Tribe sees slots on ’07 ballot Gambling foes gird for statewide campaign

Supporters of a tribal racetrack casino in Washington County said Tuesday they believe they have enough signatures to place the matter before voters next year.

“We will be on the ballot,” predicted Passamaquoddy tribal representative Fred Moore, whose group ended its petition drive last week after submitting an additional 8,000 signatures to state elections officials.

That latest submission brought the group’s total to about 56,000 signatures, several thousand more than required to earn a spot on the 2007 ballot, according to Moore.

Moore’s group, the Washington County Tribal Track Coalition, failed to make the 2006 ballot in January after nearly 13,000 of the 61,000 signatures submitted by the group were disqualified for various reasons.

However, the remaining signatures – about 48,000 – can be applied to the 2007 ballot, leaving the tribe only about 2,500 signatures short of qualifying. Moore said he was confident that the vast majority of the additional 8,000 signatures – most of which were collected at polling places during the June primary – would be accepted by the Secretary of State’s Office.

A spokesman for the secretary of state said officials there have begun their review, which is expected to be completed by late September.

The prospect of the tribe’s success came as troubling, but not unexpected, news to Doug Muir, whose group aims to place before voters its own 2007 ballot initiative – one which would outlaw slots in Maine altogether.

Muir said the group, No Slots for ME! was in the beginning stages of its signature-gathering effort, and planned a major push on that front outside the November 2006 polls. Muir’s group has until Jan. 25, 2007, to collect enough signatures to place the slots ban on the November 2007 ballot.

“The tribe’s endeavors do make it more important to bring the whole issue of slots back to the voters,” said Muir, whose group’s officers also include former Gov. Angus King and Michael Heath of the Christian Civic League of Maine.

“We always thought the licensing of one slots facility would lead to more, and we’re seeing that prophecy being played out,” Muir said.

Under current law, Bangor is the only city with the needed state and local approvals to host a slots facility. Hollywood Slots at Bangor is the only licensed slots operator in the state, and its owner, Penn National Gaming Co., plans to begin construction on a permanent facility housing 1,500 slot machines on Main Street.

If the tribe’s plan gains the needed approvals to go before voters – and voters approve – the tribe would seek to open a commercial racetrack and casino modeled after the Bangor facility.

A third slots facility has been proposed for Oxford County, and organizers of that effort are in the beginning stages of preparing for a statewide referendum on the issue.