Ilitch partner hired lobbyists involved in congressional earmark scandal: Rep. Young - Coconut Rd., Florida

A Susan Crabtree, senior editor at The Hill, reports that Richard Alcalde, a lobbyist for Detroit casino syndicator Michael J. Malik, Sr., (Ilitch family gambling development partner) is in the middle of a political scandal involving Rep. Don Young.

Malik and Alcalde both have ties to Young. Malik and his casino development partners (members of Detroit's Ilitch family) have been among the Alaska Congressman's top political donors; and Malik's flown Young around on the Ilitch private jet.

Young has helped Malik and the Ilitch family advance casino gambling ventures in Congress. Malik retained Richard Alcalde after a previous lobbyist, Barbara Bonfiglio, came under negative scrutiny.

The Hill reports:

"In April, a casino developer behind the push to settle the land claims through an act of Congress hired Rick Alcalde, a lobbyist implicated in the uproar over a disputed $10 million earmark sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) for an interchange at Coconut Road along Interstate 75 in Florida.

"MJM Enterprises, a company owned by Mike Malik, a casino developer who wants the land disputes settled so he can build a casino in Port Huron, Mich., hired Alcalde in the middle of a public call for a DoJ investigation into the Coconut Road earmark that was taking place in the Senate, lobbying records show.

"Alcalde is one of Young’s group of “A-list” lobbyists, on which The Hill reported in Thursday’s issue."

Funny business in D.C. lobbying reports by those backing Port Huron off-reservation casino scheme

With the funny business in lobbying reporting by individuals including former House Natural Resources Committee Aide Thomas "Tom" Brierton (he worked under former Rep. Richard Pombo, Rep. Don Young and others); are those behind Michael J. Malik, Sr.'s suspect Charlotte Beach Indian land claims and scheme for an off-reservation casino in Port Huron, Michigan, pushing hard for a floor vote in the House before the 2nd quarter lobbying disclosure reports are due?

Lobbyist for off-reservation casino scheme finally discloses former affiliation with House Natural Resources Committee

Tom Brierton, a one time senior aide to former Rep. Richard Pombo, Rep. Don Young and others has been lobbying in support of H.R. 2176, a bill that would allow a Detroit casino syndicator Michael J. Malik, Sr., to finally build an off-reservation casino in Port Huron, Michigan.

While Brierton had been lobbying for Malik since at least the beginning of February, he didn't report he had been retained by Malik's MJM Enterprises (Blue Water Resorts) until 6.13.08. In that disclosure document, Brierton failed to disclose he was at one time a senior staffer to the House Natural Resources Committee. Back in February, the Natural Resources Committee voted in favor of H.R. 2176.

Brierton only filed lobbying disclosures after TVT reported rumors on 6.11.08 that Brierton, a one-time aide to former Rep. Pombo and Rep. Don Young, had been lobbying hard in the House of Representatives for support of H.R. 2176.

However, in quarterly reports required of Capitol Hill lobbyists and filed by Brierton on 6.17.08, Brierton indicates that he was previously a senior policy advisor to the House Resources Committee. First Quarter Lobbying reports were due in April; but Brierton didn't file until June.

Brierton's disclosures come four months after his former colleagues voted in support of H.R. 2176 -- at least four and a half months after he started lobbying House offices in favor of H.R. 2176.

Congress to vote on Michigan land claim scheme; DOJ likely to investigate

6.19.08

Conyers, Dingell gaming dispute to be settled on House floor

By Susan Crabtree

House Democratic leaders have brokered a deal to bring to the floor next week a contentious Indian gaming bill that has pitted two powerful Democratic committee chairmen against one another.

For months, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) have been clashing over two bills that would settle tribal land disputes and allow two new Indian casinos to be built near Detroit. Next week, they will settle their differences on the House floor.

The deal would allow the two tribal land dispute bills that Dingell supports to be voted on on the floor, but would also give Conyers an amendment, according to sources tracking the measures. The amendment apparently would direct the Department of Justice (DoJ) and possibly the Department of the Interior to review the land claims — a difficult and likely unsuccessful process Dingell and other supporters have attempted to avoid by seeking congressional approval of the legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders are in a politically difficult spot.

They have decided to allot precious floor time for measures that will pave the way for Indian casinos during the first election year after the fall of Jack Abramoff, whose lobbying practices involving tribes and gambling helped propel Democrats into power in 2006.

Opponents of the new casinos, including a diverse bipartisan group headed by Conyers, as well as Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), believe the land claims are illegitimate and will not survive a review by those federal agencies.

Conyers, who opposes gambling on principle, also worries that the new casinos will undermine existing gambling operations that are a major source of tax revenue for cash-strapped Detroit. He and Kilpatrick, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), represent Detroit, but are enlisting the help of other gambling opponents such as Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). They are making the case that the land claims will set a dangerous precedent for Indian tribes and casino interests across the country.

Dozens of lobbying groups on both sides of the issue are pouring money and resources into a final push to persuade lawmakers on the issue.

