Tribes using influence in Congress to bypass local opposition

SAN DIEGO (AP) _ When a Northern California tribe wanted help opening a casino on land 40 miles away from its reservation, it turned to a U.S. senator _ from Colorado. <br><br>Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Sunday, March 14th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAN DIEGO (AP) _ When a Northern California tribe wanted help opening a casino on land 40 miles away from its reservation, it turned to a U.S. senator _ from Colorado.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell helped write three sentences into a bill that will help the Enterprise Rancheria tribe turn the piece of pasture in Yuba County into tribal land.

It was one of three instances in recent months in which California tribes sought congressional help to expand their reservations over local opposition. Two of the projects were included in a Campbell bill that has become law; the bill including the Yuba County project is still awaiting Senate action.

The sentences supporting the Enterprise Rancheria casino in Yuba County don't mention the tribe's name, its location or even a word about gambling.

``If the bill were to give away the tribe's name or to specify Yuba County, we are afraid it would come to the attention of Rep. (Wally) Herger, or our other opponents ... who would demand that he stop the legislation, which he could and probably would do,'' tribal attorney James E. Cohen wrote last April to members of the Enterprise Rancheria.

Herger, R-Calif., represents Yuba County, north of Sacramento.

The e-mail was provided to The Associated Press by Cheryl Schmit of Stand Up for California, an outspoken critic of tribal gambling. Cohen did not respond to several requests for comment.

Critics charge that tribes are using their political clout to circumvent state and local laws, leaving communities with little say over what happens on or near neighboring reservations.

``I don't think we'll ever live to see anything more corrupting than gambling as far as governance is concerned,'' said Robert Coffin, a lawyer advising the city of San Diego in a dispute with the Barona tribe over a water pipeline. ``Who can stop it?''

Herger said he will try if the language authorizing the casino in his district makes it to the House.

``This isn't the way we do things in a democracy,'' Herger said. ``It's like they're trying to pull the wool over a community's eyes.''

The tribes' approach is legal and mirrors lobbying by corporations.

The land for the casino would be compensation for land the tribe sold to the state in the 1960s that is now submerged by a reservoir.

The Campbell bill that has become law, signed by President Bush earlier this month, aided the Barona tribe in its efforts to build a 1 1/2-mile pipeline to its San Diego County casino, hotel and golf course.

The project had been stymied by the city's refusal to grant the tribe's request to waive environmental review of the pipeline project. Campbell's bill turns 85 acres of the pipeline's path into tribal land, allowing the tribe to skirt state environmental laws.

Local officials were unaware of the legislation until it passed.

``It wasn't done under cover of darkness,'' said David Baron, the tribe's director of government affairs. ``At no time was Barona hiding the fact that it wanted to take the land into trust.''

The same bill helps the Agua Caliente tribe of Palm Springs add land to its reservation.

Tribal Chairman Richard Milanovich said the bill is aimed at a 2-acre parcel of condemned land the tribe acquired in downtown Palm Springs. The parcel is on the site of the tribe's proposed downtown entertainment complex, which has met with local resistance.

Critics say the measure gives the tribe limitless power to acquire land. ``I believe they could use this language to acquire land in downtown L.A.,'' Schmit said.

Campbell's Senate staff didn't respond to calls this past week seeking comment.

Since 2001, Indian gambling interests across the country have given more than $9.3 million to federal candidates and political action committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The No. 1 recipient of that money since 2003, according to the CRP, is Campbell, a Democrat-turned-Republican and the only American Indian in the Senate, who has received $96,200. He recently announced his retirement.

Passage of the Barona and Agua Caliente legislation in the House was aided by two influential Republicans, Rep. Duncan Hunter of the San Diego County town of Alpine and Rep. Richard Pombo of the Northern California town of Tracy.

Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for Pombo, said critics were ``looking for boogeymen in the closet'' and noted that the bill drew no opposition during the year it took to pass the House and Senate.

``There was not a member of Congress who opposed this legislation,'' she said.

Pombo has accepted more than $6,750 from members of the Agua Caliente's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, since 2003. Barona donated $5,000 to Hunter's Peace Through Strength political action committee last year.

On the House floor last month, Pombo said the pipeline was needed to help fight fires in the area, which was devastated by October's Cedar Fire, the largest wildfire in state history. Hunter said the bill also will help local residents whose wells have gone dry.

The tribe blames drought for its water problems, but residents blame the tribe's golf course.

Frances Gesiakowski says her well dried up shortly after the golf course sprinklers went on in 2001. The 62-year-old retiree now has to have water trucked to her home near the Barona land.

``Anybody else, any public contractor, has to comply to county regulations and environmental standards,'' Gesiakowski said. ``Why shouldn't they?''