If only Santos wanted a casino license

Daily Point

Checking references

Applicants for the three downstate casino licenses now up for grabs have a lot of work ahead.

The 70-page Request for Applications issued Tuesday provides an extensive road map outlining what the Gaming Facility Location Board is looking for, what is expected of applicants, and what information the board requires in order to make its decision.

The request unsurprisingly seeks details on what the applicant will build, from the gaming facility itself to hotels, entertainment venues, restaurants and other aspects of the proposals, along with site plans and data on how many jobs will be created and what kinds.

But among the many other items on an applicant’s to-do list: Provide material for the required “background investigation,” to be conducted by the New York State Police.

The lengthy background check is meant to allow the board, and the State Gaming Commission, to consider the “integrity, honor, good character and reputation of the Applicant” and the “financial stability, integrity and background of the Applicant,” among many other standards the Request for Applications outlines. To assess those qualifications, the application requires detailed information on the casino companies and operators applying for a license, along with personal history disclosure forms, to be filed by any individuals who are partners, directors and managers within the company or who hold a stake of 5% or more.

That disclosure form seeks information on everything from a person’s place of birth and previous addresses to education and employment to criminal history. It asks for marriage history and any directorships or nonprofit affiliations, along with extensive financial and property ownership information.

Then there’s one last request at the end of the questionnaire.

“Provide the names and other information requested of three (3) references over the age of 18 who have known you for at least one year and can attest to your good character and reputation,” the disclosure form asks, noting that family members cannot be included.

The extensive nature of the questionnaire is, in some ways, particular to the gaming world, given its troubled history and the need to make sure every participant is clean. And it’s no wonder that the state would want a thorough background check, when it’s seeking applicants who say they’re ready to make a $500 million minimum capital investment and pay an additional $500 million for a license fee.

But imagine, for a moment, if such a questionnaire was required of, say, state and federal political candidates.

Or, put another way: What would George Santos have said on his personal history disclosure form? And what would the State Police have found if a background check was required to win a very different kind of contest?

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Talking Point

Is there an auditor in the house?

How funds flowed into the campaign committees of CD3’s George Anthony Devolder Santos raises questions for officials to probe. By now, it’s widely known and recorded that Republican Santos loaned hundreds of thousands of dollars to his own campaign accounts two years after showing himself relatively broke on disclosure forms.

Now the filings prompt other questions of particular Long Island interest, such as where Santos stands, and has stood, with the leaders of his party.

The Nassau County Republican Committee has a federal account for such races as the one Santos won in the Nassau-Queens 3rd Congressional District. Its interactions with the besieged Republican, nominated twice under the direction of GOP chairman Joe Cairo, in whose county most of the district sits, are creating buzz among party insiders.

This federal account received $191,069 over the period Jan. 1, 2021, to Nov. 28, 2022, and a large chunk came from political committees associated with Santos, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

That sum included $47,966.10 from the Devolder Santos Nassau Victory Committee, $10,000 from the GADS PAC (name based on his initials), and $750 from Devolder-Santos for Congress, all in the month of September, a half-year after Santos was declared the Nassau GOP’s nominee for the seat.

Among the receipts reported by the Nassau committee was $10,000 from Andrew Intrater sent via the Devolder Santos Nassau Victory Committee. Intrater is a Santos supporter whom the Daily Beast called a “cash handler for one of Russia’s most notorious oligarchs.”

For the January-to-November period, the county GOP committee’s federal account reported $92,000 in operating expenditures — for lawn signs, digital billboards, and baseball caps.

There are also some transfers among the multiple Devolder committees.

When it comes to political parties, their nominees, and their donors, the plans behind the filings can get hard to trace. Only when a figure like Santos comes along do these disclosures cry out for further inspection. The question of the moment is how closely and how quickly investigators such as the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FEC will inspect the comings and goings of these particular dollars.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison and Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Pelosi's pumps

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Final Point

Big Dog pols

The newcomer Republican presented himself as a bold outsider ready to make his mark on a competitive congressional district, before questions about his biography exploded into public view.

We’re talking about former Kansas Rep. Steve Watkins, not CD3’s George Santos.

Watkins, a one-termer who took office in 2019, serves as something of a recent blueprint for Santos, given his Santos-like embellishment regarding accounts of a Mount Everest expedition, and an uninspiring Iditarod run. Watkins, too, misrepresented his work history, “inaccurately claiming that he started a Middle East business, expanding it from three to 470 people,” according to a 2018 AP story. And he and Santos shared something else: the campaign consulting services of Big Dog Strategies.

The company was built by Chris Grant, a former chief of staff for New York Rep. Chris Collins, who himself had ethical issues and was ultimately sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for insider trading. The company’s website suggests a readiness to fight, claiming “our firm provides national-level success and experience to any obstacle you will face on your path to victory.”

The site name-checks clients like the National Republican Congressional Committee and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd. It still lists work for Watkins, whose myriad challenges included charges concerning his registering to vote with a UPS storefront address. The Kansas freshman lost a primary in 2020 and is no longer in office.

The Big Dog site does not list Santos as a client, and the company did not respond to questions about Santos and Watkins.

The group’s Twitter account did congratulate the chameleonesque New Yorker just after Election Day, before Santos’ fuller story came out.

“Proud to be a part of his team,” said the Nov. 9 tweet.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano