Atlantic City: Casino Employees Gain Political Rights

Casino people and others have been pushing this for a long, long time: the state legislature has approved a bill allowing them to run for City Council.  I expect Governor Corzine to approve it, thus gaining these employees rights they have been long denied.

Conceived in the 1980s in the wake of the ABSCAM scandal, the ban took a toll and was held up often as part of the city's political dysfunction.  Would a casino employee or two on council in the 1980s or 1990s have made the relationship between that body and the casino industry easier?  Perhaps-- though I think its hard to argue that the industry hasn't had much influence when promoting a big or small ideas such as the Brigantine Tunnel-Connector, Boardwalk clean-up efforts or public safety improvements.  And that influence took place without casino employees being able to sit on the council. 

Still, the bill should clear up an unseemly bit of political exclusion that was never founded on much reality.   The original notion was based on the old perception connecting casinos to organized crime and (by association) a likelihood of political corruption.  Of course, AC politics have been consistently corrupt regardless...

Some people still make this connection -- today's CGW piece on the bill takes  a contrary perspective, arguing that the AC gaming industry has had too much power over local government and that this bill will just make that problem worse.  I disagree and am glad that AC casino workers-- who make up approximately 21% of the city's population  -- should soon have the political rights of their neighbors.