Is a full page ad in last and this week’s issue of the High Desert Advocate an indication that that Peppermill support of Johnny Gorum and Emily Carter cool or at least luke warm?
The ad titled ‘Setting the Record Straight’ attacks three rumors allegedly circulating in the community the the local casino giant was behind the forced relocation of the local strip club Southern Xposure, was formally opposing the Long Canyon Gold Mine and did not monetarily support the community.
The ad, click link Wendover_Peppermill_Sraight_10.25×19.5, then goes on to list the millions of dollars the casino corporation has spent in in Wendover over the last 25 years on various projects.
More important than what the ad says is what it doesn’t say. The names of Johnny Gorum running for reelection to the city council and Emily Carter running for mayor are conspicuous by their absence. Both Carter and Gorum work for the Peppermill Corporation.
In contrast two years ago the Peppermill’s presence in the election was limited to only cash donations to the three “Peppermill” candidates: Carter, Roy Briggs and Allen Rowley. All three bought series of half page ads and all three placed their ad orders within two days of each other.
“We thought after Saul Andrade placed his order the rest would follow,” said Advocate Publisher Howard Copelan. “When they didn’t we resigned ourselves to living without them. The the corporation called and placed this order. We were expecting something for Emily and Johnny instead we got this big but very low key ad that makes no mention of the election.”
“This is pure speculation but with Andrade making an ad buy like a Peppermill candidate of 2010 coupled with the company’s buy this year,” Copelan added. “We wonder if the Peppermill would be very broken up if Gorum lost his seat on the council and Carter lost the election for Mayor.”
Even before the election season kicked of there were signs that the corporation was none too pleased with a couple of votes the veto proof majority of the city council lead by Carter made.
In late spring the council was all but ready to vote into law a new ordinance requiring bartenders, cocktail waitresses and any other server of alcohol to have a police back ground check before they were allowed to work.
The ordinance first reading was passed over the opposition of Mayor Donnie Anderson and his lone ally on the council Izzy Gutierrez. After the ordinance was published officials of the Peppermill realized the new law would cost the corporation in the tens of thousands of dollars a year in fees.
By the time the ordinance came up for its second and final reading the three Peppermill councilmen Carter, Gorum and Briggs reversed themselves and voted against the ordinance.
“I don’t think they passed the first reading intending to harm the casinos,” Anderson said at the time. “I think they just didn’t think. No matter why they came very close to costing their own company a lot of money and I don’t think the Peppermill was very happy about that.”
As the biggest property tax in the city as well as being West Wendover largest employer, the corporation may also not be entirely pleased with the city’s debt burden or the fact that new businesses have been reluctant to open their doors over the past ten years. because of regulations championed by Carter and Gorum.
“The Peppermill controls the city council and there is something to be said for political power,” Copelan added. “But they must get tired about be constantly hit up from the city for this or for that, and the corporation might also like to see some expansion of the tax base so the burden is shared. Face it with the amount of debt the city has acquired in the last five years property taxes will not be going down unless there is substantial new growth.”
Gorum and Carter also seemed not to have availed themselves of the corporation’s ad design department. Compared with what was run two years ago and with Andrade’s ad this year their run of press ads are amateurish.
The fact that the corp-oration ad is in the High Desert Advocate also raised more than a few eyebrows including those of the publisher.
“The Peppermill has been boycotting us for something like 25 years,” Copelan added. “I think it started when a casino manager tried to tell my father what to print and my father told him to shove it. Anyway its into the second generation now but what kind of newspaper would be be if we let advertisers dictate what we printed or didn’t print. Yeah we lost a lot of advertising dollars but we have done well enough to provide for our family, raise four fine children and have a newspaper we are proud of.”
emily carter has to stop eating so much bacon, she’s starting to look like a bulldog. RARRRFFFFF!