Mr. Tad Decker is not a member of any host committee for any Nutter for Mayor fundraisers. When we learned that his name had been added to a host committee by a few supporters, Michael asked that he be removed, and he was. In this primary election, Michael completely adhered to the City’s campaign finance laws – which he helped to write. Under those laws, donors are not permitted to give large sums of money, as they had in the past. This will ensure that no single donor can use undue influence with elected officials, regardless of the donors’ interest or causes.

Tricia Enright, Campaign Manager

Well, that solves the mystery of how in the hell this happened. We were indeed scratching our heads; and the upshot of this campaign office mix-up means that the Nutter camp is going to spend the rest of the week telling everybody once again how screwed up they think the casino situation is. Which is good because sometimes, when you have to talk about things, you wind up reminding yourself what it is you believe in the first place. After the jump, Nutter’s campaign statement regarding casinos.

CASINO STATEMENT

I do not support gambling as an economic development tool. There is highly controversial evidence about whether the benefits are sustainable over time and whether those benefits exceed the substantial costs of gambling, addition, traffic, public safety and the impact on future economic development.

What concerns me is the process by which casino gambling was proposed for our city. That process was flawed and inappropriate. Of the many problems in that process, the most consequential was the link made between operators and locations in the awarding of licenses, which obscured any thoughtful debate over neighborhood impacts.

Philadelphians are right to protest the decisions made under that flawed process. I supported placing the question on the May ballot, as voted unanimously by City Council. In May, I voted “yes” on Question 1 – to create a minimum standard of keeping casinos at least 1500 feet away from schools, places of worship, homes, parks and playgrounds.

If elected Mayor, I will do the following:

Work to use the City’s zoning powers to ensure that the neighbors’ wishes are addressed. If the neighbors do not want the casinos, then I will do everything that I can under the law to make sure that the casinos are not built on the currently designated sites.

Lobby the General Assembly and the Governor to change the state’s gaming law to allow for greater local control and an opportunity to rethink the decision awarding the casino licenses.

Michael Nutter
9/18/07

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 2:21 pm.