Tribe seeks support for new compact

Erica Werner

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 | 9:43 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- One of California's most prominent Indian tribes is using a political campaign-style tactic to marshal public support as it enters negotiations with the state over tribal gambling regulations.

Patrons of casinos run by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians got mailers this week with postcards for them to send to Gov. Gray Davis urging "a fair and favorable compact with the Agua Caliente."

"We are asking all members of the extended Agua Caliente community to sign and return the attached card so that we can show Gov. Davis how important a fair compact negotiation is to us," says the mailer illustrated with photos of smiling tribal members.

The three-paragraph statement included on the postcard reads in part: "A fairly negotiated compact could mean hundreds of additional jobs for our community -- jobs that would otherwise go to people in other states."

The mailer is reminiscent of the high-profile publicity campaigns tribes waged prior to voter approval of Proposition 1A, which legalized Indian gambling in the state three years ago.

It is apparently the first effort of its kind in connection with the upcoming renegotiations of the tribal-state agreements, known as compacts, that govern gambling on Indian lands, tribal experts said.

"Piggybacking on the player club list for a casino is an interesting idea," said Indian gambling consultant Michael Lombardi. "... The Agua effort could be the beginning of the emergence of a new political effort by tribes."

Amber Pasricha, a spokeswoman for Davis, said the governor would enter the negotiations with an open mind.

Officials with Agua Caliente, which operates two Las Vegas-style casinos in and around Palm Springs, did not immediately return calls for comment. The tribe is the only one in the state with two casinos.

It could not immediately be determined how many of the mailers were sent, but they apparently went to people who joined the casinos' players club, a free program that allows gamblers to earn points to get benefits.

The mailers arrived in mailboxes as tribes prepare for high-stakes negotiations with the state, set to open next month, over key portions of the compacts signed in 1999.

Some tribes will be attempting to lift the existing 2,000-per-tribe slot machine limit. Davis, meanwhile, has announced plans to get the tribes to contribute $1.5 billion to the state's general fund.

There are 61 tribes in the state that currently have compacts and dozens more want them. Fifty tribal casinos currently operate in California, netting $5 billion a year by state estimates -- a figure tribes call inflated.

Other tribes have gone public in advance of the negotiations in other ways.

Anthony Pico, chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, wrote an opinion piece in The San Diego Union-Tribune last week offering to submit to taxation at a corporate level.

Earlier this month, 21 tribes announced they were forming a negotiating coalition and were willing to consider increased revenue for the state. Howard Dickstein, an attorney for the coalition, said the tribes he works with haven't attempted the same kind of public outreach as the Agua Caliente.

"I think that that could be an effective avenue if and when there are specific issues that the parties -- the tribes that are negotiating and the governor -- have disagreements about," Dickstein said.