Casino Campaigns Enter Final Stretch SPRINGFIELD, Mass (WGGB) — The final countdown is on as Election Day is now just hours away. Candidates are making their last ditch efforts on the campaign trail. Locally, it’s the casino question that has many people talking. MGM Springfield held a late afternoon rally in advance of Tuesday. MGM Resorts & Casino Chairman and CEO Jim Murren, President Bill Hornbuckle, MGM Springfield President Mike Mathis, Mayor Domenic Sarno, and several past mayors of the city all stood on the steps of Springfield City Hall to encourage voters to support Question 3 Tuesday. Others, meantime, kept the phone calls to voters going into the night. “This is just a quick call to remind you tomorrow is November 4th and it is Election Day,” an MGM volunteer could be heard saying. Election Day culminates months worth of casino campaigning for both sides of the issue. Polls so far have shown casino supporters ahead in Question 3. “We don’t take anything for granted in this,” MGM Resorts Vice-President Kelly Tucky said. “We are buoyed by the support that we are getting in the polls, we feel good. But it’s still about reminding people that they need to vote.” Meantime casino opponents, who have far smaller budgets to work with, were equally hard at work on their own campaign to repeal the state’s gaming law. “We are phone banking, we are distributing our fool’s gold, our flyers, we are talking, e-mailing, everything we possibly can do to get the truth out,” Alan Cabot of Repeal The Casino Deal said. Question 3 is confusing to some. Voters against casinos will vote “yes” on Question 3 to repeal casino gaming. Voters in support of casino gaming will vote “no,” keeping the gaming statute as it is. The actual casino question is on the backside of the ballot, so voters must turn it over to get to Question 3. Each campaign made their final pitch to voters Monday. “Look at all the tv ads they are seeing and realize that it’s really just a feeding frenzy,” Cabot said. “The casinos are fighting over the same bucket of money. They say they are bringing a billion dollars to massachusetts but every single dime of that is going into corporate pockets. We are basically the target of that.” “Voting no saves 10,000 jobs throughout the Commonwealth, 3,000 here in Springfield where they need it most,” Tucky said. “Springfield voted for it, Springfield wants it, and we want to make sure that Springfield and Plainville and the folks in Everett get to keep it.” Something voters will decide Tuesday.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 23:36:18 +0000
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