Casino campaigns break records

AUGUSTA – It’s official: According to reports filed Tuesday with the state, forces both for and against a proposed tribal casino shattered all existing Maine campaign fund-raising records. Groups spent more than $10 million to try to influence voters.

It’s unlikely Mainers will ever see that amount of money spent on another referendum question anytime soon.

“If Vegas ever wants to come back and do this sort of thing again, they’re going to think twice,” said Dennis Bailey, who headed the CasinosNo! group that helped to defeat the question. “They had the all the money they needed and the best people they could find. If you can’t put a successful campaign together with what they had, then you’ve got to be riding the wrong horse.”

Tuesday signaled the deadline for submitting 42-day post-election campaign finance reports required of all the political action committees involved in the Nov. 4 election. The filings marked the closing chapter for not only the casino initiative but also the state’s racino proposal and two bond initiatives.

Reports also were filed with the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices on the first phase of balloting on property-tax relief. Question 1A, advanced by Citizens to Reduce Property Taxes Statewide, will be back before voters in June after winning the largest number of votes Nov. 4.

The filing period covered in the reports spanned Oct. 24 through Dec. 9 and seemed to indicate that Think About It – the group promoting the $650 million casino venture – had scaled back its fund-raising activities the week before the vote. The proponents collected only $128,079 in in-kind contributions and expenditures that rounded out its year-to-date contribution total of $6.97 million.

The casino issue was defeated be a 2-1 ratio, an outcome that Bailey began to anticipate as contributions to his anti-casino PAC surged during the same reporting period. More than 300 individuals and corporations at that time contributed $423,357, bringing the CasinosNo! campaign total to $3.13 million. There were dozens of individual $50 contributions and one whopping $100,000 donation from the Burt’s Bees company.

“It never let up, and the Web generated a lot of small donors,” Bailey said. “But I’m not surprised because I never felt there was any great public demand for a casino.”

Before the casino question this year, 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.

Other casino PACs reporting Tuesday included One Maine, No Casinos, which raised and spent a little more than $13,000 on the campaign. The Maine AFL-CIO COPE PAC raised about $15,000 for casino proponents and spent a little more than $3,000. Another pro-casino PAC, the Ironworkers IU 496, raised $19,000 and spent about $9,000.

Another gambling proposal was supported by the voters to allow slot machines at harness racing tracks in Bangor and Scarborough. Proponents contributed about $1.8 million to promote the plan. The Coalition for Maine Harness Racing and Agriculture raised $993,521 and closed the books with a positive balance of $471,972. The Maine Coalition for Racing and Slots, a second pro-racino PAC, reported that only $45,590 remained of the $850,000 contributed by Las Vegas gambling interests.

Question 1, which offered voters three choices on property tax relief, also generated heavy spending, with a combined total exceeding $2.2 million. Question 1A, supported by the Maine Municipal Association and the Maine Education Association through its Citizens To Reduce Property Taxes Statewide PAC, raised a total of $1.58 million and reported a positive balance of $8,673. Question 1B, the choice of the Legislature and the governor, raised $642,938 through its Mainers for Real and Responsible Property Tax Relief PAC. The group reported a balance of $6,134. Question 1C, backed by Common Sense for Maine Taxpayers opposing both 1A and 1B, raised $780 and spent $657.

More than $68,000 was raised by Citizens for Higher Education and Public Libraries to promote a $19 million education bond that was approved by voters. The Keep Maine Moving Coalition raised about $160,000 and spent about $147,000 on a $63 million transportation bond that also was approved by the voters.