pompano Park racetrack.
Brenan on Monday decried the last-minute techniques being used by its opponents, who have taken advantage of disclosure laws that don't force them to detail their contributions or expenditures until Friday, just four days before the election.
''They are trying to scare the public,'' Brenan said. ``The fact is, this money is guaranteed to education. This initiative is going to provide additional money for education and thousands of jobs for South Florida.''
Bush on Monday suggested there could be legal challenges to the side deals many cities cut with the parimutuels to guarantee extra money. He also argued that expanded gambling would place new demands on government and its safety-net programs.
''James Bond and his buddies aren't going to show up at the dog track and jai-alai,'' Bush said. ``It's going to be people of moderate income getting in buses with coins in their pocket, showing up and sitting on a stool. This is a bad deal, and the people that will take advantage of this . . . will end up having disruption in their family lives.''
In Broward, a targeted list of voters received anti-slot mailings this weekend featuring a tiptoeing burglar with a bag of loot over his shoulder. The bag says Lottery II, a reference to the perception that Florida Lottery income has not fulfilled its promise to supplement education funding in Florida.
The mailer was paid for by the Broward Workshop Issues Political Action Committee, an organization whose previous contributors have included Republican business heavyweights such as Miami Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga and Linda Gill of the Gill hotel family.
Charles Caulkins, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who heads the committee, said it will have about $15,000 to spend on an opposition campaign. He would not disclose the donor list or who was being paid to develop mailings.
The mailer was produced by Dan Lewis, a political consultant who, so far, has said he is funding the opposition campaign from his own pocket. Lewis would not say whether he was being paid by the Broward Workshop committee.
Herald staff writers Lesley Clark, Patrick Danner, Gary Fineout and Noaki Schwartz contributed to this report.