COLUMBUS — A California political consulting company, accused of oversights last year in Ohio that led to thousands of petition signatures being disqualified, has landed work here again, this time from supporters of a casino proposal.
Arno Political Consultants has been hired by the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee -- the group behind a plan to bring four full-service casinos to Ohio -- to collect signatures needed for the gambling proposal to qualify for the November ballot.
Arno, based in Carlsbad, Calif., was forced to throw out nearly 13,000 signatures while working for the payday lending industry to get a measure on last November's ballot because it failed to file a standard state document called a Form 15.
"Arno is one of the firms involved in gathering signatures, and it is my understanding that everything is going to be filed correctly," said Mary Anne Sharkey, a spokeswoman for the casino committee. "They have already filed the Form 15."
Backers of the ballot effort, who were unsuccessful in getting voters to overturn a new payday lending law, have since sued Arno in Franklin County, accusing the company of breach of contract and negligence. They are seeking to recoup the $438,000 the company was paid by the Reject HB 545 Committee. A trial is set for Nov. 9.
Sharkey said she was unaware of the legal action involving Arno.
Aside from that, Arno was blasted in a November 2007 report from the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which accused Arno of deceptive signature-gathering practices.
The Ohio casino plan is being backed by Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert and Penn National Gaming, a casino operating company based in Pennsylvania.
The plan would require a rewrite of Ohio's constitution to allow casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo, if approved by voters. But to get on the ballot, the casino committee first must collect 402,275 signatures of valid Ohio voters by the end of June.
In addition to Arno, the committee has hired Professional Petition Management, of Ohio, and several subcontractors to get the required number of signatures, Sharkey said.