LosingJeff neglected to mention that, despite the installation of a new lottery director, the remainder of the incumbent crew is largely intact. This includes their programmers, security personnel (mostly retired cops) and other lower-level employees.
Also, Governor Mitch Daniels has repeatedly requested the resignations of several state agency heads and officers, including those who serve on the board of directors of the Hoosier Lottery. These people refuse to resign and, by law, cannot be forced to do so prior to the end of their respective terms. I blame our own short-sighted legislators for this glaring oversight.
LosingJeff and I met with Representative Bob Cherry and Republican Chief of Staff Leslie Davis Hiner on July 16, 2004. At that meeting, they both promised that cleaning up the lottery would be "a priority issue at the next legislative session," yet no such legislation appears on their current agenda. As it turns out, they only wanted to find out how much we knew about the scratch-off scandal, which had not yet become public. Once they determined we had no knowledge of their little secret, they were finished with us, and we never heard from them again.
We had a separate meeting with Representative Bob Alderman in June. After seeing our evidence, he proclaimed, "We can take care of this quietly; no one needs to go to jail or lose his job." However, he did promise to spearhead his own inquiry. This "investigation" turned out to be a ten-point questionnaire which was sent to Jack Ross, our previous lottery director (the only one, so far, to tender his resignation). Ross filled it with lies and sent it back to Alderman, who was apparently satisfied, despite obvious differences between the sales, revenue and payout figures furnished by Ross and those published in the Hoosier Lottery's annual reports (Kevin Leininger, an investigative reporter for a Fort Wayne newspaper, sent me a copy of the completed questionnaire). Alderman also promised us that he would introduce legislation which would force the Hoosier Lottery to reinstate mechanical draw machines and live, televised drawings. Again, no such legislation has been introduced, nor is it being considered.
This afternoon, I sent an email to Congressman Mark Souder, detailing the massive body of evidence we've managed to collect over the past eighteen months. I told him of the meetings we've had with the State Reps, the promises they made, and the inefficient and off-handed manner in which this scandal has been investigated on an official level.
Below are contact links for each of the officials mentioned. Please take a moment to write to them and tell them how you feel about this and, by all means, mention my name.
Representative Bob Alderman:
http://www.in.gov/cgi-bin/legislative/contact/contact.pl?data=HouseAlderman,Robert%20K.h83hr, 1-800-382-9841
Representative Bob Cherry:
http://www.in.gov/cgi-bin/legislative/contact/contact.pl?data=HouseCherry,Bobh53hr, 1-800-382-9841
Republican Chief of Staff Leslie Davis Hiner:
lhiner@iga.state.in.us, 317-232-9640
Congressman Mark Souder:
souder@mail.house.gov, 1-800-959-3041
LOTTOMIKE and Maverick, thanks for all your help and support. This has been a long and difficult fight, but it's not over yet. We still have cards we haven't played yet, and I remain confident that we will prevail.
To everyone else who takes the time to write to Indiana's elected officials, I'm grateful to you as well.