By SAM KENNEDY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/09money_b1empireb.html
Casino money from Indian
tribes throughout California is flowing into the coffers of local lawmakers.
The two senators and three
Assembly members who represent the North Coast in Sacramento have collected
sizable campaign contributions from tribes flush with gambling profits.
Together, they raked in a quarter-million dollars in the past two years.
Senate President pro tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, received the most
-- $167,000, or about 5 percent of the $3.1 million in campaign contributions
he reported in 2001 and 2002. As the leader of the Legislature's upper
house, Burton is one of the most influential politicians, and biggest fund-raisers,
in the state.
The Barona band of Mission
Indians, which operates a casino in San Diego County, cut a check to Burton
for $55,000. It was the sixth-largest donation to a California legislator
during the period. Totals for other local lawmakers were: Sen. Wes Chesbro,
D-Arcata, $15,500; Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, $23,500;
Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, $23,000; and Assemblywoman Patty
Berg, D-Eureka, $14,500.
The North Coast's legislative
delegation sponsored a number of bills that were beneficial to California
Indians. One by Burton and Chesbro would have granted tribes expanded influence
over cultural sites outside their reservations. Another by Wiggins established
cheating in casinos as a criminal act.
The relationship between
politicians and casino money is of particular interest now because Gov.
Gray Davis' plan to overcome California's massive budget deficit assumes
tribes will share $1.5 billion in casino revenue with the state.
The governor, who also has
received major tribal contributions, wants to renegotiate the deal he struck
three years ago. He proposed lifting a limit of 2,000 slot machines per
tribe in exchange for the money.Any
agreement reached between the governor and tribes will need the approval
of the Legislature before becoming law. And, critics of the process point
out, many of the legislators who will vote on the matter have accepted
contributions from tribes with casinos.
"They tend now to give to
everyone ... to buy access to all incumbents," said Jim Knox, director
of California Common Cause, which advocates partial public financing of
campaigns as the way to curb the influence of big contributors.
In the past five years,
California's Indian tribes have contributed more than $100 million to candidates
and ballot initiatives, far more than any other special interest group.
"The casinos are basically the financial engines that allow them to expand
and assert their sovereignty," said Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up
For California, a gambling watchdog group.
Tribes say they are simply
playing the political game by its well-established rules.
"There are many issues that
affect tribes that legislators from all over the state weigh in on," said
Barry Brokaw, lobbyist for the Agua Caliente band. "The tribes support
their friends," he said. Most of the casino money that local lawmakers
collected in the past two years came from Southern California tribes, such
as the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians and the Cabazon band of Mission
Indians, both from the Palm Springs area.
Among North Coast tribes,
only the Robinson Rancheria turned up on campaign disclosure reports, with
a $500 donation to Chesbro.Each
of the lawmakers, with the exception of newcomer Berg, introduced bills
for which tribes had vigorously lobbied.
Burton and Chesbro co-wrote
a bill last year that would have protected sacred sites from development
and required local governments to notify a tribe of proposed construction
within 20 miles of a reservation.It
was vetoed, but Nation introduced similar legislation this year. Nation's
bill would preserve culturally significant areas within the jurisdiction
of the Coastal Commission.
Wiggins authored a bill
on cheating. It outlawed counterfeit chips and card-counting devices, among
other things.Barona tribal leaders,
who gave the assemblywoman $13,000, celebrated in September when the governor
signed the bill into law. But some observers complained that it left taxpayers
to foot the bill of investigating the new crimes, trying alleged offenders
and incarcerating those found guilty.
"It's state legislation
that requires us to give these things to tribal governments without requesting
payment for those services," said Schmit of Stand Up For California. "That's
where the rub comes in. It's who's going to pay."
Some lawmakers bristle at
the accusation that campaign contributions influence their decisions."We've
got no comment on taking money from anybody," said Matt Reilly, Wiggins'
chief of staff. "It speaks for itself. People can make of it what they
will."
Burton, Chesbro and Berg
didn't return phone calls for this story. Nation's
chief of staff, Paul Smith, said the assemblyman has benefited from the
largess of Indian tribes because he is viewed as someone who "listens to
their arguments."
But many outsiders -- and
even some insiders -- are unwilling to accept the idea that casino money
is buying nothing more than good listeners in Sacramento. "There's
something not OK about that much money going in.It
just doesn't feel OK to me," said Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown,
who served in the Assembly from 1992 to 1998 and is now working for four
Los Angeles-area cities with card rooms threatened by tribal casinos. "Perhaps
things are different up there now," she said.
News researcher Michele
Van Hoeck contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Sam Kennedy
at 521-5312 or skennedy@pressdemocrat.com.