The only announced candidate so far for Seneca Nation president said Thursday he supported the nation’s positions on casino development and protection of the cigarette business.

Robert Odawi Porter, the nation’s longtime counsel, expressed support for completing the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, as well as continuing to fight the state and federal government on issues related to cigarette taxes and distribution.

The Buffalo casino project “should move forward,” Porter said, although he would pursue a more collaborative approach in its development.

“I think we need to realize that we’re not an island,” Porter said during a news conference at the Burchfield Nature & Art Center on Union Road in West Seneca. “I would reach out and work with the local business community, the political community, to see how our facility can be more harmonious with what’s going on with respect to waterfront development generally.”

Porter, 47, is seeking the Seneca Party’s endorsement to succeed Barry E. Snyder Sr., the party’s leader, as Seneca president.

Porter has taken leave from his counsel position to run for the presidency. A resident of the nation’s Allegany Territory, the Harvard Law School graduate and Syracuse University law professor was appointed the nation’s first attorney general in 1991.

Snyder is disqualified from running in this year’s election because the presidency rotates every two years between residents of the Allegany and Cattaraugus territories.

Porter criticized the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, commonly known as the PACT Act, as an “attack on the tobacco economy.”

The law, which would ban the Postal Service from delivering commercial cigarette shipments, puts the situation “on the verge of destroying the mail-order economy that sustains our private sector.”

On July 7, a federal judge extended a temporary restraining order, preventing enforcement of the law until July 30.

The Seneca Party will hold a caucus in mid-September to select its candidate, Porter said. The Seneca nation’s general election will be held Nov. 2.

At Thursday’s announcement, Porter received the support from J. C. Seneca, a Seneca businessman and councilor, and Richard Nephew, chairman of the Seneca Tribal Council.

The Burchfield park is the site of the Buffalo Creek Treaty of 1842, under which the Senecas were granted tax-free status on their reservations.

“At our core, we are a people of peace,” Porter said. “We want nothing more than for our sovereignty and our treaty rights to be recognized so we can achieve prosperity once again. . . . But we are also a people, if pushed, who will fight at all costs to preserve our freedom.”