FACTS














Political Influence
  


"... no matter how effective lawsuits might be in beating specific instances of government sponsored gambling, ultimately lawsuits alone will not stop the larger trend.
The only thing that will do that is when a working majority of the citizens oppose it, and that majority then begins to show up in elections and ballot measures and public opinion polls."

For support of my point I invoke no less than Lincoln, who understood this as well as any American President ever has. In his long, patient effort to starve and then choke slavery, he knew that he could only go as fast as the nation was ready to go. "Public opinion is everything," Lincoln said; "with it you can do anything, and without it you can do nothing." Later on, civil rights advocates knew the same thing. That the courts were way ahead of the country on civil rights does not mean that there wasn't a growing plurality as early as the 1950's and 60's who were fed up with American apartheid. No one understood this better than Martin Luther King, Jr, who focused like a laser beam on building public opinion. All of his efforts, speeches, marches, and books were done with this sole purpose in mind. When Eisenhower and then Kennedy and then Johnson started sending in federal troops and signing legislation to end legal racism in this country, they also knew that a working majority of Americans- maybe not everywhere, but a working national majority- supported what they were doing. This must be our goal in attacking tribal gaming and state-sponsored gambling.

11/14/06 - "Government as Brothel: What's Your Pleasure, Honey?"
Remarks on Public Gambling, ONU National Conference on Federal Policy towards Tribal Gaming, Washington, D.C., November 14, 2006
by Kelly Clark, Esquire.

The depth and breadth of the influence by casino profits on our political system is nothing less than astounding.


Local Influence

Oregon - Casino tribe revenge - Marilyn Kittelman (Douglas County Commissioner) already knew what to expect from (casino) tribal leadership. One county commissioner who questioned the expansion of tribal trust lands in the county had faced a recall election - and lost. Kittelman is convinced that a similar failed recall attempt against her was financed by the tribe. ( 8/22/07, "Cow Creek Revenge")

Oregon - "Land use laundering" is the ploy used by local Oregon governments to facilitate casino expansion without accounting for the impacts on land planning as usually is required by zoning and other land use processes. (Oregon Land Use Laundering 1/31/07)

Oregon - In this year's primary election season, the tribe spent nearly $1 million to blanket the airwaves with TV ads blasting Kulongoski and Republican candidate Kevin Mannix. Kulongoski won the Democratic nomination, despite the ad blitz. But Mannix lost to Ron Saxton in the GOP primary, a loss Mannix blamed in part on the ads. Saxton opposes a Columbia Gorge casino and thus wasn't targeted. (Tribe rebuts Kulongoski stand on casino 10/9/06, KGW TV)

Oregon - If the Grand Ronde (casino) tribe repeats the $800,000 ad campaign in the fall general election, it could tip the race to Saxton and hand Republicans their first Oregon governorship in two decades. "It's clear that they are the most powerful interest group on the scene right now," said James Moore, a political scientist at Pacific University in Forest Grove. "They have supplanted labor unions, and they have supplanted the anti-tax crowd. Watching the way they flung money at the TV screen during the primary, I have no doubt that they will continue to be the most powerful interest group in the fall." ( Oregon casino tribe turns into political player 6/19/06)

California - Tribes are fond of reminding the public that they are sovereign governments. They are that, but they operate like no other governments in this state. Nontribal members have no standing with these governments, no rights to vote for tribal leaders or to share in tribal assets. Tribal governments are free to ignore state law and local regulations. They can and do contribute to
state and local political campaigns. In fact, over the last decade, tribes have become the biggest political contributors in the state. To allow such governments to have voting membership on a regional body that decides land-use issues for the public at large is inappropriate. It would give voting power to a government that is unaccountable to the people who will be affected by its vote. It also would give voting power to a governmental entity that regularly makes very large campaign contributions to other members of the regional board on which it will sit.

