Flush with gambling revenue, California’s Indian
Flush with gambling revenue, California’s Indian tribes have paid out about $ 114 million for political campaigns since 1998, far surpassing any other interest group to become the nearly invisible giant of state campaign contributions.
And though most of that money was spent on their own two gambling ballot measures - including Proposition 1A, the initiative overwhelmingly passed in March to allow Nevada of the explosion style gaming on Indian lands - ie the cash went flying in sizable wads toward politicians.
The state’s top 22 Indian gambling tribes or organizations collectively donated more than $ 7 million to legislative or statewide candidates in 1997 and 1998, dwarfing all other interest groups, according to statistics being compiled by California Common Cause.
The second-biggest spender in that period was the state prison guard union, The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which gave $ 1.9 million to candidates. And though donations from similarly minded law enforcement organizations that would raise a total added if “ There is no way they could come close to all the tribal spending,’’said Common Cause Executive Director Jim Knox.
“ It’s an extraordinary amount of money, and it makes Native Americans the biggest political campaign contributors in the state,’’said Knox, who expects to issue a report detailing the expenditures early next month. “ What this shows is that the state’s tribes have very quickly come from relative obscurity to become the No. 1 political power (in terms of political money) in the state.”
In 1995 and 1996, for example, the same tribal interests spent only $ 950000th And if you go back to the late 1980s, before reservation casino gambling became a cash fountain, Indians spent virtually nothing - mostly because they did not have much to spend .
The irony is that there is not a single self-described in the Indian state legislator Capitol. That makes the need to have a voice through campaign donations all the more crucial, Indians say.
“ Nobody took notice of us before, and our issues were never addressed in Sacramento because we were not able to lobby before,’’said Barbara Gonzales Lyons, tribal council vice chairwoman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which runs a booming casino near Palm Springs. “ Ten years ago, we did not even have the funds to take care of our own people, let alone donate to campaigns.
“ But now that we have gaming, we can move forward and protect not just our gaming interests, but our people’s interests.”
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