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Connecticut Anti-Casino Forces Meet3 July 2002CONNECTICUT – As reported by Connecticut Now: "Faced with the prospect of two more casinos in eastern Connecticut, a coalition of local and state leaders met Tuesday and vowed to continue what has been a losing battle against the expansion of gambling. "`There was absolutely no sense that we should concede,' said U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, after a meeting in Norwich with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and top elected leaders from Ledyard, North Stonington and Preston. `We lost in the [American] Revolution time and time again. But we were fighting for something we believed in.' "Often alone in their fight against tribal recognition and casino expansion in Connecticut, Blumenthal and the town leaders met Tuesday afternoon with Simmons to discuss last week's Bureau of Indian Affairs decision to grant formal recognition to a single `historical Eastern Pequot tribe.' The recognition was based on the separate applications of two local different Indian groups, the Eastern Pequots and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots. "Both factions want to open casinos, a right that, in Connecticut and other states that allow gambling, accompanies federal recognition. "Tuesday evening, Connecticut's two influential senators, Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman, agreed to help in the fight. "…For the first time Tuesday, Simmons compared the Bush administration's handling of tribal recognition with the much-criticized BIA under former President Clinton, where critics say political influence and fund-raising corrupted the decision process…" |