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PROVIDENCE -- What has been to this point a multi-million dollar blitz of TV, radio and newspaper ads in support of the consitutional amendment for a West Warwick casino is now entering the realm of retail politics, complete with a painted campaign bus.
And what a bus it is. With a king-sized bed in a rear compartment, a kitchen with a stove, refrigerator and sink and wide comfortable couches up front, Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas ackowledges that the vehicle is meant to impress.
When people see the top-of-the-line, first-class vehicle roll into their community, Thomas told reporters invited for a ride on the bus' inaugural voyage, they are going to know that the Narragasett Indian tribe and its partner, Harrah's Entertainment, are serious about building a top-flight casino. Or, as he told a group of senior citizens Thursday, "when we build a casino, it's not going to be a shack, it's going to be a first-class facility.
The idea is to take the bus to each of the state's 39 cities and towns in coming weeks in an old-fashioned, grass-roots, thumping-the-tub political campaign on behalf of the casino question.. They are calling it the "Drive to Victory."
Despite numerous queries to several different representatives in the organization, it could not be determined Thursday how much the Harrah's-funded Rhode Islanders for Jobs and Tax Relief is paying to rent the bus. The closest they came to an answer was when Thomas said, "whatever it costs, the money is going to a Rhode Islander."
Bus owner Mark DePasquale was at the wheel. Asked why the bus carries Florida license tags if his is an Ocean State business, DePasquale explained that he spends most of the winter months in Florida.
Casino battles that were before now fought out in the august House and Senate chambers at the Statehouse, or the ornate courtroom of the RI Supreme Court are now being taken to places like the recreation room of an elderly complex in Warwick where two dozen white-haired men and women sat at long folding tables watching Thomas make his stump speech for the casino.
"Yes, we will have bingo," Thomas was able to promise one older woman who wanted to know.
When another lady related that her daughter-in-law had a job at Foxwoods, the chief was able to work in one of the pro-casino advertising slogans: "Let's keep it in Rhode Island and bring her home."
He was able to do the same thing when the bus was on the road and reporter pointed to a Foxwoods billboard beside the highway.
"There you've got casinos from Connecticut advertising to take our money in Rhode Island. All the money is going to Connecticut, let's keep it in Rhode Island."
At a Kennedy Plaza news conference to kick off the bus tour, Thomas asserted that the casino effort is gaining support "because Rhode Islanders are sick and tired of being underemployed, underpaid, overtaxed and losing out on opportunities to Connecticut and Massachusetts.
"It is telling that those who oppose our efforts have no ideas of their own," Thomas told a rally of union members and other supporters who crowded into the plaza as an afternoon rain began to fall. "They want to simply say no and maintain the status quo."
Scott Duhamel, Business Representative of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 11, answered critics who say there was no competitive bidding for the casino license that is the subject of the constitutional amendment, saying the casino deal is "fair, square, in place and concrete.What it means pure and simple is jobs: multiple, solid and sustainable jobs."
The casino, Duhamel said, "will be built on the strength of union brains, sweat and muscle, and that's a guarantee."
Later Thursday night, the state AFL-CIO convention unanimously endorsed the constitutional amendment for the casino, which is Question 1 on the November ballot.
Peter Carvalhal, owner of West Side Eyewear Boutique on Federal Hill, said the revenue the state will get from the casino "will relieve my property taxes in Providence and in every other city and town."
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