Is it possible that MGM Mirage dumped MotorCity Casino on Marian Ilitch in April 2005 for $525 million (a year later MotorCity's credit ratings were downgraded and then given a negative outlook by Standard & Poor's and Moody's); then the Las Vegas powerhouse turned around and sunk $765 million into a rennovation and expansion of MGM Grand Detroit (three times what Marian had to spend renovating MotorCity Casino); and on top of it MGM Mirage turned around this year and spent another $160,000 lobbying, possibly AGAINST a Bay Mills casino in Port Huron (a venture Ilitch 's partner Michael Malik has reportedly convinced her to dump $10 million into the last decade)?
Earlier reports by Associated Press seemed to imply that the MGM Mirage lobbying expense may have been in support of a Bay Mills Casino in Port Huron, 350 miles from its reservation; but subsequent off-line reports are that MGM Mirage was lobbying AGAINST the off-reservation casino and using Kai Anderson, a former deputy chief of staff for Nevada Senator Harry Reid (now Senate Majority Leader) to do the lobbying. Anderson was an aide to Reid when the Nevada Senator reportedly blocked similar measures to win congressional approval of the Port Huron casino scheme.
In January, Ilitch/Malik spokesman Tom Shields said it was his understanding that Senator Harry Reid no longer opposed the Malik/Bay Mills casino scheme. If MGM Mirage is against the Bay Mills scheme and has hired one of Reid's former top aides to lobby on MGM's behalf; how likely is it that Nevada's Senator Reid (Senate Majority Leader) has switched his position and now supports the Malik/Bay Mills scheme?
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