Davis gaming pact tracks campaign cash, reports show

Don Thompson

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 9:10 a.m.

SACRAMENTO -- As Gov. Gray Davis was fighting to keep his job this month, he negotiated, for the second time within weeks, a gambling agreement with an Indian tribe that made a nearly concurrent contribution to his campaign to avoid being recalled by voters.

Davis' administration concluded negotiations with the Fort Mojave tribe Oct. 3, four days before the Oct. 7 recall election and four days after the Needles-area tribe contributed $25,000 to Davis and $25,000 to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's campaign for governor, campaign finance records show.

In mid-September, the La Posta tribe contributed $50,000 to the same Davis-controlled Californians Against the Costly Recall committee and $5,000 to Bustamante, nine days after signing a gambling agreement with Davis.

Neither tribe had made any previous political contributions. They are two of the four tribes with which Davis negotiated gambling agreements just before the recall election.

"At worst, it smacks of payback. At best, it makes it seem that campaign contributions are the first order of business once you become a gaming tribe," said Jim Knox, executive director of California Common Cause, who noted the contribution sequence Tuesday. "The timing of the contributions certainly makes it look unsavory."

Spokesmen for Davis and the tribe denied any connection.

"This was a negotiation that we'd been in for months," said tribal administrator Gary Goforth.

Davis spokeswoman Amber Pasricha said, "There is no connection between campaign contributions and policy that we make here in the governor's office.

"Our negotiators have been working with all the tribes for many months now," she said. "They are not privy to what the campaign is up to."

Davis announced the agreement with the 1,100-member Fort Mojave tribe on Monday. It would let the tribe operate a casino on 300 acres of undeveloped off-reservation land 3 1/2 miles west of Needles, making the tribe the first to operate casinos in three states.

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would have to approve a legislative ratification of the Fort Mojave agreement, wants to renegotiate all of Davis' gambling compacts to make tribes pay their "fair share" to resolve the state's budget problems.

Schwarzenegger suggests tribes should pay 25 percent of gambling revenues; Davis' four recent agreements call for the tribes to contribute 5 percent, which his administration and the tribes maintain is all that is realistic.

All the compacts except the Fort Mojave tribe's already have been ratified by lawmakers and will stand for 20 years unless the tribes choose to renegotiate.

Tribes spent millions unsuccessfully opposing Schwarzenegger's election with contributions to Davis, Bustamante and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock.

Several are seeking rapid approval of gambling pacts they have been negotiating with the Davis administration before he leaves office in the next month.