Dennis Bailey

The Oxford County Casino project has lost its spokeswoman, the Associated Press is reporting.

Pat LaMarche left the campaign today, citing “legal and professional issues” with Rumford Attorney Seth Carey, who is leading the initiative.

LaMarche is a former gubernatorial candidate and a member of the Green Party.

Carey is currently facing disciplinary action for misconduct in front of the Board of Overseers of the Maine Bar. He could not be reached immediately for comment.

Carey is stepping down from his role as leader of the initiative after it was reported that he received a summons for assault that allegedly took place in early March.

Dennis Bailey has his year’s work cut out for him, as another gambling referendum is coming up for vote this November. And this one’s a doozy.

Wednesday afternoon the Legislature’s Legal and Veteran’s Affairs Committee rejected the citizen’s referendum to bring a casino to Western Maine, sending it out to voters.  read more »

The Oxford County Casino citizen’s initiative will move forward, the Secretary of State’s office determined today.

The office was able to confirm 59,504 of the 77,177 signatures collected. They needed 55,087. 17,673 were invalid for a number of reasons.  read more »

“After careful review of petitions containing over 77,000 signatures, Maine’s Elections Division has certified 59,504 of those signatures as valid,” Dunlap explained, continuing, “this exceeds the number of signatures required for the citizen initiative to move forward in the process.”

It looks like Maine voters may very well get to decide the fate of a proposed casino in Oxford County. And I’m quite sure no one could be happier than the casino-buster himself, Dennis Bailey.