There are lots of savvy observers of D.C. politics. There’s Jonetta Rose Barras, who brings moral outrage to procurement issues like few others. Then there’s longtime radio voice Mark Plotkin, who can go as deep and wide on the District as anyone. And, of course, LL is no slouch himself.

Yet a nod must go in the direction of GTECH. G-who, you say?

GTECH is a Rhode Island-based firm that bills itself as “architects of gaming.” True to its corporate identity, GTECH has for decades provided the technology behind the District’s lottery. A gig that runs for 10 years, the contract has been known to yield upward of $13 million per year in profits—profits that GTECH has long split with local partner Leonard Manning and his Lottery Technology Enterprises.

But when Manning became a political liability, GTECH’s expertise on D.C. affairs shone through on the team that it put together to replace him. From the mayoral camp, it recruited Darryl Wiggins, owner of an office-technology business and a longtime political confidant of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. From the council camp it snagged Lorraine Green, a close friend and ally of Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who also happened to have run the city lottery for years. Lending an air of disinterested respectability to the whole enterprise is Rod Woodson, the Holland & Knight partner. And advising the bunch is Tom Lindenfeld, the political hand who has done work most famously for Fenty—but also for Kwame Brown and other key councilmembers.... Continued