The FlashReport hasn’t taken any kind of a formal position on whether the State Assembly should ratify a group of gaming compacts negotiated between Governor Schwarzenegger and Indian Tribes with gaming casinos. These compacts have already been approved by the State Senate, so the Assembly is all that stands between these tribes and approval to add 5500 new slot machines to their casinos. Primary opposition to approving this compact (several other compacts have already been approved) comes from unions who object to the fact that tribal casinos are not union endeavors. Anyway, delving into a public policy debate about tribal gaming is an interesting idea, but not one for today’s commentary.
But I do want to draw the attention of readers to an Associated Press article by Aaron Davis in which the accusation is made by Democrats that the Morongo Tribe (they are the ones with that big casino and hotel about twenty minutes this side of Palm Springs) is threatening to put money into the effort to thwart Speaker Nunez job-extending term-limits weakening measure that will appear on the February ballot. According to the AP, Democrat legislator Alberto Torrico, who heads up the very relevant Government Organization Committee of the Assembly has referred to this as a, "bully tactic."
I bring this issue up because it goes straight to this whole issue of the motivation for placing the weakening of term limits on the February ballot. It’s not about "better government" — it’s about incumbent hubris and a passionate desire for those who are incumbents to maintain their offices, influence and perks for as long as possible. After all, if extending term limits wasn’t such a great deal for legislative leaders, it would hardly be a great "tool" for leveraging via threat for advocates of approving the tribal compacts.
The Morongo band of Mission Indians should oppose Nunez’ term-limits extension measure. Politicians like Don Perata and Fabian Nunez have let the power go to their heads. California is a huge state with, frankly, millions of people that are qualified to spend time as representatives of the people in Sacramento. Doubling the amount of time you can spend in the Assembly, and adding an additional allowable term in the State Senate is going to limit citizen opportunity to get involved, and allow the entrenched leaders to accumulate even more political power than they enjoy today. And they enjoy a lot.
Of course, if you want to see the politics of Sacramento really work their magic, wait until after the remaining compacts are approved — I wouldn’t be surprised to see Indian Gaming interests then because one of the largest sponsors of the term-limits extension measure. After all, according to Shane Goldmacher’s story over at the Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert, among the ten organizations who have plunked down $1.25 million already in support of the measure is a "political committee of Los Angeles-area card rooms" who gave $250,000. Yes, these are competitors of the tribes for gambling revenue.
Nunez is just manipulative enough to demand that the Indians "match or beat" the Card Room PAC’s donation in order to garner his support — union-worker issues aside.
By the way, in case anyone is wondering who else is interesting in currying favor with legislative leaders by writing big checks to help them keep their jobs longer — you probably won’t be shocked to hear that it is predominantly public employee unions (CTA, CCPOA, SEIU, etc.) who are in for over $600k.
Maybe if being in the legislature wasn’t such a sexy occupation (big fat per dium checks and lavish trips around the globe), incumbents would be ready to return with enthusiasm to the "real world" after six or eight years of public service…