HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAExecutive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, EditorFriday, October 22, 2010ONE REALLY BIG STORY IN NYThe story in New York today, commandinghuge media attention throughout thestate, is the report released yesterday byInspector General Joseph Fisch, chargingGovernor David Paterson, SenateDemocratic Conference Leader JohnSampson and Assembly Speaker SheldonSilver with seriously mismanagingthe handling of the failed Aqueduct EntertainmentGroup bid for the racino itwon and then lost. The report seemed togo far beyond pre-election politics in bothits charges and implications. The AlbanyTimes Union headed its editorial, “Governmentat its worst,” saying, “There areindications that the process may havebeen marred by corruption in the stateSenate,” and continued, “Mr. Paterson’soffice goes so far as to portray the governoras some kind of good governmentknight who rode in at the last minute tosave the day.” It also noted the inspectorgeneral’s summary, “...at each turn,our state leaders abdicated their publicduty, failed to impose ethical restraintsand focused on political gain at a cost ofmillions to New Yorkers. Unfortunately,and shamefully, consideration of whatwas in the public’s best interest, ratherthan the political interest of the decisionmakers, was a matter of militant indifferenceto them.” Frederick Dicker, writingin the New York Post, said “the scath- ingreport...could hand control of theSenate back to the Republicansand take down Democratic Senator EricSchneiderman’s front-running campaignfor attorney general, political insiderssaid yesterday.” Blair Horner, legislativedirector of the New York Public InterestResearch Group, was quoted in theNew York Times as saying, “This reportreveals Albany at its most sordid. EveryNew Yorker should be outraged. We urgethe district attorney and U.S. attorney tomove quickly on the I.G.’s finding of possibleviolations of the public officers law.”The Fisch report included an allegationthat John L. Sampson, the Democraticleader from Brooklyn, had urged AEG toadd builder Donald Cogsville to its team.Sampson said he could not recall doing so.Fisch contended that Sampson’s testimonylacked credibility, saying, “I stoppedcounting the number of his ‘I don’t recalls’when I reached 100.” Whether politicallymotivated or not, the Fisch reporthas stirred up a storm 10 days before nextmonth’s election.A BLOW FOR NORTHVILLEHTA member Northville Downs receiveda setback in its long legal battle againstGov. Jennifer Granholm and AttorneyGeneral Michael Cox challenging a 2004vote, backed by Detroit casinos, requiringa statewide as well as local vote for changesin state law that would have paved theway for track slots. The U.S. Court ofAppeals declined to overturn a federaldistrict court ruling. No decision yeton a U.S. Supreme Court appeal.