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For the first time in more than a decade, Clark County voters are likely to be asked if they want to allow riverboat gambling.
A petition calling for a referendum on the issue was presented to the county clerk's office yesterday, just minutes before the noon deadline to submit questions for the Nov. 7 general election ballot.
Shirley Bell, the clerk's chief deputy, said petition organizers claimed to have 818 signatures, more than enough to qualify.
Bell said 463 valid names would be needed — 2 percent of the number voting in the last election for secretary of state in 2002.
Assuming enough signatures are validated, the issue would be on the ballot for the first time since the county's voters rejected riverboat gambling in 1993 and 1995.
Although no casino licenses are available in Indiana, a move to put the question back before Clark voters has been under way for roughly two years.
John Perkins, a Democratic member of the Jeffersonville City Council, has been one of the leading supporters of such a referendum. But he said yesterday that he dropped his petition campaign and had no idea that a separate drive existed.
Yesterday's petition contained the names of many prominent Republicans, including former New Albany Mayor Regina Overton, who now lives in Jeffersonville; Glenn Murphy Jr., chairman of the county's Republican Party; and Jeffersonville City Councilmen Ron Grooms and Ed Zastawny.
Grooms said he would not support a casino in Clark County but thinks voters should decide the issue for themselves.
He also said that, while he wasn't involved in the petition drive, he believes it might bring more conservative voters to the polls in November to support Republican candidates.
Murphy said the county's Republican Party hasn't taken a formal stance on the gambling issue. But he added that some of its members were involved in the later stages of the petition drive.
He said Republicans weren't trying to use the referendum to influence other races on the ballot by generating a strong conservative turnout. But he said the party did want to make sure the gambling issue is decided in November instead of in next May's primary election, when Republican turnout might be lower.
Murphy, who said the petition drive was organized by "conservative Christians," also said he believed Perkins pulled back from his efforts to promote a gambling referendum because of pressure from fellow Democrats who thought that if the issue were on the ballot it might hurt the party's chances this fall.
Clark County is part of the 9th Congressional District, where a tight race is expected between Democrat Baron Hill of Seymour and incumbent Republican Mike Sodrel of New Albany.
Perkins said Democrats at the state level talked to him about the gambling initiative but didn't ask him to drop his campaign.
Rod Pate, chairman of the Clark County Democratic Party, said he also spoke with Perkins about the petition and told him that it might harm local Democratic candidates by dividing the party's base.
"You know what the chances are of a riverboat moving down here?" Pate asked yesterday in an interview. "Slim and none."
An additional casino license would have to be approved by the General Assembly, and moving an existing boat would require action by the Indiana Gaming Commission. Neither has expressed an interest in pursuing such a project.
When casinos were rejected in Clark County in 1995, the defeat triggered a 10-year moratorium on additional votes on the issue. Murphy said another 10-year ban would be put in place if the measure is defeated this fall.
Officials with the Indiana Secretary of State's Office could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The petition turned in yesterday did not have a cover page. Bell said it was presented to the county clerk's voter-registration office by Tom Tomlin and Ida Callahan.
Tomlin could not be reached for comment. Callahan is a longtime supporter of the Republican Party, and a precinct committeewoman in Jeffersonville. She said she doesn't know Tomlin well and was simply accompanying him to the clerk's office as a favor.
Perkins said he still sees the economic benefits of riverboat gambling but declined to comment on whether he would support the referendum in November.
"It's a moot point," he said. "It's on the ballot."
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