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Jill Stein is the alternative to the alternative.
If you don't like either of the major party candidates for President--Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump--you may be considering an alternative: third-party candidate Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party.
But if you don't like Johnson either, there's also a fourth-party candidate: Jill Stein of the Green Party.
Stein, 66, is a retired doctor-turned-political activist from Chicago who settled in the Boston area after graduating from Harvard Medical School.
She was twice elected to local political office in the Boston suburb of Lexington, but attempts at higher political office have all been failures.
She unsuccessfully ran for state representative once, commonwealth secretary once and governor of Massachusetts twice.
She was also the Green Party candidate for President in 2012, drawing almost a half-million votes out of approximately 100 million cast, a percentage of almost one half of 1% of all votes cast.
But this year, perhaps due to the electorate's disgruntlement with the major party candidates, Stein is doing much better--at least according to polls.
She recently has polled as high as 7% in some Presidential preference polls.
If she can get to 15% in the polls, she will be allowed to participate in the Presidential debates, which begin next month.
And if she does get in to the debates, and appears onstage as a credible and viable alternative to Clinton and Trump, anything could happen in the current atmosphere of voter revolt.
So would a President Jill Stein be a friend or foe of the gambling industry?
As part of a continuing series on the 2016 Presidential candidates, Gambling 911 examined Stein's public record on gambling issues.
Since she hasn't held any political office beyond the local level, she has never been involved in actually legislating gambling.
But as a political activist and sometimes-political candidate, she has publicly spoken on the issue.
Or more accurately, she has publicly spoken out against the issue.
Specifically, she has blasted casinos and the casino industry in general, taking shots not only at Massachusetts for considering expanding gambling but at Nevada and Atlantic City for having it.
According to VoteSmart.org, a politically neutral website that tracks political candidates and their views on various issues (See Here), Stein a few years ago publicly attacked then-Governor Patrick Deval for considering expanding gambling in Massachusetts.
VoteSmart.org originally obtained Stein's anti-gambling screed directly from a page on Stein's own website.
The page is no longer available on the Stein website, but the quotes can still be read at the VoteSmart.org website.
Here's what Stein had to say about gambling: "Casinos are job-killers because they pull money out of the productive economy. Each slot machine pulls enough money out of our economy to kill one job. The job claims for Governor Patrick's casino scheme are fundamentally misleading because they are not taking job losses into account.
"Casinos mostly concentrate jobs in the three casino host communities. This will result in pink slips being handed out elsewhere. And taxpayers will be stuck with paying for a host of social problems caused by gambling addiction, as well as the huge government bureaucracy required to oversee gambling operations.
"Nevada--which is loaded with casinos--currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. They are suffering a jobless rate of 14% while Massachusetts is around 9%. Nevada also leads the nation in foreclosures and bankruptcies. And Atlantic City, with 11 casinos concentrated within the city, has a jobless rate higher than Boston. Do we really want to emulate these economies? Let's think twice before going down that road.
"Casino gambling may be attractive to Beacon Hill politicians who will enjoy campaign donations from casino lobbyists, patronage jobs in the gaming bureaucracy and control over a cash-rich business. But casinos will just make life harder for the people of the commonwealth.
"What's the alternative? Rather than 12,000 low-wage, dead-end casino jobs, we could be creating 50,000 secure green jobs--jobs that we can create in every community in Massachusetts, not just in three casino communities. We can have jobs that make our environment cleaner and make our people healthier, jobs which won't disappear if oil prices spike. We call that the secure green future, and we need to start generating those jobs now."
Obviously, with such an anti-casino stance, Stein would be a great foe to the gambling industry should she become President.
Fortunately for those in the industry, though, she's a longshot--and likely will remain that way.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
