Rhiode Island Election

The Rhode Island election will contain a no ballot initiatives and a total of nine referendums. Of the nine referendums only one of them seems to be getting a lot of attention. It is the question to allow a Resort Casino in West Warwick to be Privately Owned and Operated by a Rhode Island Business Entity Established by the Narragansett Indian Tribe and Its Chosen Partner. If the amendment is approved the Rhode Island Constitution will authorize the casino with tax proceeds from the casino being dedicated to property-tax relief.

One of the main concerns with this amendment was to home owners and there property value being driven down due to the casino. Although recently an agreement was released that sets aside $750,000 to compensate nearby homeowners for any potential declines in property values. They then have a total of three years to use the funds or it will be given back to the casino. The Newport County Chamber of Commerce is against the Referendum. Although it will boost the overall tourism in Rhode Island they feel that it will the existing museums, hotels, retail and dining businesses. They feel that the casino has a poor economic plan and policy. Many other anti-gambling groups are also opposed to the casino because they are afraid it could addict people to gambling. They are scared that too many Rhode Islanders will spend money that they don’t have. Two recent polls showed in the Providence Journal one by Brown University and another by Rhode Island College -- show roughly 55 percent of the public against the casino, 35 for it and 10 percent undecided. The Casino is getting a lot of media coverage both anti-casino and supporting it. Harrah’s Entertainment is the company that will be responsible for the casino is doing a lot of campaigning for the casino and running ads to try to persuade voters.

Lincoln Chafee and Sheldon Whitehouse both seem to have no response to this referendum. The referendum was no where to be seen on either’s web page or his press releases. The subject was also not discussed even in any recent news articles directly to the candidates.

I do not believe that my candidate should pair his campaign with this referendum. Both the Senate race and the race decision of the referendum are too close. Although in close races such as the Presidential race in 2004 a ballot issue could help decided a winner as it helped President Bush. I believe that this referendum isn’t supported enough to aim your campaign towards it, so you would be taking an enormous risk. I think this issue isn’t important enough to win support of undecided voters. Although it could cause more people to attend the polls as the gay marriage issue did in Ohio during the 2004 presidential elections the issue itself is not as strong as gay marriage, so it would not have the same