Casino fight smashes spending record

The fight over a proposed Indian casino in southern Maine has shattered campaign spending records, according to reports filed Wednesday with state election officials.

As of Oct. 23, the major political action committees on each side of the issue had combined to raise and spend $9.5 million, making the television-driven referendum campaign far and away the most expensive in the state’s history.

The total even bested that of the state’s most expensive U.S. Senate race, last year’s $8 million contest between U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and former state Sen. Chellie Pingree.

“It seems like a new era in Maine politics,” said University of Maine political analyst Amy Fried. “You don’t spend that kind of money giving talks in church basements and Lion’s Clubs.”

Actually, both sides have spent their fair share of time in such traditional forums – the “lions, tigers and bears circuit,” as it is affectionately called by pro-casino Think About It spokeswoman Erin Lehane, referring to the host of fraternal organizations she has visited in the past year.

But, as Fried points out, the war over the proposed $650 million casino largely has been waged on television, with each side spending the vast majority of their money on airtime.

The new totals come less than a week before voters decide whether to allow the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe to operate a casino resort, the most likely destination being the once-bustling mill town of Sanford.

For comparison, the next-costliest referendum campaign appeared to be a $5.5 million effort to keep Maine Yankee open in 1987, according to Bangor Daily News records. In 1997, a clear-cutting referendum cost $5 million, followed three years later by a $4.7 million campaign to legalize doctor-assisted suicide.

This year, between Oct. 1 to Oct. 23, Think About It – funded almost exclusively by Las Vegas developer Marnell Corrao – spent $2.1 million, bringing its total to $6.8 million, according to reports filed late Wednesday afternoon with the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.

“Well I suppose that’s a down payment on a 20-year right to fleece Maine people,” said Casinos No! spokesman Dennis Bailey when hearing the Think About It totals. “That in itself is worth a lot of money.”

During the same period, the anti-casino PAC CasinosNo! – funded in large part by credit-card giant MBNA and executives from L.L. Bean – spent about $1.4 million, bringing its total to $2.7 million.

Lehane, minutes after finishing what will be the final televised debate before Election Day, said much of her group’s money has been used to combat misleading ads from casino opponents. The latest such “shameful” ad, she said, depicting wild-eyed, yelling children pulling slot machine handles in a “kiddie casino” crossed the line.

Lehane’s dismay followed a Portland news conference Wednesday in which Penobscot Nation Chief Barry Dana and former Maine Gov. Ken Curtis joined a handful of mothers to denounce the ad.

“This issue goes beyond the law. I am a parent,” Dana said in a statement, in which he contended the statute only allowed minors to participate in “bazaar” games such as those found at county fairs.

“Protecting and caring for children is a deeply held value for me and for our entire community,” he continued. “For CasinosNo! to suggest that in this project we would seek to corrupt Maine children is outrageous.”

Supporters contend the casino would bring thousands of jobs and $100 million in gaming tax revenue to the state, which leads the nation in underemployment, meaning people are earning less than a livable wage, and the loss of manufacturing jobs.

Opponents say the casino would bring increased crime and traffic to the area as well as social ills including bankruptcies and suicides.

Polls suggest the race is close, with opponents to the casino appearing to surge ahead in the past two weeks.