Petersburg Mayor Faces Election Problem From Anti-On line casino Opponent
The mayor of Petersburg, Va., desires the state legislature to permit his metropolis residents to ponder the financial advantages of authorizing a on line casino resort. However that assist might dampen his probabilities of being reelected throughout this 12 months’s November municipal election.
Virginia State Senator Joe Morrissey speaks in Petersburg on June 2,, 2022. Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham seems on. Each Morrissey and Parham wish to give Petersburg residents a chance to vote on a proposed on line casino resort. (Picture: Richmond Occasions-Dispatch)
Sam Parham received his Petersburg Metropolis Council seat representing Ward 3 in 2014. He was picked by the council in early 2017 to function mayor.
Parham is searching for a 3rd time period on the council. However his assist of petitioning the Virginia Common Meeting to re-write its 2020 business playing regulation to incorporate Petersburg has provoked a November challenger. Michael Storrs, a social employee at Poplar Springs Hospital, hopes to unseat Parham in November.
Social media within the Petersburg space has been abuzz since Parham partnered with Virginia Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond, Petersburg) to assist a state effort to relocate Richmond’s on line casino allow to Petersburg. One Fb group has shaped with the intent of ousting Parham from workplace due to his perception {that a} on line casino is in Peterburg’s greatest curiosity.
Richmond voters throughout final November’s election narrowly rejected a proposed $565 million on line casino plan known as ONE On line casino + Resort. Whereas native leaders within the capital metropolis are attempting to carry a second gaming referendum with the hopes of a unique end result, Morrissey and Parham say the state ought to as an alternative think about Petersburg as a bunch on line casino vacation spot.
Richmond Redo
Virginia’s 2020 gaming invoice certified 5 cities — Norfolk, Portsmouth, Bristol, Danville, and Richmond — to ask their voters in the event that they assist utilizing on line casino growth as a regional financial catalyst. These cities met a number of qualifying standards demonstrating financial hardship.
Whereas voters in every of the opposite 4 cities backed their on line casino proposals via referendums, Richmond voters stated “no.”
Richmond partnered with City One, a Black-focused media conglomerate with zero gaming expertise, as its most well-liked growth accomplice. The radio and tv firm pledged that Peninsula Pacific Leisure, an skilled on line casino operator, would run and handle ONE On line casino + Resort. However many citizens voiced apprehension after Richmond’s Resort On line casino Analysis Panel selected City One over extra skilled and well-known gaming gamers, resembling Bally’s and Golden Nugget.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and the Metropolis Council imagine voters weren’t totally conscious of the financial advantages ONE On line casino + Resort would have delivered to the capital metro. The native leaders imagine a extra coordinated marketing campaign message hyping the on line casino’s benefits would lead to a majority of metropolis residents lending their backing to the initiative.
Political Payback?
Morrissey misplaced the Richmond mayoral election to Stoney in 2016 earlier than successful state workplace throughout the 2019 election. The 2 stay political rivals.
Stoney and the Richmond Metropolis Council are searching for a second referendum. However Morrissey satisfied his state legislative colleagues to incorporate a provision of their 2022-2024 biennium price range invoice that forestalls Richmond from holding one other on line casino referendum till November 2023.
Stoney says town is reviewing its authorized choices to doubtlessly problem the state’s blocking of one other referendum for a 12 months. Morrissey argues {that a} delay is warranted to permit the state to probe the monetary and financial advantages of permitting Petersburg to contemplate a on line casino.
Nonetheless, the Virginia Common Meeting would want to re-write or amend, after which go and have Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signal its business gaming invoice earlier than Petersburg might lawfully vote on a on line casino mission.
