Just like the Huffington Post underlined Rick Perry’s “big loss” on a Tesla plant, Saturday’s Washington Post highlighted “Christie loses Atlantic City bet” on an Atlantic City casino. The subheadline was "The casino hailed as a 'game-changer' by New Jersey's governor two years ago is shuttered, creating more problems for his possible 2016 presidential run."
But the front page of last Thursday’s Metro section carried this headline about potential Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley in Maryland: “The glitter-is-gold side of O’Malley’s legacy.” That came under a color photo of O’Malley taking a selfie at a casino opening in Baltimore.
Reporter Paul Kane listed the myriad of problems for Christie:
ATLANTIC CITY - Underneath the gleaming new tower on the north end of the boardwalk, Gov. Chris Christie (R) placed a bet that this down-on-its-luck city was about to turn around. Revel, a massive $2.4 billion casino willed to completion by Christie, was supposed to provide 5,000 "permanent" jobs and fuel a revitalization of the entire city.
"The completion of Revel and its opening is a turning point for Atlantic City and a clear sign that people once again have faith in the city's ability to come back," Christie said before the 2012 grand opening, which featured a performance by megastar Beyoncé.
Two years later, the Revel is shuttered - wiping out thousands of jobs amid an economic implosion of the gambling industry here. Rather than serve as a shining example of Christie's economic stewardship, Revel now stands as a 57-story example of failure in a city that has bedeviled New Jersey governors for decades.
This particular governor, however, is on the brink of deciding whether to run for president and is already struggling with a political scandal over the closure of the George Washington Bridge. His handling of the Revel case creates more problems for his preferred image as a can-do executive who gets results, even if it means working with Democrats.
The casino's collapse also leaves the tough-talking governor open to criticism from social conservatives in early primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina, who oppose gambling as a vice and who already distrusted Christie's centrist leanings. Libertarians, meanwhile, question the role of a state government in attempting to prop up such a risky private endeavor.
Kane later noted that this failed casino was already half-constructed when he came into office, and none of the promised state tax incentives ever kicked in, since there were no profits. But the overall effect on readers: more gloom for Christie.
The O’Malley story by Annapolis political reporter John Wagner focused on how ambivalent O’Malley was on casino gambling, but it’s quite a contrast to the Christie piece, underlining how O’Malley is a can-do governor, willing to compromise, but building a progressive agenda:
The governor, who is traveling to Democratic functions across the country as he weighs a possible White House bid, once called slot machines "a pretty morally bankrupt way" to fund education. Research shows that gambling disproportionately preys on the poor, and the casino boom fits uncomfortably into O'Malley's otherwise progressive legacy: a minimum-wage increase, repeal of the death penalty, expansion of immigrant rights and legalization of same-sex marriage.
Yet Maryland's soon-to-be $1 billion-a-year casino industry would not have gotten off the ground without O'Malley's active involvement, after years of bitter stalemate at the State House in Annapolis.
"It may not be something he wants to tout, but it's absolutely part of his résumé," said Thomas F. Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. "Maryland held out for a long time, and it's now become a real player in the casino industry."
Nearly $800 million in gambling proceeds has flowed into state coffers to help fund education, and the industry's contribution is projected to grow much larger by the time the state's sixth - and final - casino opens at National Harbor in 2016. The industry employs about 5,500 people, including those working at the Horseshoe, which is located along one of the main gateways into the city where O'Malley spent seven years as mayor.
Several current and former aides say O'Malley's primary objection to state-sponsored gambling was the time the bitter legislative battle sapped from other priorities.
The governor said he regrets "the amount of energy it took to put this behind us" but believes that he and state lawmakers struck "a reasonable compromise on a really divisive issue."
