All seven major candidates for governor oppose any expansion of gambling in Louisiana, including the proposed Indian casino that Gov. Mike Foster is pushing for Logansport.
Otherwise, most of the candidates accept the state's current gambling landscape and don't plan to push for another round of local-option elections.
Taking the strongest stand against Foster's closed-door casino negotiations with the Jena Band of Choctaws is former U.S. Rep. Buddy Leach, a Democrat from Lake Charles.
"If I'm elected governor, there will be no secret meetings about additional gaming, whether it's Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish or whatever," Leach said. "I don't think the market can absorb much more gaming in Louisiana."
But Leach said he would not veto a gambling expansion measure approved by the Legislature.
At this point, an expansion is likely to come in the form of a fourth Indian casino.
The governor has some say about whether and where Indian casinos open.
The Jena Band of Choctaws initially tried to locate a casino near Lake Charles and, more recently, to build a dice hall near Logansport in the northwest part of the state near the Texas border.
Both sites are well outside the tribe's historical land in central Louisiana.
In a letter in August to U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Foster said he supports the Logansport proposal because the Jena Band's service area is in Grant, LaSalle and Rapides parishes, which opposed gambling in the 1996 local-option elections.
Foster noted that DeSoto Parish, where Logansport is located, approved gambling in the same elections.
"Given the options available to us under federal law, I believe that it is in the best interests of the citizens of Louisiana to have the Jena Band's casino located in DeSoto Parish, where it is wanted by the local community, and not in central Louisiana, where it is not," Foster said in his letter.
Foster can't seek a third term. Even the candidate he picked to succeed him, Republican Bobby Jindal, said it's a bad idea to negotiate with Indian tribes for new casinos.
Jindal said Louisiana has wasted too much time arguing about gambling while other states are attracting automobile plants, health-care jobs and other forms of economic development.
As governor, Jindal said he'll fight any effort to hold another round of local-option elections to let individual parishes vote on video poker and riverboat casinos.
"If a parish voted 'no' on gambling, we shouldn't have repeat elections to make them keep voting on the issue until they say 'yes,'" Jindal said.
Another Republican, state Rep. Hunt Downer, earned a reputation as an outspoken gambling opponent in the 1990s.
Downer said he'll fight as governor to undo whatever progress Foster has made with the Jena Band of Choctaw negotiations.
"We need to freeze gambling where it is and not let it expand, and hopefully you can downsize it," Downer said.
Downer said he'd like to curtail the amount of legalized gambling in Louisiana, but he acknowledged that the state will first have to find a revenue source to replace gambling taxes.
Democrat Randy Ewing also established a reputation as a gambling opponent when he served as state Senate President during Foster's first term in the Governor's Mansion.
Ewing said no one should be surprised that Foster is pushing a fourth Indian casino for the state.
"Can you find a time when Gov. Foster was not for gambling?" Ewing asked.
Ewing said he will fight any expansion of gambling.
But Ewing said he's changed his tune about existing casinos and now wants to let them stay.
"I favor holding the status quo. I do want those businesses to continue to run in a very responsible way," Ewing said.
Ewing said as far as he's concerned, the gambling issue was decided on a parish-by-parish basis during the 1996 local-option elections. Any attempt to revisit local options would distract the Legislature from more important issues, Ewing said.
"I was down there (in the Legislature) when we couldn't do anything but deal with gambling. If we open the issue up again, it will consume the Legislature once again," Ewing said. "I'd rather see us spend our time and attention on building roads and growing our economy in other areas."
As the state's attorney general, Democrat Richard Ieyoub said he's generally opposed to any expansion of gambling, even though it's been helpful in economic development in some areas of the state.
But Ieyoub said it would be difficult for him to refuse to let a parish vote on gambling.
"I think it's pretty much been settled, but if the Legislature in its wisdom passed a law that would allow an area the right to another local-option (election), I don't think I would veto it," Ieyoub said.
Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, said she doesn't see herself pushing the Jena casino as governor.
"It's not something that I'm necessarily interested in -- I don't think gambling is necessarily the best form of economic development for the state," she said. "It is legal, but I would like to limit it to what we have."
Blanco also said she doesn't see any reason to revisit the local-option elections to give parishes another chance to vote on video poker and other forms of gambling.
"I think it's been settled. There's no hue and cry that I'm aware of," she said.
Another candidate, Public Service Commissioner Jay Blossman, vowed to fight any expansion of gambling, regardless of its form.
"Gambling is not saving Louisiana. It's not a way for our economy to turn around," he said.
"My position has been that gambling will not grow under my administration, and we need to turn the cart around and send it in the other direction," said Blossman, a Republican.
By SCOTT DYER, sdyer@theadvocate.com Capitol news bureau
| 
