Advocates spent more than $3.5 million last month campaigning for and against a proposed amendment for which votes will not be counted, according to campaign finance reports released this week.
The proposed amendment would have authorized three casinos in the state. But last week, the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected it in a 6-1 ruling. Justices said the ballot summary was insufficient because it failed to tell voters that federal law prohibits states from authorizing sports gambling.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 6. Groups supporting and opposing the proposed amendment were already ramping up their spending at that time, campaign finance reports show.
"I think anytime that you're undertaking a statewide campaign, you have to do the things necessary to communicate your message," said Robert Coon, a spokesman for the Arkansas Wins in 2016 and the Arkansas Winning Initiative committees backing the amendment.
On Tuesday, the backers of the casino amendment asked the Supreme Court to take another look at the case, arguing the court had misapplied the federal ban.
Todd Wooten, an attorney for Arkansas Wins 2016 and Arkansas Winning Initiative, said in his request that the law only applied to legislative attempts to legalize sports betting. Because the amendment gives the General Assembly the option to legalize several types of casino gambling -- including sports betting -- the potential for conflicting laws is not significant enough to strike the amendment, he said.
The federal law does not restrict gambling on animal racing or the sport of jai alai.
"The amendment's language clearly conflicts with federal law that prohibits sports gambling in Arkansas," Justice Karen Baker wrote in the court's Thursday opinion, referring to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.
Coon said advocates couldn't wait until after the Supreme Court's decision to start spending money on advertisements. He noted that the ballot title had been approved by the state attorney general and the required number of signatures had been certified by the secretary of state's office.
"Those are really the main two criteria that you're looking at going into a campaign like this," Coon said.
Not all ballot-issue committees had ramped up spending by September.
Last week, the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a proposed amendment that would have mandated that the Legislature set a cap for "non-economic damages" of at least $250,000 in medical lawsuits. Justices ruled the term "non-economic damages" -- often described as monetary relief for pain and suffering -- was not properly defined for voters in the ballot summary.
Advocates for and against that proposed amendment collectively spent $33,908 in September. Most of the money was spent on legal fees.
"We had our own campaign timeline and we were adhering to that separate and apart from any court filings," said Jordan Johnson, a spokesman for the Committee to Protect AR Families. "We were on track in terms of the timing of the campaign and we were well ahead of our goals in this effort." The committee was against the proposed amendment.
Chase Dugger, a spokesman for Health Care Access for Arkansans, did not return a request for comment. That committee supported the proposed amendment.
Also last week, the court approved one ballot measure -- the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment.
David Couch, a Little Rock attorney backing the amendment, said backers had been holding off on advertising until the court made its decision.
"Let the campaign start," he said after the ruling. "We've been quiet, waiting on the Supreme Court's decision. You don't want to spend a lot of money and be taken off the ballot."
The pro-casino committees -- Arkansas Wins in 2016 and the Arkansas Winning Initiative -- spent $3,990,886, including $2,428,890 in September.
Cherokee Nation Businesses of Oklahoma contributed $6 million to the effort -- including $4.6 million in September, according to the latest campaign-finance report.
The committees had $2,182,114 in the bank at the end of September, but Coon said he did not know what the balance is currently. Any leftovers would be returned to contributors, he said.
"It's certainly disappointing that the Supreme Court would rule the way they did," Coon said.
The Committee to Protect Arkansas' Values/Stop Casinos Now had filed the ballot summary lawsuit against the proposed amendment, in addition to a separate challenge on the signatures' validity.
Spokesman Joel Coon did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The committee spent $1,130,242 in total -- including $1,096,932 in September -- campaigning against the proposed casino amendment. It had $406,062 in the bank at the end of the month.
Oaklawn Racing and Gaming, and Delaware North, which owns Southland Park Gaming and Racing, collectively gave the group $1,469,554 -- including $1,360,054 in September.
The Committee to Protect Arkansas' Values/Stop Casinos Now spent about $875,000 on television advertising in September. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Winning Initiative spent more than $1 million on television and radio advertising, according to their campaign-finance reports.
Information for this article was contributed by John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 10/19/2016