La Crosse Tribune: Tribe: Gambling foes guess too high on spending plans

Ho-Chunk Nation representatives laughed at the idea that they'll spend $250,000 to win a casino referendum in La Crosse County.

"It's highly inflated," tribal attorney William Boulware said Friday. "The budget we're operating now through November doesn't even come close to about $50,000. It's not even that much. A quarter of a million is a lot of money for anybody. ... That type of outlay is highly inflated for us."

Boulware and tribal legislator Wade Blackdeer appeared at the taping of WLSU-FM's "Newsmakers" program, which will be broadcast at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Boulware was responding to a question about comments made Thursday by Dr. Sig Gundersen Jr., treasurer of the anticasino group United for a Greater Coulee Region. Gundersen based his prediction of a $250,000 campaign on the $144,000 spent by the Lac du Flambeau in 1995.

"I just wanted them to face up to the fact that they'll spend more than we will," Gundersen said Friday after hearing Boulware's figure. Gundersen hopes to raise $25,000.

Boulware said the Ho-Chunk Nation's relatively low campaign budget does not reflect any lack of commitment to opening a casino in La Crosse County.

"We have a commitment to this community. We are part of this community. We predate the city of La Crosse, actually," he said.

Instead of doing an aggressive, advertising-driven campaign, Blackdeer said the Ho-Chunk Nation plans to "let the merits of who we are and what we do speak for itself."

Boulware said the nation doesn't want to give the impression it is trying to "buy the campaign."

"Ho-Chunk has taken pretty much a very exploratory position about the referendum issue and educating people in the La Crosse County area. We have pretty much invested minimal resources at this point, to date about $12,000 for marketing and advertising and campaign consulting work. We have not made any expenditures on radio and television," Boulware said.

"We are doing direct targeted campaigns. The idea is to get out the message as far as educational benefits to diffuse any misinformation or rumors relating to the universal . statements about casinos," Boulware continued. "Ho-Chunk is not Potawatami or Lac du Flambeau. It is not a commercial gaming venture like Las Vegas or Atlantic City."

The Ho-Chunk campaign includes attending public forums, such as the one being sponsored Monday night at the University of WisconsinLa Crosse by the La Crosse County Democratic Party.

Boulware will be among panelists at the forum, which will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Cartwright Center. Others include the Rev. Wesley White of St. Luke's United Methodist Church and Jeff Woodruff, president of the La Crosse County Tavern League.