CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Brown Accuses Wilson of Mismanaging Lottery

Using an elementary school as her backdrop, gubernatorial challenger Kathleen Brown accused the Wilson Administration on Wednesday of mismanaging the California Lottery and cheating the state’s education system out of millions of dollars in revenue.

Brown, citing recent criticism by the state auditor of the lottery’s handling of a $600-million computer contract, accused the agency of blatantly favoring one company--GTECH of Rhode Island--in what she said amounted to “apparent bid rigging” that cost the state about $62 million.

Even more suspicious, she said, was that the lottery’s actions on the contract came after the company had employed some of Gov. Pete Wilson’s “closest cronies” as consultants or lobbyists.

“Our California Lottery should not be some political roulette wheel where Wilson’s powerful friends are the winners and our kids are the losers,” she said.

Wilson’s campaign spokesman, Dan Schnur, showed up before the news conference and distributed a news release that showed that lottery sales this fiscal year have increased $600 million over last year.

He said Brown had deliberately overlooked the sales record and distorted the audit findings. “Not only are Kathleen Brown’s charges absolutely ludicrous, but the findings she attributes to the (auditor) don’t even exist,” he said.

The attack from Brown, staged with schoolchildren playing in the background, is part of a continuing campaign strategy to paint Wilson as an inept administrator whose mismanagement of the bureaucracy has led to waste and a reduction of government services. At the same time, Brown tried to portray herself as an efficient manager who would force the bureaucracy to perform more efficiently.

The Wilson campaign tried to use Brown’s news event to play out its own strategy, which is to make the state treasurer appear as a neophyte who doesn’t understand government. “Once again, Kathleen Brown has shown the people of California how little she understands about how state government works,” Schnur said.

As it turned out, both sides were able to score against each other.

The state auditor has criticized the lottery for its handling of the computer contract, one of the largest in state history.

In a report released last month, the auditor found that the agency’s bid specifications had so favored GTECH that no other company was willing to compete for the contract. As a result, the auditor found that GTECH won the contract without competitive bidding.

Brown, however, made a mistake in saying that the auditor had suggested that former Wilson Administration officials, later employed by GTECH, may have violated conflict-of-interest laws. The audit made no mention of conflict-of-interest laws or any roles played by officials from Wilson’s office.

But three former officials in the Administration have had connections with GTECH. After working in Wilson’s first gubernatorial campaign, Joe Rodota and Marty Wilson became consultants and each separately worked on a contract for GTECH.

Rodota, after severing his ties with the Rhode Island company, accepted a job in the Wilson Administration. He has since left to work on the governor’s reelection campaign.

A third official--Terrance Flanigan--quit the Wilson Administration to become a lobbyist and accepted GTECH as a main client.