2.17.08Clash over Indian casinos
BY GEORGE WEEKS
Syndicated Columnist
The quest on Capitol Hill by two Upper Peninsula tribes to gain downstate land for casinos is grandly described by the Washington Post as "a fierce multimillion lobbying battle of a scale not seen since fall of Jack Abramoff" -- imprisoned defrauder of American Indians and others.
But U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, whose district includes homelands of two of the combatants -- the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians -- calls the description "highly overstated." In a phone interview, he said the legislation, approved by the House Natural Resources Committee last week, is not so much a "titanic battle" on the national scene as it is "a Michigan delegation food fight" among members "trying to protect their own turf."
Two top delegation titans are on opposite sides of the legislation that would settle century-old land claims by allowing casinos in Romulus and Port Huron in exchange for the settling of 110 acres of land claims around Charlotte Beach in the Upper Peninsula.
House Dean John Dingell, D-Dearborn, powerful chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and mentor of Stupak, who heads the committee's high-visibility Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is in favor of the legislation. Dingell, whose district includes Romulus, insists that the issue is about a legitimate land claim.
Among those allied with Democrats Stupak and Dingell on this issue is Rep. Candice Miller, R-Macomb County, who represents Port Huron. (Now a faint blip on the crystal ball, but Miller and Stupak are potential opposing contenders for governor in 2010.)
In committee testimony on the legislation earlier this month, Miller said: "Much of the opposition is based purely on greed. Now that the city of Detroit has theirs, they don't want anyone else to have one."
Against the legislation is House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, who's allied with the Congressional Black Caucus and beleaguered Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, site of three commercial casinos.
The Interior Department opposes the legislation, saying it would circumvent its role in reviewing gambling compacts between tribes and the states.
Quite possibly the opponent to be most feared by supporters of the legislation is Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., whose Las Vegas constituents include gaming managers with big stakes in Detroit casinos. Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow support the legislation.
This is more than an intramural Michigan food fight. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, who supports the legislation and is co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, said in the Washington Post: "It'll be a real lobbying effort on both sides. Whenever you combine gaming and money to be made, you find a lot of people interested who were never interested in Indians before." The Post said: "The two sides have accused one another of the sort of tactics Abramoff's lobbying team made famous, including creating front groups to gin up anti-gambling sentiment. Opponents charge that the tribes' legal position rests on a sham land purchase secretly engineered by one of the casino developers.
"Michael Malik, developer of one of the proposed casinos, is a business partner of Marian Ilitch, whose family owns a casino, hockey's Detroit Red Wings and baseball's Detroit Tigers. Ilitch and their family members have given $393,000 to members of Congress in the past two election cycles. On the other side, MGM Mirage is the biggest contributor to members of Congress, giving $1.4 million in the past two cycles." The paper said the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which operates the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, "and sees the legislation as a threat to its business, has given $394,000." Also at play here, as it has been through the ages, is whether deals made will be deals kept. The state made a deal on this with the tribes in 2002, but the feds have the final word on this.
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