Democratic comptroller candidate Peter Franchot continued to stir the pot in his anti-slots campaign against incumbent William Donald Schaefer and the other challenger, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens, enlisting the aid of two pastors from Baltimore?s Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.
Franchot called Owens “Ehrlich?s most aggressive lobbyist” on slots, and said Schaefer recommend Ehrlich use mob-like tactics on members of the legislature if they didn?t comply with his wishes.
Owens called Franchot?s charge “outrageously wrong and a fabrication. … This is getting nutty.”
“Personally, I?d like to see a referendum” on slot machine gambling, Owens said. But if they were coming to Anne Arundel County, she wanted to make sure the county got its fair share of the aid that would be divvied up among the jurisdictions that got slot machines.
Laurel Park was one of the prime sites targeted for slots, and, she said residents in that area supported the idea, over than seeing the track closed and sold for a housing development.
The issue of allowing slot machines in Maryland was largely dead for the past year after the House of Delegates successfully blocked passage of the measure Gov. Robert Ehrlich and the state Senate wanted.
But the issue was revived last weekend when Ehrlich told the board of the Maryland Association of Counties that “slots might be back,” Owens said. Ehrlich hinted in a speech they might become a dedicated source of funding for school construction.
Franchot said he opposes slot machines here because of the addiction, bankruptcy, crime and corruption they would bring to communities. He admits he once cosponsored a constitutional amendment on slot machine gambling, but has since learned what devastation they cause. He was supported in this opposition at a West Baltimore news conference with two ministers from the Ministerial Alliance, which has already endorsed Franchot.
“Our stance is his stance,” said the Rev. William Calhoun of Trinity Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue. “There are alternative revenue sources.”
“Our conviction against slots has not wavered,” said the Rev. Gregory Perkins of St. Paul Community Baptist Church. Slots are a “terrible malignancy.”