In April, a casino developer behind the push to settle the land claims through an act of Congress hired Rick Alcalde, a lobbyist implicated in the uproar over a disputed $10 million earmark sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) for an interchange at Coconut Road along Interstate 75 in Florida.

MJM Enterprises, a company owned by Mike Malik, a casino developer who wants the land disputes settled so he can build a casino in Port Huron, Mich., hired Alcalde in the middle of a public call for a DoJ investigation into the Coconut Road earmark that was taking place in the Senate, lobbying records show.

Alcalde is one of Young’s group of “A-list” lobbyists, on which The Hill reported in Thursday’s issue.

On the other side of the issue, MGM, a major casino presence in Las Vegas, is furiously lobbying against the passage of the two settlement claims because it wants to protect a Detroit casino it built just a few years ago.

The Port Huron casino would help boost the economy in that area, and its congresswoman, Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), has spent years trying to resolve the land dispute claim so her district can have a casino and compete with a Canadian gambling operation located right across the border. Miller and Dingell, whose district would also get a casino out of the deal in the town of Romulus, argue that denying their areas the economic boon the gaming establishments would provide is unfair and motivated by greed.

Conyers, along with Rogers, sent a letter to colleagues Thursday, urging them to reject what they regard as an unprecedented expansion of “off-reservation” Indian gambling. The tribes want the rights to land some 350 miles from their reservations so they can open the casinos in locations where they’re likely to attract more customers, along the border and near Detroit.

Fifty-three House members signed Conyers’s letter, including 22 members of the CBC and 16 Republicans.

“The tribes’ effort to bypass the regular application process is particularly audacious considering the level of opposition these casino proposals face,” Conyers argued. “The Department of the Interior, the Judiciary Committee and the voters of the state of Michigan have all strongly rejected efforts to sidestep the established approval process.”

The letter also stressed that the bills would change the way casinos are approved by allowing Congress to wade into a land dispute that the Department of the Interior routinely determines.

Dingell, a 27-term veteran of the House and its longest-serving member, has joined forces with Natural Resources panel Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Young, the panel’s ranking member, along with a bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers, to push for the bills.

Rahall’s committee approved the measures by a wide margin earlier this year, but Conyers followed with a lopsided vote against them in the Judiciary Committee arguing against Congress’s intervention in the matter. Conyers used that Judiciary Committee stamp of disapproval to convince Democratic leaders to give him an amendment, and he hopes it helps stir opposition once it reaches the House floor for a full vote.

Miller also has sent out “Dear Colleague” letters to members.

The land settlement claims, she said, were hashed out by former Michigan Gov. John Engler (R) and approved by the current governor, Jennifer Granholm (D). The newest deal, which Granholm signed off on, would increase the state’s share of gaming revenues by as much as $30 million a year.

She said both Democratic senators from Michigan, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, support the legislation, although she did not mention that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who represents gambling-rich Las Vegas, opposes it.

“This is purely greed,” she said of her opponents’ motivation. “It’s not based on any real anti-gambling philosophy. They’re just trying to protect MGM’s interests.”

Ex-Pombo aide waited months to disclose he’s been lobbying on matters considered by former colleagues

A one-time aide to former Rep. Richard Pombo has been lobbying on Capitol Hill for passage of H.R. 2176, an unprecedented bill that would pave the way for a Detroit casino syndicator and his Indian tribe partners to build an off-reservation casino in Port Huron, Michigan.

Tom Brierton, formerly senior staff to the House Natural Resources Committee when then-Rep. Pombo was chairman, has been lobbying for support of H.R. 2176 in the House of Representatives since February 1st; but didn’t report his activities to officials who monitor such lobbying activity for four months, until June 13.

The bill was heard and passed favorably out the House Natural Resources Committee during February; the committee Brierton, now apparently a lobbyist, had most recently served as senior staff. It's likely that Brierton was employed by the House Resources Committee just 12-18 months before he started lobbying on the matter. Similar bills on the matter failed to pass out of Committee during the 107th and 108th Congresses.

Further, when Brierton finally filed disclosures indicating he had been retained months earlier by Detroit casino syndicator Michael J. Malik, Sr. to represent Malik’s casino development company MJM Enterprises (and an affiliate Blue Water Resorts), Brierton failed to disclose as required that he had previously been a senior staff official to the House Resources Committee – the primary committee to hear Indian gaming matters like H.R. 2176.

After the House Natural Resources Committee passed H.R. 2176, the House Judiciary Committee reviewed the matter in March and April, and voted unanimously to oppose the bill.

At congressional committee hearings, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and others called for investigations into the schemes promoted by private developers to acquire land in the 110-acre Charlotte Beach subdivision on Michigan's Upper Penninsula and then leverage Indian claims to such land in exchange for the rights to develop gambling 350 miles away in Port Huron.

Is it possible that for months others have also been lobbying on behalf of Malik's off-reservation casino scheme but have yet to officially report their activities?

Some suggest former Rep. Richard Pombo -- immediate past chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and someone who received thousands of dollars in political contributions from Mike Malik and Malik's partners Mike and Marian Ilitch -- has been spotted at congressional hearings on this matter and could be lobbying in support of H.R. 2176.