Saturday, March 22, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
"I'll sleep better now," said Barbara Shemayme of Espanola, a cook at Tesuque Pueblo's Camel Rock Casino.
The gallery at the Legislature was packed with employees of tribal casinos as the House by a single vote did a turnaround and passed a gambling bill.
The bill - which had failed the previous day on a tie vote - headed to the Senate. Tribes and other gambling interests hoped to have it passed by the Legislature's adjournment at noon Saturday.
The House's reversal on the bill came on a vote change by one lawmaker, Rep. Debbie Rodella, an Espanola-area Democrat. Ms. Rodella voted against gambling expansion Thursday, then for it Friday.
"She did the right thing. She saved a lot of jobs," Shemayme said.
Jonna Espinosa and Rufina Duran, workers from the Ohkay Casino at San Juan Pueblo, said they had cornered Rodella before the vote.
"I told her I campaigned for her and now she turned around and stabbed us in the back," said Duran, from Rio Chama. "I told her we need these jobs."
Espinosa, a San Juan Pueblo resident, said Rodella patiently listened to their arguments.
Trinny Aguino, a member of San Juan Pueblo and table supervisor at Ohkay Casino, was spending her second consecutive day at the Capitol with her husband and her 11-year-old son.
"We were very upset with (Rodella) yesterday. She really let us down. Today, we're glad she remembered who she represents," Aguino said.
If the Legislature doesn't authorize new compacts, casinos could be forced to close.
"We got car payments and house payments, and jobs are scarce now - most are for minimum wage. A lot of people would have gone on welfare," Aguino said. "Now we don't have to rely on the government to fund us."
Most of the casino workers who came to the Roundhouse were not lucky enough to talk to lawmakers. They had to sit in the House gallery or mill about in the Capitol lobby.
"There's nothing we can do except be here and show our support," said David Martinez, a pit supervisor at Sandia Casino near Albuquerque.
Martinez said about 150 Sandia employees had come to Santa Fe to show their colors - T-shirts with the casino's logo.
And lawmakers offices reported they were swamped with phone calls - some in favor of gambling, some against.
Bessie Cruz, who works for Reps. Patsy Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, and Eddie Corley, D-Milan, struggled to field calls from two phones.
"There have been more calls on this issue than any other," she said between calls.
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