LEWISTON – While working to throw out Maine’s new gay rights law in November, Lewiston’s rebel Catholic Paul Madore is taking on a second cause. Madore wants to overturn a referendum that allows slot machines.
Today in Bangor, Madore’s Maine Grassroots Coalition is launching its Protect Your Paycheck tour, collecting petition signatures to overturn a 2003 referendum approved by voters that allows slot machines at a Bangor racino.
Madore said his effort is part of the No Slots for Me effort organized by George Rodrigues of Westbrook. Also working to outlaw slot machines is former Green Party gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Carter, who said he is a consultant for Madore. “Slot machines are bad for Maine,” Carter said Thursday.
Madore said he and fellow petition-gatherers have been collecting signatures in Lewiston and other locations, but today is the official kickoff. Signatures will be collected in front of Hollywood Slots on Main Street in Bangor.
Legalized gambling through slot machines will hurt Maine’s economy and Maine families, Madore said. “Maine families need paycheck protection in this time of $60-plus gas tank fill-ups,” Madore said. If slots are not stopped in Bangor, soon they’ll be in every Maine county, Madore predicted.
Madore and others have until Oct. 4 to gather 50,519 signatures to put the referendum on the November 2006, ballot. The question would read: “Do you want to ban all public use of slot machines in Maine?”
Madore and his Maine Grassroots Coalition have proved capable at gathering signatures. His group recently led an 87-day signature-gathering drive to overturn Maine’s new law protecting homosexuals from discrimination in the areas of housing, education, credit and employment.
The anti-slot-machine campaign will involve mostly circulators, some paid, collecting signatures all over Maine, “even in Washington County,” Madore said.
He was referring to intentions by the Passamaquoddy Tribe to collect signatures for another referendum authorizing a tribal racino in Washington County. If both sides are successful in collecting signatures, that would mean the same ballot would ask voters next year whether they want to allow a Washington County racino, and whether they want to outlaw slot machines.
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