Q. What is Dr. Dobson's connection to Jack Abramoff?
A. There is no connection. Dr. Dobson has never met Mr. Abramoff and, in fact, has never even spoken to him.
Q. But there are print and TV ads alleging Dr. Dobson "got casino cash" in exchange for opposing gambling expansion in Alabama and Louisiana.
A. Those are lies from liberal special interests that are trying to use the misdeeds of Mr. Abramoff to smear social conservatives. Focus on the Family has opposed gambling expansion nationwide for nearly 30 years because of the devastation it causes families; our campaigns against such expansion are motivated by allies in states like Alabama and Louisiana who share our view of gambling's destructive power. Moreover, all of our anti-gambling efforts are paid for with our own money.
Q. What about reports by some in the media that Dr. Dobson and Focus on the Family opposed the Alabama lottery in 1999 and an Indian casino in Louisiana in 2002 at Abramoff's behest?
A. Those reports are untrue. Focus on the Family did oppose gambling expansion in Alabama and Louisiana in the years indicated, but our involvement came in response to requests from our trusted allies -- in Louisiana, then state legislator Tony Perkins (now president of the Family Research Council) and Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum; and, in Alabama, Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute. It is important to note, again, that we funded these efforts ourselves; we received no money from Mr. Abramoff or any other lobbying interest.
Dr. Dobson has long been personally opposed to gambling. After serving on the National Gambling Impact Study Commission from 1997 to 1999 -- and seeing firsthand the way gambling rips apart American families -- he led the way for Focus on the Family to fight gambling-expansion measures in more than 40 states. In fact, the same year we opposed the Louisiana casino, we also opposed gambling expansion in Arizona, Idaho, Tennessee, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Iowa.
Q. What about those e-mails from Abramoff that have been published, indicating he was influencing Dr. Dobson's involvement in these circumstances?
A. Those e-mails are examples of Mr. Abramoff bragging about events that did not happen. Among his claims were:
- Dr. Dobson would record and air radio commercial advertisements against the Jena Choctaw casino opposed by one of Abramoff's Louisiana clients. Dr. Dobson recorded no ads. Others at Focus, Vice President of Public Policy Tom Minnery and Family News in Focus host Bob Ditmer, did discuss Focus on the Family's opposition to gambling expansion in Louisiana on a special edition of the daily radio broadcast airing only in Louisiana -- but that is hardly an uncommon practice, and these discussions were not radio commercials. Focus on the Family frequently airs "state-only" radio content geared to important issues in individual states, and the destructive nature of gambling to families has been discussed more than 200 times in the history of Dr. Dobson's daily broadcast.
- Dr. Dobson would go on the air to “hit Haley” Barbour, who at the time was a D.C. lobbyist who’d been hired by the Jena Choctaws, the Indian tribe whose casino project was opposed by Abramoff's clients. No one from Focus mentioned Barbour on the air, let alone urged listeners to "hit" him with phone calls or e-mails. Many years before, Dr. Dobson opposed Barbour’s role in allowing the Republican Party to take gambling money, during Barbour’s term as Republican National Committee Chair from 1993 to 1997.
- Dr. Dobson would privately urge Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to oppose the Jena Choctaw casino. Dr. Dobson and Tom Minnery (Focus on the Family’s senior vice president of government and public policy) wrote letters to Secretary Norton in February 2002 asking her to protect families by blocking the expansion of gambling in Louisiana; again, it is not an uncommon practice for Dr. Dobson and Focus senior management to write to federal officials urging them to take pro-family stances on important social issues.
Further evidence that Mr. Abramoff had no influence on Focus on the Family's activities comes from another of his e-mails, in which he writes that religious leaders "are not publicly bashing Norton at this point because Ralph (Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, working at the time as a lobbyist) has been keeping a lid on them." In fact, Focus on the Family did publicly urge listeners, in special broadcasts aired only in Louisiana, to contact Norton and ask her to reject gambling expansion in Louisiana.
Q. What is Ralph Reed's role in all this? Some of his e-mails to and from Abramoff have been published, suggesting his involvement in the scandal.
A. It appears Mr. Abramoff attempted to use Mr. Reed's respect among social conservatives to further the goals of his casino clients. Neither Dr. Dobson nor Focus on the Family were aware, however, of Reed’s association with Abramoff, or of his ties to other tribes seeking to build casinos.
We have only one record of a call from Mr. Reed during this time, but it was made after we had already received multiple requests to write letters to Gale Norton from our longtime Louisiana allies. It is not clear whether Reed was calling Dr. Dobson to thank him for writing to Norton, or to ask him to do so. Regardless, Reed’s call was only one of many requests coming in to our offices regarding this issue.
Q. Some reporters have insinuated that Dr. Dobson had contact with Abramoff through another organization called the American Alliance of Jews and Christians, founded by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the conservative leader of Toward Tradition. Is this true?
A. No. Though Dr. Dobson accepted an invitation to serve on an advisory board for AAJC (along with other leaders including Charles Colson and radio talk-show host Michael Medved), Dr. Dobson never even attended an AAJC meeting or hosted any of its events.
What's more, Jack Abramoff did not even serve on the same advisory board. He actually served on a different board for Toward Tradition in the mid-1990s until his resignation in 2004.
Q. Has Focus on the Family ever taken money from gambling interests?
A. No. Focus does not accept gambling money. It’s also worth noting that Dr. Dobson has criticized both Republicans and Democrats for not doing enough to oppose gambling and for accepting gambling money themselves. On a broadcast in September 2000, Dobson mentioned thatthen-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican, had in the past been “somewhat sympathetic to the gambling interests in the state of Mississippi .” Dr. Dobson also has written a newspaper editorial criticizing Republicans for succumbing to gambling interests.
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