by Glynn Wilson

The press in Alabama is finally reporting a story critical of Gov. Bob Riley — when he is about to leave office after a new governor is elected next year — thanks to a press conference today in Dothan by one of the governor’s key advisers for the past few years.

Glynn Wilson

Former ADECA director Bill Johnson during Bob Riley’s 2006 race for governor in the campaign office in Montgomery.

A former member of Riley’s cabinet, Bill Johnson, said Riley received campaign contributions from Native Americans who operate casinos in Mississippi, and he said that money is still influencing Riley’s fight against electronic bingo across the state.

Johnson said a senior staffer in Riley’s 2002 campaign for governor told him that an Indian tribe that operates two casinos in Mississippi promised $3 million to the campaign, although the campaign didn’t receive the entire amount, according to a report from the Alabama bureau of the Associated Press.

Johnson served as grass-roots and logistics coordinator for Riley’s campaigns for governor in 2002 and 2006, meaning he was in charge of the campaign sign operations in counties around the state, and Riley appointed him director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. But he resigned to run for governor as a Republican this year because of a falling out with the governor, sources in Montgomery say today.

In a letter to the Legislature last week, Riley denied the charge in anticipation of the press conference, saying any suggestion that his efforts to prohibit electronic bingo could leave Indian casinos with a statewide monopoly on the machines is a “baldfaced lie.”

“When we have proven our determination to combat illegal gambling in our state, the federal government will have to address this issue at Indian casinos,” Riley wrote.

In reaction to the news today, Ron Sparks, the Fort Payne Democrat who is the only candidate in the governor’s race running on a pro-gambling platform, commended Johnson for revealing Bob Riley’s hypocrisy on gambling.

“Johnson’s admission that Riley took millions of dollars from Mississippi casinos to protect their market share, confirms testimony already on record from Senator John McCain’s Senate Committee,” the Sparks campaign said in a press release.

“It is time to stop playing politics with the casino issue,” Sparks said. “As governor, I will fight for statewide regulation, taxation of gaming for the benefit of schools and Medicaid, and the development of casinos to bring badly needed jobs to Alabama.”

The protection of the Mississippi casino market has cost Alabama hundreds of millions of dollars, he said. “Its time for that to end. As governor, I will stand up for the people of Alabama and not the casino owners in Mississippi.”

Native American (Choctaw) writer and filmmaker Natalie Noel of Mobile, Alabama, testified before a Congressional panel this week examining personal stories showing the tragedy of inaccessibility to health care in the corrupt, corporate, for-profit system in the U.S.

The breast cancer survivor lost her coverage following a year long battle for her life. My good friend Andrew Kreig published a story about the hearing today in the celebrity tabloid “Internet Newspaper,” The Huffington Post.

Hope for Health Option, Defeat Possible

Documentary filmmaker Robert Corsini flew in from Los Angeles to cover the hearing. He is expected to publish his own account in Truthout shortly. Corsini and Noel, his co-producer, are working on a documentary about post-Katrina recovery efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi.