Down East racino petitions at full throttle

Backers of a tribal racetrack casino in Washington County are making a heavy push for a statewide vote on the issue, collecting more than 20,000 signatures last week, organizers say, toward securing a spot on the 2006 ballot.

“We are committed, and we will deliver,” Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Fred Moore said of his tribe’s effort to place the slots initiative before voters next November. “We have found tremendous support for this project.”

That effort intensified on Election Day, with paid petitioners fanning out across polling places – mainly in population-rich southern Maine – in search of support from voters.

To make the November ballot, the plan’s supporters must submit 50,519 signatures to state elections officials by Jan. 30, 2006.

To expedite that process, the group has hired National Voter Outreach, a Carson City, Nev., firm that specializes in voter initiatives and referendums.

Moore said Thursday that with the firm’s assistance on the projected $200,000 signature drive, he expected to have the completed petitions in hand within six weeks.

The ramped-up effort – the early success of which already has prompted concern among gambling opponents – marks the latest development in the tribe’s plan to bring slot machines to Washington County.

Last legislative session, lawmakers approved sending the matter to voters, but Gov. John Baldacci quickly announced his intention to veto the bill.

During the State House debate, Baldacci took the unusual step of requiring that the Washington County bill win two-thirds support in each house before he would sign it.

The bill fell one vote short of that mark in the Senate, prompting the governor’s veto pledge.

Baldacci’s seemingly heavy hand in the bill’s defeat rankled its supporters and played a large part in the decision to rush the measure to the November 2006 ballot, on which the governor will be seeking re-election.

“[Baldacci] can’t continue to hide from it,” said Moore, whose tribe already has contributed $25,000 toward the signature-gathering effort, according to the latest round of campaign finance reports. “He’ll have to address it sooner or later.”

Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey said this week that the governor would not actively campaign against the Washington County plan should it make it to the ballot.

“He’s opposed to it, but just like Bangor, he will honor the will of the people,” Umphrey said, citing the 2003 referendum that allowed slot machines in Baldacci’s hometown of Bangor.

Under current law, Bangor is the only city able to host a slots facility. Hollywood Slots at Bangor, which has 475 slot machines, opened the doors of its temporary facility last week at the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street.

While Baldacci might not actively campaign against the Washington County slots plan, it is likely to draw heavy fire from gambling opponents.

State Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, sits on the steering committee of the anti-gambling group CasinosNo!, which engineered the lopsided defeat of an Indian casino in southern Maine two years ago.

Strimling said Thursday the pursuit of a second Maine casino could have consequences for the fledgling facility in Bangor.

“It’s going to ratchet up the volume on trying to stop the slots that are already up and running,” he said. “Part of our argument has always been that once we start, it’s hard to resist adding more and more and more.”

Many voters who signed the petitions last week, however, used the same argument to justify a Washington County racetrack casino, according to the plan’s supporters.

“The people who signed it generally said that they have one in Bangor so why not let them have one down there,” state Rep. Darren Hall, R-Holden, said. He said he collected about 400 signatures at his home precinct on Election Day.

Back in Bangor, some city officials, while supporting the Washington County plan, urged patience on the part of those hoping to expand gambling Down East.

“It would be more helpful for everybody if they could just hold off while Bangor gets going,” said Dan Tremble, a city councilor. “It will just fuel the flames of those who want to kill the whole deal.”