Abstract

Ralph Reed's Gamble

When Ralph Reed was the director of the Christian Coalition, he made opposition to gambling a major plank in his "family values" agenda. But a broad federal investigation into lobbying abuses connected to gambling on Indian reservations has unearthed evidence that Reed has been surreptitiously working for an Indian tribe with a large casino it sought to protect--and that Reed was paid with funds laundered through two firms to try to keep his lucrative involvement secret. News accounts of the emerging scandal have focused on the two main figures under investigation: lawyer/lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon, House Republican majority leader Tom DeLay's former spokesman and head of two campaign and public relations companies. In early 2002 the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana was desperately trying to kill a planned competing casino. Two casino industry lobbyists--Philip Thompson and Bill Grimes--say they were in a meeting in Louisiana early in 2002 and heard William Worfel, vice chair of the Coushatta tribe, say he was hiring Reed to lobby for the tribe. The documents obtained by "The Nation" show that Reed sent bills to Abramoff and Scanlon and that one of his consulting companies, Century Strategies of Duluth, Georgia, received $250,000 from one of Scanlon's companies, Capitol Campaign Strategies. (The main thrust of the Justice Department investigation involves money laundering among Scanlon, Abramoff and Republican campaigns.).