Racing Referendum Bill Fails in Penn. Pre-Vote: Senate Off-Floor Tally, House Warnings Come From Capitol Hill, Daily Racing Form, 1957-05-01

article


view raw text

Racing Referendum Bill Fails in Penn PreVote PreVoteSenate Senate OffFloor Tally House Warnings Come From Capitol Hill HillSpecial Special to Daily Racing Form FormHARRISBURG HARRISBURG Pa April 30 The horse race referendum bill was scratched on Pennsylvanias capitol hill last night when its backers fell just one or two votes short of passage in their prevote handicapping handicappingAt At the same time the House on a warn ¬ ing of unconstitutionality flagged similar legislation for statewide balloting on horse race betting bingo lotteries and Sunday activities activitiesIn In the Senate Sen John H Dent said If the bill has as much trouble when it gets on the track as it did at the startinj gate its going to be a slow race raceTwo Two disruptions contributed to the vote delay on the racing referendum measure measureFirst First Sen Israel Stiefels car was de ¬ molished in a turnpike accident while he was en route to Harrisburg He was hos ¬ pitalized in Ephrata unable to attend the session He supports the bill billSecond Second in the Republican caucus Sen Ernest F Walker Cambria reportedly served notice he would not vote for the bill because of the threat made by Charles J Schmitt president of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Corporation who last week promised political reprisals if the bill falls i Senator Walker reportedly told the closed caucus meeting that he did not approve of the tactics of Schmitt and another Repub ¬ lican senator later said we lost his vote for the bill because of that thatThe The change reduced from eight to seven the yes votes counted unofficially on the Republican side of the upper branch of the legislature legislatureTwo Two of the 23 Democrats are known to be ready to vote no They are Sens Jo Hays Centre and William J Lane Wash ¬ ington The backers of the race vote bill had 19 votes to garner on the Democratic side and several absentees in addition to Sena ¬ tor Stiefel DPhila caused the post ¬ ponement Twentysix votes are needed to pass the bill billSenator Senator John McCreeshan DPhila was ill at his home and Sens Benjamin R Donolow D Phila and John C Miller DBeayer also were absent when the poll taking for the vote bill canvassed the situation situationOne One Democratic Senator expected to vote for the bill came to Harrisburg yesterday after illness had forced his absence for most of the session He is Sen Anthony J Disilvestro Philadelphia who has spon ¬ sored racing legislation in the past pastSen Sen Robert D Fleming R Allegheny an opponent of the bill served notice he would block any attempt to vote absentee senators This is sometimes done on consent consentA A Democratic opponent Senator Lane tried to bring the bill up for defeat but later withdrew his demand for an imme ¬ diate vote


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1957050101/drf1957050101_36_2
Local Identifier: drf1957050101_36_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800