The News Tribune (Lite) - Gregoire should have spurned tribal cash

TheNewsTribune.com
Section: Opinion

Gregoire should have spurned tribal cash

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
No law says Indian tribes must steer clear of politics, or that Gov. Chris Gregoire can’t accept her friends’ help for her reelection bid. But just because something’s legal doesn’t mean it doesn’t stink.

Take the recent report by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that tribes are giving big – really big – to Gregoire.

Tribes have contributed $49,000 to her re-election campaign directly, chump change compared to what they’ve funneled through the state Democratic Party. State tribes have given more than $600,000 to the party, which in turn contributed to Gregoire’s campaign.

No one gives to a political campaign expecting absolutely nothing in return, but there is a line between advancing common interests and payment for services rendered. Gregoire’s campaign cash smacks too much of the latter.

In 2005, the governor killed a gambling compact that could have cost the tribes $140 million a year, money that would have gone to the state. Gregoire nixed the revenue-sharing arrangement in favor of a lower limit on the number of “video gambling machines” – essentially simulated slot machines – tribes can operate.

The aborted deal was by no means a keeper. It would have sanctioned a stunning escalation in tribal gaming and set the state up to become addicted to gambling revenues.

But the replacement Gregoire inked last year was little better. The new compact allows tribes to install nearly 10,000 more machines, upped limits on wagers and cleared the way for off-reservation casinos.

Most telling is how the deal has been received in Indian Country. Tribes that refused to part with gambling profits even if it bought them a sky-high limit on video gambling machines have now signed onto the final compact Gregoire negotiated. No bones about it, the tribes made out well.

They have returned the favor with a wad of campaign cash. Special interests give that much loot to a candidate for one reason: results. In that regard, the tribes’ money is no different than the Building Industry Association of Washington’s $500,000 campaign to get Gregoire’s Republican opponent Dino Rossi elected.

But usually groups are betting on the come, hoping that a politician will see things their way once in office. It’s not as often that a campaign bankroll coincides so neatly with a lucrative giveway of state authority.

Is the governor on the take? No. Does the mere appearance of impropriety undermine the public’s tenuous faith in elected officials? Yes.

No one can blame the tribes for playing the game; the fault is Gregoire’s for accepting their money, for creating the perception that she can be bought and sold. She is guilty, if only of poor judgment.