By MICHELLE DeARMOND, The Press-Enterprise

More than 25 years after ending his last term as governor, Jerry Brown is delivering stump speeches and wooing California’s newly moneyed tribes as he hints at another run for the state’s top job. Many tribes have become major political donors since he was governor.

They now run bustling casinos that are partly regulated by Brown himself. If he is to make the leap from attorney general — the job he was elected to in 2006 — to governor, his campaign likely will need the financial support of the very businesses he oversees, experts say.

The attorney general’s office’s Bureau of Gambling Control is one of several entities that regulate Indian casinos. Whether Brown, as attorney general, can crack down on problems at Indian casinos and simultaneously solicit tribes’ political support could become an issue on the campaign trail, as questions of potential conflicts of interest often do.

“If questions are raised about the appropriateness of that relationship and they aren’t responded to … it’s dangerous for the candidate,” Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a USC political analyst, said. “In politics, perception is reality.”

Records show that Brown hasn’t collected any campaign contributions from tribes during his time as attorney general thus far. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Brown said he wouldn’t rule out accepting tribal donations later but would exercise “prudence and good judgment” in cases of potential conflict.

“That’s a concern I might have with respect to anybody,” he said, noting that many political donors do business with the state. “I don’t want to single out tribes. They’re big and they’re important in the political process, but there are also a lot of others.”

Brown has not formally announced that he will run for governor in 2010. On Tuesday, he said he’s “certainly giving it a lot of thought.”

Brown, a Democrat, served two terms as governor before California voters approved term limits in 1990. That law is not retroactive so it does not bar him from serving two more.

Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger’s second term will end in 2010, and he cannot run again. The campaigns of candidates seeking to succeed him are expected to get under way in earnest next year.

Building Support

Brown has been meeting with tribal leaders recently. He said he’s not asked for campaign contributions or talked explicitly about running for office.

Publicly, Brown has said little about Indian casinos, focusing on environmental issues and financial corruption instead in the news releases he churns out.

Meanwhile, tribal employees and other critics have questioned whether his office is doing enough to address problems that plague some tribes flush with gambling profits: drugs, violence and criminal activity by tribal members inside casinos. Critics have said they see little evidence that the state is trying to rein in the criminals.

In an interview, Brown said he is concerned about those issues and has visited reservations because he’s heard about some of the problems. He rejected suggestions that he has failed to crack down on casino troubles because of his political aspirations and need for future campaign contributions.

About a month ago, Brown visited the San Manuel Reservation near San Bernardino. The reservation was the site of a federal drug raid in 2006 that resulted in the arrest of a couple of San Manuel Indians and two Mexican Mafia members. The four recently accepted a plea agreement in that case, which included drug trafficking and murder-for-hire charges.

Former tribal employees complained in newspaper interviews that tribal members and gang members they associate with have been allowed to deal and use drugs, carry weapons and commit assaults at the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino without consequences. Tribal leaders say they take the problems seriously and attribute them to a small number of tribal members.

Brown, who has spent less than 1 ½ years as attorney general, said in an interview that he has been hearing about problems at reservations such as San Manuel and is concerned about criminal gangs exerting influence there.

“Any time you have so much money show up so suddenly, there’s always a risk of impropriety and criminality. That’s obvious. Whether the state’s doing enough, certainly I’d want to think about that,” he said. “I certainly wouldn’t want to rest on what we have.”

Brown said his office may be investigating criminal problems at San Manuel “right now for all I know.” His Bureau of Gambling Control’s interim chief said investigations can take a few years, and he could not confirm whether one was under way at San Manuel or any Inland Indian casinos.

Last week, Brown addressed hundreds of tribal members in San Diego, suggesting he might “go into another job” and could use their help. He made no reference to the problems at San Manuel or other casinos.

“There’s no substitute for experience. With your experience and my experience, we can really turn this country around,” Brown told the National Indian Gaming Association, his voice rising and booming across the banquet hall at the San Diego Convention Center. “I think we’re going to need some Indian people to get us back in touch.”

Brown drew applause from the crowd when he harkened back to his two terms as governor, which stretched from 1975 to early 1983, and recalled his early support for the protection of sacred sites and the creation of the state Native American Heritage Commission, which oversees them.

Brown referred briefly to his current role as one of the regulators of California’s 50-plus Indian casino, saying he’s “in charge of keeping gambling honest and straight on the right path.”

The state is only one of three layers of government that regulate Indian casinos — the other two are the federal National Indian Gaming Commission and the tribal gaming agencies. Critics say the state has not had enough of a presence at Indian casinos since voters approved their operation in 2000.

The tribes have the primary day-to-day responsibility for regulating the casino, but they can call on the state or federal government for additional assistance. Some tribal employees have complained that more state and federal involvement is needed because tribal family loyalties and inexperience inhibit the abilities of some tribal gaming commissions.

The California attorney general’s office and the state Gambling Control Commission both play a part, including completing the licensing of key casino employees. Representatives of the attorney general’s office also make quarterly visits to Indian casinos to make sure they’re complying with their state tribal gambling agreements, said Matt Campoy, interim chief for the attorney general’s office’s Bureau of Gambling Control.

Campoy said he thinks tribes, for the most part, do a good job of regulating their casinos, and he rejected suggestions that the state and the tribes are failing to do their jobs. In fact, he said, the state has stepped up its efforts by opening new offices in Southern California, and it is hiring additional staff to investigate casinos and card rooms.

Tribal Support

Brown visited James Ramos, the new chairman of the San Manuel tribe, about a month ago when Ramos took office. Ramos, who also sits on the state Native American Heritage Commission, said he welcomed the visit and the two talked primarily about cultural issues.

Brown never commented on whether he was running for governor, Ramos said.

It’s too early to say whether the tribe would support a Brown gubernatorial bid, Ramos said, especially given the possibility of other Democrats, such as state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, running.

Elsewhere in the Inland area, other tribal leaders also are reserving judgment until all the candidates in the 2010 governor’s race are known. Brown is considered a likely front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

Robert Salgado, chairman of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians near San Jacinto, received a national humanitarian award last week at the San Diego event where Brown spoke. In an interview later, Salgado said his tribe supported Brown’s attorney general bid and likely would support him if he ran for governor again.

“He’s pretty knowledgeable of the whole state of California, not just on the reservations,” Salgado said. “I think he’d be fair.”

Reach Michelle DeArmond at 951-368-9441 or mdearmond@PE.com
The Press-Enterprise

Posted on May 1st, 2008 by hunwut
Filed under: Gaming, State Government