Racino’s biggest backer doesn’t want tribal partnership

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

The Legislature's most vocal supporter of a casino at Canterbury Park racetrack said Tuesday that he no longer supports linking that project with a second, state-tribal casino in Shakopee.

The decision by Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, to yank his support is yet another blow to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's push for expanded gambling in Minnesota to help fund state needs.

Day, who has pushed for the Canterbury Park racino for the last seven years, had initially supported the concept of joining the two proposals in a plan that calls for both the racino and the state-tribal casino at another site in Shakopee.

But he said Tuesday he realized that the plan was getting too big and unwieldy, and he felt it was starting to harm the racino's chances as a stand-alone project.

"It's getting very convoluted, and we're saying, let's take it back to square one," Day said.

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