Natalie Ghidotti of Ghidotti Communications in Little Rock has been in the news lately.
For one thing, she bought the old Kirkpatrick Creative building as her agency’s new home.
And more prominently, her work for Cherokee Nation Entertainment of Catoosa, Oklahoma, put her in the political spotlight. She’s often heard speaking against Arkansas Issue 2, a contested item on the Nov. 5 ballot. The initiative would repeal the casino license in Pope County and require countywide voter approval of any new casino license.
Cherokee Nation Entertainment secured the Pope County casino license this year and plans to build a $300 million casino, hotel and resort in Russellville. The tribe bought 325 acres for the project, Legends Resort & Casino, and projects a $5 billion economic impact over 10 years.
The 50,000-SF floor plan calls for 1,200 slot machines, 200 hotel rooms and a 15,000-SF multipurpose space.
The company has a nearly $39 million economic agreement with the county, County Judge Ben Cross told Arkansas Business. But Issue 2, if votes on it are counted, could wreck the project.
Ghidotti started doing PR work for CNE after it bought Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, Mississippi, for $450 million in cash. That deal closed in February 2023.
“Then they brought us on to help with some of their properties in Oklahoma,” Ghidotti said. “Then we got involved in the Pope County stuff, which has been going on for six years.”
That “stuff” has been the chaos surrounding awarding a gaming license for the state’s fourth casino, near Russellville. After years of wrangling and two Arkansas Supreme Court rulings that nullified previous licenses granted by the Arkansas Racing Commission, CNE is eager to build.
Supporters of Issue 2 say that even though Arkansans voted to approve a constitutional amendment to allow casinos in Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson and Pope counties, Pope County is having the gambling hall imposed on it. Pope County voters voted against the casino amendment, 60% to 40%, in the November 2018 election.
Ghidotti says public sentiment has shifted over the years, and noted that the county judge and a majority of the Pope County Quorum Court have endorsed CNE’s plans.
She also thinks the ballot issue is misleading, a belief that led her to sign on as vice chair of a ballot question committee fighting Issue 2, Investing in Arkansas.
Supporters say Issue 2 allows “local control” over gambling, but that doesn’t mean residents of Garland, Crittenden and Jefferson counties can vote to close the Oaklawn, Southland and Saracen casinos.
And voters in other counties cannot vote to approve local casinos. That would require another constitutional amendment ratified in another statewide referendum.
“The only thing that Issue 2 does is repeal Pope County from the places that can have a casino in Arkansas,” Ghidotti said. “And it voids the license that the Cherokee Nation holds right now.”
Ghidotti noted that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which has a casino in Pocola, Oklahoma, on the Fort Smith line, is financing the drive for Issue 2.
That’s true, according to campaign finance reports with the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Through June, the Choctaws had donated $5.3 million to Local Voters in Charge, the ballot issue committee supporting Issue 2.
“Only one person in Pope County has donated money to that group, $100,” Ghidotti said. “That doesn’t indicate local control.”
Ghidotti conceded Cherokee Nation Businesses has funded Investing in Arkansas. The tribe had contributed a cumulative $2.8 million to the ballot issue committee as of Aug. 27. She makes no bones about that, but Ghidotti says CNE has come to Arkansas to do business, play by the rules, build something and employ a lot of people.
“The Choctaw aim to amend Arkansas’ constitution for the sole purpose of protecting their casino in Oklahoma,” she said. “The ‘local control’ argument is a front for that.”
(Disclosure: Ghidotti is a former employee of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, the company that publishes this paper. Her account supervisor, Lance Turner, was the previous editor of Arkansas Business.)
Local Voters in Charge spokesman Hans Stiritz said that he and many other Pope County residents think that the final decision on casino development should rest with that county’s voters.
“When you cut to the chase, it’s really very simple,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s not the politicians, not the lobbyists; it needs to be the decision of local voters.”
Stiritz said he voted against the casino amendment, Amendment 100, in 2018, and feels that he and his neighbors are having gambling forced on them. “Pope County voted against Amendment 100 by the largest margin of any county vote against it. What Issue 2 is trying to address is what seems to be just common sense and justice.”
He noted that voters in the other three casino counties all approved Amendment 100.
In 2018, Crittenden County and Garland County already had gambling at Oaklawn’s thoroughbred track and Southland’s greyhound track. Amendment 100 was written to add Pope and Jefferson County as gambling sites, but why those two counties?
The amendment itself offers no explanation. “The best question as to why Pope County and Jefferson County are in there should be asked of the folks that bankrolled the drive to put Amendment 100 in the constitution,” Stiritz said.
Last week, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston urged the Supreme Court to block vote counting on Issue 2. He argued that signatures for the initiative should be disqualified because paid canvassers were not, in his view, properly certified.
Cherokee Nation Entertainment is expected to respond to filings in the case by Sept. 26, after this issue goes to press. “I believe there are still some more legal briefings to be filed, but essentially it’s in front of the Supreme Court and has been challenged on the ballot,” Stiritz said. “We’re just waiting for that outcome from the Supreme Court.”
And if the votes aren’t counted? “Obviously there’d be some disappointment there,” he said. “We’ve been working six years to get the voice of Pope County heard. No community, no county should be forced out of the casino discussion. This is a situation that needs to be rectified.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
