If Casey Cagle has his way, the next year will be a long, multi-media seminar on the topic of gambling, and the way money flows through Washington like sewage never has in Atlanta.

Cagle is a Republican state senator from Gainesville who's running for lieutenant governor against Ralph Reed, the man who vaulted out of religious conservatism with a national GOP resume matched only by his Roledex.

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Reed is on a fund-raising track that could see him raise $1 million by mid-year — a big sum by the standards of the near-powerless office, which pays about $85,000 a year.

It's a pace Cagle can't match. But Thursday, in the first press release of a 15-month campaign, the businessman made clear that he aims to exact a tax on every dollar Reed raises.

"Although Ralph Reed wants the public to believe he has no ties to the gambling industry, his campaign continues to receive financial support from lobbyists representing everything from Indian casinos to horse racing tracks," Cagle's minions declared.

Count it as the first attack of the '06 campaign season. An unusual — but from Cagle's point of view, probably necessary — tactic for a candidate who has yet to establish his own statewide credentials.

The immediate object is an April 19 fund-raiser Reed has scheduled in Washington, hosted by many of his lobbyist friends. Many sit high in the GOP food chain. Five of them, over the last eight years or so, have received nearly $500,000 from gaming interests.

For Cagle, that means another chance to mention the Tigua Indian casino in El Paso, Texas. Reed's company, Century Strategies of Duluth, received $4 million to coordinate a campaign that helped close the gambling site. As it turns out, the money Reed was paid came from rival gambling interests that wanted to see a competitor shut down.

Reed says he didn't know the origin of the money — that he was duped by a good friend who now sits at the center of two congressional probe. Cagle intends to dish out a world of skepticism, but Reed won't be forced off the high-ground easily.

"Casey Cagle obviously has no positive agenda to move Georgia forward," said Reed spokeswoman Lisa Baron. She called on Cagle to recall Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment — the one that says Republicans shouldn't speak ill of one another.

Cagle has demanded that Reed forswear all money from gambling interests. Reed says he already has, but that the lobbyists at the April 19 party don't count. Gaming interests are only incidental to their huge client lists, his spokeswoman said.

Cagle's move is obviously a long-term game aimed at hard-core ground troops, the true believers. It can't make GOP elites comfortable. Look at three of the lobbyists named in his release:

• Susan Hirschmann, whose firm received $80,000 from the National Indian Gaming Association in 2004, is the former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay;

• Bill Paxon, who has represented the Seneca Nation of Indians, is a former congressman, former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and a key adviser to President Bush's 2000 campaign;

• Brian Lunde, whose firm received $225,000 from the Pueblo of Sandia in 1997 and 1998, ran the Democrats for Bush organization in 2004.

Baron, Reed's spokeswoman, said: "These are leaders who helped make our party the majority. Is Mr. Cagle saying we shouldn't accept anything from them?"