AUGUSTA – In a 12-1 vote the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday supported a proposal to allow the Passamaquoddy Tribe to build and operate a racino and commercial racetrack in Washington Country.

But the panel’s deliberations – which included charges by one member that unnamed legislators had made racist comments about American Indians in Maine – may foreshadow an ugly debate by the full Legislature.

“This is one step in a long process, but I am very pleased and the tribe is very pleased and the people of Washington County are pleased,” Rep. Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy representative to the Legislature, said of the committee’s vote. “This gives us hope that this may now become a reality.”

Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, agreed with Soctomah. He said there is strong support for the legislation, which is a citizen-initiated bill that lawmakers can either pass or allow to be voted on in a statewide referendum. Raye is “cautiously optimistic” there is enough support to pass the bill without the need for a referendum.

“I think we are seeing some movement from some senators that were not with us in the past but are willing to take a fresh look at it,” he said.

During the panel’s discussion, Rep. Gary Moore, R-Standish, charged that some lawmakers have made racist comments – such as “Indians are lazy and want a free ride” – in expressing their opposition to the measure. Moore said he deplored such comments.

“I don’t mean offense to anyone here,” he said, “but there were and there are nasty, racial overtones.”

Moore said he has heard comments in the State House referring to American Indians as “welfare warriors” and “drunks and addicts” who want to “gamble their lives away.” He said he has been disgusted by those comments as well as by e-mails he has received stating “the Lord is opposed” to the legislation.

The only committee opponent to the bill, Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor, was surprised at Moore’s comments. She said she is opposed because she believes the legislation should be approved by the voters, not the Legislature, because the voters defeated a similar proposal at referendum in 2003.

“I had not heard [such comments] within the halls of this building,” said Blanchette, who also was concerned some of the remarks would be attributed to her since she was the only dissenting vote on the committee. “It implied racial remarks and I certainly have never, ever in my life said something disparaging about the Indian nation. I am one-fourth Indian, for God’s sake.”

Soctomah said while the comments Moore related during the work session saddened him, he does not believe most Mainers are racist.

“I don’t feel the majority of people in Maine are like that,” he said. “I don’t believe that a majority of the people are racist, but there is a small group and they make themselves known to us. Some people don’t want to accept that, but it is a reality.”

The legislation now goes to the full Legislature for consideration. Under the Maine Constitution, the Legislature must approve an initiated bill without change, or it goes to referendum. The governor’s power to veto legislation is limited on initiated bills in that the measure still goes to the voters at referendum even if the governor vetoes a measure and his veto is sustained.

“We came very close last time, within a fraction of a vote of two-thirds in the Senate,” Raye said, referring to attempts last year to override a veto of similar legislation. “I think we have a chance of overriding a veto.”

Rep. John Patrick, D-Rumford, the House chairman of the committee, said he is already writing his speech in support of the legislation. He expects Baldacci will veto the bill, but he is not so sure the veto will be sustained this time.

“We do know now that the racino [in Bangor] has had a beneficial effect in the state of Maine,” he said. “That’s about the only thing that has changed from last time.”

Last year, Hollywood Slots, the only racino in the state, provided 39 percent of its $37 million in net revenue to a variety of state and local funds.

Soctomah said the tribe plans a major lobbying effort to persuade lawmakers to pass the legislation this session and, if necessary, vote to override a veto.

“We are going to work hard and take our story to the House and the Senate,” he said. “We have a good example in the Bangor racino.”

In 2003, Mainers rejected, by a 2-to-1 margin, a proposal by Maine’s tribes to build a casino in the state, while approving a racino in Bangor by just under 30,000 votes out of the nearly 515,000 that were cast.

But an Election Day survey last November of 1,515 voters indicated a significant shift in attitude with 59 percent of those surveyed opposing a ballot initiative then being circulated that would ban all slot machines in the state.

“I think that shows a shift,” Soctomah said.