Touchplay: Senate Democrats want to bring back the machines.

February 15, 2007

When the babies were sleeping and the other kids were running around the house my father used to say, “Quiet down and let sleeping dogs lie.”  It’s an old saying, but useful when I think about Senate Democrats’ attempt to reopen the Touchplay debate.  After the contentious debate over Touchplay last year, everyone thought it would remain a sleeping dog for at least one session.

This week in the Iowa Senate SF 148 was introduced to bring back the Touchplay machines.  My Linn County Senate colleague Wally Horn introduced legislation that will legalize Touchplay lottery gambling in certain establishments in counties without state licensed casinos.

If you recall this past year, during the governor’s race and many of the legislative races, tens of thousands of dollars went to Governor Culver’s campaign and other Democrat legislative races from the losers of the Touchplay debate.  It seems they were making an investment with an eye towards finding a willing Democrat to bring back this sleeping dog.

As a leader who fought very hard to rid Iowa of the Touchplay machines, I find it sad that the wishes of the vast majority of Iowans are being ignored with this Senate Democrat effort to bring back the machines.  No one knows for sure if this is part of a secret plan to restore Touchplay, but there are questions to ask the members of our new Senate Majority.

Do the Senate Democrats plan to take up Senator Wally Horn’s bill in one of the late night bill passing parades at the end of session?

Senator Connolly is on record as opposed to SF 148 , but isn’t it possible that Senators Horn and Connolly may decide to trade favors on pet projects later in the session with Senator Connolly seeing Senator Horn’s logic and moving the Touchplay bill along?

What about Senator Gronstal and his good working relationship with the Touchplay campaign donors?

Legislators on both sides can be tricky when explaining their thinking about an issue to concerned voters.  You will hear things like ‘I am contemplating that issue’, which means you’ve asked enough questions and I don’t have an answer.  Perhaps you may hear ‘I will ask some other people that I trust about this issue’, in translation that means I really don’t trust you to have the answers.  You may also hear ‘so and so proposed that and I had nothing to do with that issue’, no need to translate the meaning of a duck and cover response.  I use these examples to offer a little guidance on translation if you happen to hear Democrat Senators talking about Touchplay.

It is anyone’s guess what a Democrat Senator’s likely response to the Touchplay question will be, although I’d take odds that you’ll hear a duck and cover response before you’ll hear anything else.  Nothing gets through a Senate caucus without discussion, but a legislator can certainly try to make a concerned voter think they aren’t involved.

Only time will tell.  But with Iowans overwhelmingly opposed to the reintroduction of Touchplay, I suggest we all pay attention!