By David Cruz
Correspondent
With the acrimony over the Atlantic City rescue/takeover behind him, Senate President Steve Sweeney joined with Bergen County Democrats and union officials to kick off a campaign for North Jersey casino expansion, an effort he says is a win for the entire state.
“Let’s work together,” he said. “Let’s do something, not for South Jersey, not for North Jersey, not for central New Jersey. We are one state. It’s about we work together.”
But it’s hard to separate north from south on this issue. Expansion of gaming — which will be on the ballot in the fall — has gotten only lukewarm support statewide, 48 percent, if you believe the Monmouth University poll out this week. In South Jersey, 54 percent are against it. Add to that, the Fitch ratings agency estimated that half of the remaining AC casinos could close if there’s a gaming expansion to the north.
“We can put our heads in the sand and try to ignore and hope that no one else is going to build another casino anywhere else, and they said Atlantic City could lose a couple casinos,” Sweeney said. “We already know that doing nothing, so we’re either going to do something to try to recreate Atlantic City, and this is the one opportunity we have, the one opportunity we have to recreate Atlantic City is to get this done to get funding into Atlantic City.”
Industry lobbyist Bill Pascrell acknowledged that the last six months of harsh rhetoric and divided loyalties have put a damper on whatever passion there was for casino expansion. But, he says, the damage isn’t fatal.
“It has had an impact,” he said. “However, recent polling data shows that we’re still in this race. Now that the building trades and business is coming together, Atlantic City casinos are interested in this as well.”
But it’s not just the public that has cooled to the idea. The governor this week suggested the whole idea may already be dead in the water.
“I think it’s in big trouble,” he said on his radio show this week. “I think the speaker, and the mayor of Jersey City, have effectively put that at almost complete flat line. They did it because what they did was scare off all the people who thought New Jersey would be a hospitable place to engage in gaming in the northern part of the state when they saw the way they treated the people of Atlantic City and conducted themselves.”
Asked by a reporter about the governor’s suggestion that he’s not sure he’ll campaign for the referendum, Sen. Loretta Weinberg quipped, “That might be helpful.”
And then there’s the other North Jersey Democrat who wasn’t here today but may be running for governor and now says he’s not so sure about North Jersey gaming. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop says he’s reaching out to the public to get their opinion. The Bergen County executive had some advice for the would-be governor.
“While he’s a mayor of one town, he represents hundreds of thousands of people that are part of New Jersey, so I would hope he’d get behind this and support it from a New Jersey standpoint,” James Tedesco said.
This is an industry that has shrunk almost in half, facing competition from every neighboring state. It’s going to be up to voters to determine whether expansion to the north is a winner, or just another sucker’s bet for New Jersey.