Despite lobbyists admitting defeat; Barwest launches ad campaign in last ditch effort

9.05.07

Casino backers try last minute effort to pass compacts

By JASON SMITH, staff writer

With about a week left in the 2007 legislative session, supporters of one proposed off-reservation Indian casino in Barstow are trying one final push to get the state legislature’s approval before the agreements expire.

State senators, Mayor Lawrence Dale, and representatives of the Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes Indian tribes met in Sacramento on Wednesday to announce a renewed effort to lobby legislators to pass the compacts with the tribes to build a casino in Barstow. The compacts, signed by the governor on Sept. 9, 2005, will expire if not passed by Sept. 17.

The supporters have created a 30-second television commercial that will air in the districts of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, and state Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, and in Sacramento. The commercial features Francine Kupsch of the Los Coyotes tribe, who originally starred in a 1998 ad used to support Proposition 5, which expanded Indian gaming in California. The ad blames “rich tribes who own casinos” for the stalling the compacts in the legislature and urges viewers to call the offices of Nuñez and Perata.

“We’ll be taking the issue directly to the public,” said Tom Shields, spokesman for the casino’s developer, BarWest LLC.

The tribes and BarWest will pay for the commercial, which will be broadcast during the next week.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this,” he said.

Alicia Tross, spokeswoman for Senator Perata’s office, said she doesn’t think the efforts will be successful.

“There is just no time left in this session to move the compact,” she said.

She said that the senate has a rule that compacts must sit at the senate desk before being taken up for a vote.

Steven Maziglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez’s office, said that the speaker has not decided whether or not to support the compact because the compacts have not reached the Assembly floor.

Shields said that although the deadline will be tight, there is still hope to pass the compacts this year. He said last year at this time the compacts for the TASIN tribes, the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations tribes, passed in one afternoon at the end of the legislative session.

“In Sacramento, where there’s a will there’s a way,” he said.

Nick Medeiros, a lobbyist hired by the city of Barstow, recently wrote a letter to the city of Barstow calling passage of the compacts “doubtful this year. In order for the Barstow casino development to proceed the compacts would have to be approved by Sept. 17 and land for the project would have to be put into federal trust, a lengthy process that is still underway.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4126 or jason_smith@link.freedom.com