The Oxford County casino campaign is a mess.

Its spokeswoman quit after not drawing a paycheck since June, according to state filings. Pat LaMarche didn’t leave quietly, though, and called her employment “professionally objectionable” and “ethically impossible” to continue.

“I believe the greatest asset a person has is his or her word,” LaMarche said in her parting shot, pointedly accusing others in the campaign of failing to keep theirs.

While this departure robs this campaign’s most interesting subtext – a LaMarche vs. Dennis Bailey debate – her squealing tires away from Seth Carey and Evergreen Mountain Enterprises is indicative of deeper trouble.

Our repeated attempts for information from the casino’s muse, Carey, have failed. In two years, the casino has barely evolved from his mere whimsy. There are no brick-and-mortar designs. There isn’t even a site.

And there is no outside money. Evergreen Mountain Enterprises is surviving on loans to and contributions from one primary source – Seth Carey.

State filings, made by Carey, show his personal cash contributions to the campaign have totaled more than $40,000 since January 2007.

All his chips are in, as it were.

A casino does have economic potential. A University of Maine analysis pegged its revenue potential at more than $80 million annually. Such an injection into Western Maine would undoubtedly have a significant, positive impact.

But like any business, it needs competent management. It needs investors experienced and skilled in the gambling and hospitality industries. It needs a detailed, expansive marketing and advertising campaign.

It needs, in short, a workable plan. But not just one to sell investors.

Carey, for several months, has spoken in veiled terms about his back room negotiations and has even admonished this newspaper for asking about them, and for failing to respect the important privacy of big business dealings.

We remind Carey what is most critical is a cogent plan to convince Maine voters his casino is worth supporting on Election Day, which is now barely 11 weeks away and coming fast.

But, then again, we’ve been waiting two years for a plan to emerge.

It’s starting to look as if Evergreen Mountain Enterprises – and Seth Carey – don’t have one.