Opinion: Tribal war rages in Washington with anti-casino efforts

This legislation feels like an old-school earmark – a narrowly structured gift for two wealthy casino operators. Giving little hint of its purpose and only 40 lines in length, it’s built to slip unnoticed into an unrelated bill. It also may prove very expensive for taxpayers. Echoing the Obama administration, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the price to the federal government as $1 billion or more when the Tohono inevitably sue over lost property rights.

Interestingly, HR 308 is pushed by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who claims private property rights are sacred and earmarks are evil. The tea party darling has made much over both, writing last year that property rights are an issue “upon which America was founded,” and telling Bloomberg in 2011, “I’m not an earmark guy.” So why does he continue flogging a bill that the Senate has torpedoed repeatedly?

Gosar explains that in 2002, when Arizona negotiated a compact with the state’s Indian tribes, the Tohono “implied” it wouldn’t build a casino in the Phoenix area. But this argument seems thin, given that nothing in the 2002 compact limits gambling. Moreover, Phoenix is already home to five casinos, some of which have been built or expanded since the compact was signed.

Perhaps Gosar has a more prosaic motivation. The Center for Responsive Politics reports he relies heavily on political donations from casino interests — $50,750 over the past four years.

It’s more puzzling that Sen. John McCain has added his voice to the mix. Several years ago he vowed not to take sides in the squabble. Nevertheless, this Congress, he stepped into the fight, introducing S 152, which is identical to Gosar’s legislation. Recently, McCain’s bill received only about five minutes’ debate before passing out of the Indian Affairs Committee on a party-line vote. Only Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the ranking Democrat, spoke out against it, warning tribes could become wary of signing pacts knowing Congress might undo them later.

Shortly before McCain flipped on the issue, the Salt River tribe, owners of a mega-gambling resort in Phoenix, hired obscure Washington lobby shop FirstStrategic to push the anti-Tohono legislation. Notching less than $1 million in annual lobbying revenue and fielding a staff of six lobbyists, FirstStrategic derives about one-third of its revenue from the Salt River contract. The tiny influence shop has one asset, however, that the 90-person lobbying behemoth Akin Gump can’t match — a man named Wes Gullett.