Opponents Of North Jersey Gaming Vow To Continue Campaign
NEWARK, N.J. (CBS) - With word that two people providing the lion's share of money for a referendum campaign pushing North Jersey casinos announcing they were pulling out, you'd think those against the ballot question would claim victory.
But you'd be wrong.
Billionaires Paul Fireman and Jeff Gural made their decision known Thursday, citing internal polls showing the proposed amendment to the New Jersey Constitution would be defeated by a 50-37% margin.
With that, the "Our Turn" campaign was shut down.
At "Trenton's Bad Bet" -- the organized effort of opponents to the amendment -- Executive Director Bill Cortese was not surprised:
"Losing two big backers like this, I think, is significant and indicative of what their efforts are going to be moving forward, but we're sticking to the plan we've had from day one," he tells KYW Newsradio.
The reason is simple, really. That question is still on the ballot.
"We're going to keep informing the voters between now and Election Day," Cortese said. "We're not slowing down at all. We want voters to walk into that voting booth informed and educated on what's at stake and make sure that they vote no on question one."
That calls for TV and radio spots, aired with an online campaign and personal outreach.
The "Bad Bet" movement suggests state politicians can't be trusted on handling casino expansion properly.
One of those politicians, Cape May Senator Jeff Van Drew, echoed Cortese's sentiment that they keep the pressure up to vote the amendment down.