Texas groups seek Ralph Reed casinos probe

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN, Texas -- Three Texas watchdog groups asked a county official Thursday to investigate former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, who was hired by lobbyist Jack Abramoff to run an anti-gambling campaign.

Texans for Public Justice, Common Cause of Texas and Public Citizen filed their complaint with Travis County Attorney David Escamilla.

They said Reed failed to register as a Texas lobbyist in 2001 and 2002, when he received an estimated $4.2 million from Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon to push for the closure of casinos operated by the Tigua tribe of El Paso and the Alabama Coushatta tribe near Livingston in East Texas.

A Reed spokeswoman said Thursday she had not yet seen the complaint.

Reed, now running for lieutenant governor in Georgia, has said that he knew Abramoff's firm was getting money from tribes but that he always assumed none of it was going to his consulting firm.

The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee has been investigating Abramoff and Scanlon, who collected more than $80 million between 2001 and 2004 from six Indian tribes with casinos. Reed discussed his efforts against the casinos in e-mails released by the committee.

Scanlon pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to bribe public officials. He was ordered to pay restitution totaling more than $19 million to Indian tribes that he admitted had been defrauded while he and Abramoff represented them.