Bangor lawmaker loses panel seat Committee crafting tribal racino bill drops sole representative of city

AUGUSTA – As the Maine Legislature prepared to ask the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee to craft a new tribal racino bill, the city with the only racino in the state lost its sole state representative on the committee.

In an effort to reflect the near parity between Republicans and Democrats in the Maine House of Representatives, House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick, announced Thursday that four Republicans will replace Democrats on four legislative policy committees.

Rep. Pat Blanchette, D-Bangor, was removed from the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee and will be replaced by Rep. Joan M. Nass, R-Acton. Blanchette will continue to serve as House chairman of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. Reached by phone at home where she was recovering from a back injury Thursday, Blanchette said she had “no problem” with Richardson’s decision to relieve her of her duties on LVA.

“Legal and Vets almost always sets its meeting times the same as Criminal Justice,” she said. “So it was really a gut-wrenching conflict for me because I don’t take committee assignments lightly.”

Still, the reassignment means Blanchette will be unable to play a direct role in crafting the tribal racino and commercial harness racing track legislation that will be developed by the legal panel if the Senate joins the House in paving the way for a new bill.

An effort is under way to move the bill through the committee process quickly and one member of the panel, Sen. Debra D. Plowman, R-Hampden, said Thursday it was conceivable the committee may forgo a public hearing on the new legislation.

“They can bypass a public hearing if they want to, that’s their choice, but Bangor’s voice will be heard,” Blanchette said. “I don’t intend to be quiet about it. I voted against it to begin with, and I’m still opposed to it for a number of reasons. There’s already a shortage of horses in the state for the tracks we have. How are we supposed to supply another track? It’s not that I don’t want [the tribe] to have a racino, but you can’t have a racino without horse racing.”

Other committee reassignments included: Rep. Raymond Pineau, D-Jay, removed from the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee and replaced by Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou; Rep. Sonya Sampson, D-Auburn, removed from the State and Local Government Committee and replaced by Rep. William Browne, R-Vassalboro; and Rep. Mark Bryant, D-Windham, removed from the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee and replaced by Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison.

Responding to a request from Rep. Tom Saviello, an unenrolled lawmaker from Wilton, that he be temporarily reassigned from the Natural Resources Committee pending an ethics investigation, Richardson placed the legislator on the IF&W committee. Saviello has requested that the state ethics commission look into charges made against him regarding alleged “special deals” he discussed with the state Department of Environmental Protection over legislation dealing with the Androscoggin River and violations of environmental laws by his employer, International Paper.

Richardson has replaced Saviello on the Natural Resources Committee with Rep. Walter Wheeler, D-Kittery.

In a prepared statement, Richardson said he was not bound by any rule or law to make the committee changes, but wanted to be fair to his Republicans colleagues.

“I don’t have to do a thing, but I think it’s the right thing, the fair thing to do is to look at some of the concerns the Republicans raised when we were at parity and address them in the best way I know how,” Richardson said.

Republicans did not respond formally to the announced changes, but House GOP leader David Bowles, of Sanford, later said the gesture was appreciated.

“We think that it goes a long ways toward bringing a greater element of fairness into the committee process,” Bowles said.

Although earlier this month Republicans and Democrats were tied at 73 members each, the balance shifted when an independent member decided to become a Democrat. The political division of the House now stands at 74 Democrats, 73 Republicans, 1 Green Independent Party member and three independent members.