Connecticut anticasino groups joining forces

Diane Scarponi

Thursday, Oct. 24, 2002 | 9:51 a.m.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- There was a time when most Connecticut residents thought that the problems associated with gambling casinos were isolated to a few rural towns in southeastern Connecticut.

No more.

Grass-roots groups, including community organizations, antigambling advocates and business leaders, are mobilizing around the state to oppose any more casinos.

Preliminary discussions have started to create statewide efforts to fight any new casino plans. Leaders said the time is ripe for such an effort.

"There are so many groups forming that it makes sense to bring people together, to share information, to educate one another and to develop strategy," said Joe McGee, vice president of public policy for SACIA, the Business Council of Southwestern Connecticut.

The anticasino forces hail from the woods of northwestern and southeastern Connecticut to the Litchfield Hills and the monied towns of Connecticut's Gold Coast.

In each place, Indian tribes are considering plans to build casinos if they become recognized by the federal government.

Three different statewide polls recently showed that the opposition is not limited to these areas: A little more than half of those polled said they opposed additional casinos in Connecticut, while about 30 percent wanted more casinos and the remainder were undecided.

Residents and business leaders worry that casinos would bring traffic, development problems and social ills.

In the past several weeks, hundreds of people have attended forums around the state to learn about the federal recognition system, which grants tribes certain rights and benefits, including the right to operate casinos.

The various small opposition groups fret that they have few resources to fight the system. They have little money and no lobbyists, while the gambling industry is backing some Indian tribes with lawyers, researchers and lobbyists in Hartford and Washington.

"It's coming out of our personal pockets," said Dessain Terry, a Brookfield minister and member of the Danbury-based Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.

Among the Indian groups seeking federal recognition are the Schaghticoke tribe of Kent, the Golden Hill Paugussetts in Colchester and Trumbull and the Nipmucs of southern Massachusetts.

Casino opponents said the likelihood that these tribes would be recognized seemed remote until June, when the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized the Eastern Pequots of North Stonington.

The recognition was unprecedented in that it recognized as a single tribe two factions that had sought recognition separately.

The state and area towns are appealing the Eastern Pequots recognition decision. More than 20 other Connecticut towns have written a letter to the government in support of the appeal.

Leaders of the tribes did not return phone calls seeking for comment for this story. But they have said in the past that that communities should not confuse federal recognition with casino rights.

The tribes also point out that they have been seeking recognition for years or decades -- well before Foxwoods Resort Casino or Mohegan Sun were even dreamed of.

Casino opponents stress that they are not anti-Indian, although, as Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell put it: "tribal recognition is inexorably linked to casinos."

Terry also said his group is not opposed to tribal recognition per se.

"We are very sympathetic to the needs of Native Americans. We think it is part of the tragedy, that this is all tied together. It shouldn't be," he said.

Farrell is a leader of the Lower Fairfield County Coalition, a group of 10 towns that opposes the Paugussetts' plan for a casino in Bridgeport.

In northeastern Connecticut, the group Connecticut Citizens Against Casinos has mobilized.

Jeff Benedict, who made a splash in southeastern Connecticut with his book "Without Reservation," about Foxwoods and the Mashantucket Pequots, said he has sensed a growing momentum against casinos.

Benedict, along with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and leaders from southeastern Connecticut, have spoken at several casino forums around the state over the past few months. Hundreds of people turned out for some of the meetings.

"To consistently draw those crowds, no matter what part of state you go to, clearly tells you something," Benedict said.

In 1991, then-Gov. Lowell Weicker and some casino opponents in the Legislature tried to stop Foxwoods from being built by repealing a law that allowed charities to hold "Las Vegas Nights" to raise money.

The effort failed, in part through the opposition of charities that needed the fund-raisers and black and Hispanic lawmakers, who thought the bill was racially motivated. A similar bill failed again this spring.

Now, Gov. John G Rowland, his re-election opponent Bill Curry, Blumenthal, and some other lawmakers say they favor a repeal.

The bill's sponsor this year, Rep. Jefferson Davis, D-Pomfret, said many people's minds have changed since the Eastern Pequots were recognized in June.

"It may not be an ironclad judicial layup, but it is the only realistic alternative we have available," Davis said.

But Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon, whose town opposes the Eastern Pequots' recognition and the Mashantuckets' efforts to expand their reservation, said the "Las Vegas Nights" repeal seems likely to fail if tribes challenge it in court.

Rather, he said, the anticasino groups should focus their effort on reforming the federal recognition system and doing away with the idea that recognition grants casino rights.

Casino foes this week hired Benedict. Benedict declined to comment Tuesday about his new job, a full-time position that will make him the spokesman and strategist for anti-casino groups across the state.

"He is an excellent choice. He knows Indian history. He's got moral fiber. He's an excellent communicator," said Nicholas Mullane, first selectman in North Stonington.

The Connecticut Alliance Against Casino Expansion brings together anti-gambling activists from different corners of the state.