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Lottery campaign hires signature gathering firm Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's campaign to put a state lottery proposal on the 2008 ballot announced Tuesday it has hired a national firm to help gather the signatures necessary to get the measure before voters next year. Hope for Arkansas made the announcement even though the state attorney general has not approved the proposed constitutional amendment's popular name and ballot title, a prerequisite to gathering signatures on petitions to certify an initiative for the ballot. "We are more than confident that we will get the ballot title language on the ballot," Hope for Arkansas spokesman Bud Jackson said Tuesday. The organization Halter established to lead the campaign for a lottery, announced that National Voter Outreach Inc., a political consulting firm that specializes in organizing signature drives to qualify candidates and issues for the ballot, had been selected to gather signatures for the lottery initiative. The firm, according to a news release, has worked on more than 450 separate signature drives in 45 states and the District of Columbia, including four in Arkansas. "Thanks to National Voter Outreach, we are now positioned to hit the ground running in our efforts to collect signatures once the attorney general approves our ballot title and language," Jackson said. Under the proposal, lottery proceeds would be placed in a trust and would be spent only on prize money, operating expenses and scholarships for Arkansans to attend colleges and universities within the state. Halter, who pledged to support a lottery amendment during his successful campaign for office last year but failed to win legislative support during this year's regular session, has estimated a state lottery would generate $100 million for proposed scholarships. Last week, Halter announced that John Bailey, owner of Bailey Properties in Little Rock, and his family had pledged $300,000 to the lottery campaign. Tuesday, the Hope for Arkansas ballot question committee released a financial report for September, showing that Bailey donated $10,000 to the campaign, and that the campaign had paid National Voter Outreach of Ludington, Mich., a $10,000 retainer. If the attorney general certifies the measure, Hope for Arkansas would have until July 7, 2008, to collect 77,468 signatures of registered voters - 10 percent of the votes in the 2006 gubernatorial election - to place it on the general election ballot. Earlier this month the attorney general rejected the proposed constitutional amendment's name and ballot title because of several "unclear points." Some of the points raised by the attorney general involved the state Department of Higher Education. Janet Lawrence, the department's attorney, said Tuesday that the department asked that the proposal clarify who would certify the accreditation of colleges and universities in Arkansas. The proposal rejected by the attorney general was unclear on that point and implied that the department was responsible for certifying the colleges and universities, Lawrence said. Another concern was the location of colleges and universities in Arkansas. The department asked that the proposal be clear that only colleges and universities with their main campuses in Arkansas would be eligible to receive the scholarship money. Jackson said Tuesday he expected the rewritten proposal to be resubmitted to the attorney general's office within seven to 10 days. Also Tuesday, Gov. Mike Beebe said he had "mixed feelings" about a lottery for scholarships. "I like to have the money for scholarships, but I do realize that a lot of people, history has shown, spend a lot of money on the lottery to the detriment of their families," the governor said. "But, I've always believed in this democracy there is nothing wrong with people getting the chance to vote." |