Equally troubling, rich and powerful tribal governments operate some of the
most lucrative businesses in the state: tribal gambling casinos. If and when
tribes serve on regional government bodies, how can the public know whether
tribal leaders are voting for the benefit of their business enterprises or in the wider public interest? If members of the public don't like a decision the regional body makes, they have no power to unelect the tribal members
whose decisions on the board they dislike. (Are these governments? 8/19/06, Sacramento Bee)

Rhode Island - Harrah's Entertainment is spending $87,820 a day to persuade Rhode Islanders to support a proposed casino. Last month alone, Harrah's spent more than $2.7 million -- or $87,820 each day -- according to a filing with the state Board of Elections. In June, the Las Vegas-based casino company spent $125,000, bringing its total to $2.85 million. (Harrah's gambles millions on voters in Rhode Island, 8/9/06)

National Influence

  • Gambling Scam on America's Poor - What kind of government spends millions of taxpayer dollars peddling false hope to confiscate cash from its poorest citizens to fatten state coffers? The same government that spends more taxpayer money on ads offering help for addicted gamblers. In the next election, consider asking your state legislators whether their mandate is to serve or to swindle the people. No government should be running soak-the-weak scams. (5/2/07 - Gambling Scam on America's Poor)

  • Gaming or Gambling? What's the Difference? - States wanted to benefit from those (gambling) revenues but, at the same time, politicians wanted to avoid the ugly images of mobsters, prostitutes and addicts that were associated with casino gambling in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., Thompson said. "The legislators say, 'Oh no no, we don't have gambling. We just have gaming. We're just playing games,'" Thompson said. (3/11/06 - Gaming or Gambling? What's the Difference?)

  • Political contribution limits on other groups don't apply ... the 212 federally recognized tribes that have given contributions have used nearly 2,000 different variations of their names in their filings. One tribe has used more than 75 names. (Campaign gift loophole for casino tribes, 2/2/06)

  • Nearly three dozen members of Congress, including leaders from both parties, pressed the government to reject a Louisiana Indian casino while they collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff, and the timing of donations was a coincidence. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gaming -- even though they continued to accept donations from casino-running tribes. Many lived far from Louisiana and had no constituent interest in the casino dispute. ( Senators opposed Indian casino amid donations ,11/17/05)

  • But tribes, enriched by casino profits, are among the nation's fastest-growing contributors, pumping more than $7 million into federal campaigns in last year's elections. That's more than mining, textile and environmental groups. (Tribes buy into political process, 5/10/05, Oregonian)

  • Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff received $10 million in previously undisclosed payments from a public relations executive whom he recommended for work with wealthy Indian tribes that operate casinos, congressional investigators have determined. Abramoff, one of Washington's best-connected Republican lobbyists, this month was forced out of his firm, Greensberg Traurig, after revelations that he and the executive - Michael Scanlon, a former spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas - had persuaded four newly wealthy tribes to pay them fees of more than $45 million over the past three years. That amount rivals spending on public policy by some of the nation's biggest corporate interests. (Register-Guard, Eugene, OR, March 30, 2004.)

  • Shays, Wolf Introduce Bill to Give Communities Say
    Federal Legislation May Prevent Future Attacks on Communities

  • Indian Casinos and Paint on the Pig (Buchman)
    It is tobacco logic, the same argument that says the potential benefits of increased cigarette tax revenues outweigh the added health care costs that increased cigarette sales would bring. Like cigarette taxes, the burden imposed by a casino undermines the community's health at the same time it is taking away from the pool of disposable dollars that can be spent elsewhere in the community.

  • Gambling Expansion Big Loser in 2003
    Report from National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion

  • Who's Getting What - Political Contributions
    One Oregon casino tribe makes the "top 20" contributor's list in the nation

  • Hastert Letter to Norton
    Congress is concerned about 'reservation shopping' and placing casinos off-reservation

  • Casinos and Political Campaigns
    Presentation at the National Conference of Gambling States by Les Bernal Chief of Staff for Massachusetts Senator Sue Tucker - 1/10/04

  • Casino Plans Bring Backlash
    "There's a growing backlash against tribal gaming and tribal governance,'' said Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up For California, a group that wants tougher regulation of casinos. "After the 2000 vote, we became a full-service gaming state. I don't think citizens thought that's what we were becoming
  

 

Links:

  


P.O. Box 978
Florence, Oregon 97439
e-mail: info@pactoregon.org

  

Copyright © People Against a Casino Town. Users may download information from this web site for personal use only. Unauthorized copying or distribution of this site or any of its contents without the express permission of the author is forbidden.
Contact info@pactoregon.org for reprint permission of any web page content, which is liberally given to groups or individuals fighting casinos in their communities.