SANFORD – The nonstop campaign rhetoric over a casino in Maine came to a halt with this realization: The election wasn’t even close.

By a 2-1 margin, voters rejected a referendum Tuesday on whether a casino should be allowed in Maine. The proposal failed in all 16 counties; it passed in fewer than 20 of the state’s 649 civil divisions where people voted.

Even here in Sanford, the once-thriving mill town where the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Indian tribes wanted to build a $650 million casino and resort, voters shot down the casino question 63 percent to 37 percent. This was the town – where good jobs are scarce and incomes are low – that supposedly had much to gain with a casino within its borders.

At the Main Street office of the CasinosNo! anti-casino group, volunteers were heartened by the victory and relieved the campaign had ended.

“No more signs. No more bickering. It’s over,” said Sylvia Cuneo. “This town was divided, and now we can start healing and mending fences.”

For more than a year, this town of 21,000 has had rancorous debate over the casino. Proponents said a casino and resort, including an 850-room hotel, would create 10,000 new jobs and generate $100 million a year in state revenues.

That lure sounded appealing in Sanford, where the 6.5 percent unemployment rate is far above the 3.9 percent rate for all of York County, and where household incomes are the 28th lowest of the county’s 29 towns and cities.

In November 2002, Sanford became the only place in York County to approve a nonbinding question putting out the welcome mat for a casino. Voters in at least nine other nearby towns said they didn’t want a casino. Now, a year later, Sanford residents changed their minds.

John Clements, who owns the Comb and Clipper barber shop, said the people made a mistake.

“I’m sick of the state of Maine and Sanford being stuck with the mentality of the 1800s. They don’t want to catch up with the times,” he said.

At Christo’s Place, waitress Darlene Kinson said she was disappointed at the casino vote, especially when the area has lost so many manufacturing jobs in recent years. She said the campaign divided the town, with people stealing campaign signs; in one instance, she heard somebody set a campaign sign on fire.

But now that the election is over, she is confident the two sides can come together.

“I hope everybody can live peacefully now and not have the nos versus the yeses anymore,” she said.

That might take some time.

At the Passamaquoddy reservation at Indian Township, tribal governor Robert Newell told a reporter that Maine was a “racist state.”

CasinosNo! spokesman Dennis Bailey said he thinks Mainers voted against the casino because it was a bad deal, not because it was to be owned by Indians.

“I always said from the beginning that even if it was the Sisters of Mercy, we still would have voted against it,” he said.

At the Penobscot Nation reservation on Indian Island, tribal members were resigned to the outcome, but some felt slighted because Mainers approved a referendum allowing slot machines at horse tracks, while voting against a casino.

“Anything that the Native Americans do in Maine will not be supported by the people,” said Cheryl Francis, who owns the Penobscot Indian Art shop in Old Town.

Gov. John Baldacci said he wants to “reach out” and work with the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes, along with the Micmacs and Maliseets. Baldacci said he knows Maine needs new jobs, but that a casino doesn’t provide the type the state should go after.

“It isn’t in anybody’s interest if people can’t find opportunities, jobs and benefits in our state,” Baldacci said. “So it’s in our interest that the economic tide reaches everyone.”

In Sanford, Janet Genest said she too hopes to see casino supporters and opponents work together. Genest, who opposed a casino, said at the least the campaign opened many people’s eyes about the need to be pro-active in bringing new opportunity to the state.

“Hopefully the yeses and the nos can work to get the right kind of jobs in Sanford and Maine,” she said.

AP-ES-11-05-03 1612EST

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