Editorial: St. Regis Mohawk Tribe paid for casino

Wednesday, February 21, 2007  

"We have no problem with Indians, or anyone else, participating in the political process through campaign contributions. It is a First Amendment right. But if the idea is that allowing Indians to operate casinos is a kind of reparations for the treatment they have suffered, it seems illogical to make them pay for the privilege. Yet paying is exactly what they have been doing. New York's St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council gave $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in June of 2005, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The tribe has also been pouring money into New York State politics, with no clear ideological pattern. The tribe made a $500 campaign contribution to the Democrat who is now lieutenant governor, David Paterson, and $2,500 to the successful Assembly campaign of a Democrat who was an aide to Senator Clinton, Andrew Brockway. It put $3,900 into the successful campaign of another Assembly Democrat, Darrel Aubertine, whose government Web site features a press release hailing Governor Spitzer's 'ethics reform package.' The tribe has also contributed $4,000 in the past four years to the re-election campaigns of Senator Bruno and has given a total of $17,950 to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, according to state campaign finance records.

Mr. Spitzer may claim that all this makes the case for public financing of campaigns. Or he may say that the fact he is awarding a potentially lucrative gambling opportunity to a tribe that has been backing Mr. Bruno is evidence of the governor's integrity, as he isn't denying his political foes state contracts. Yet New Yorkers will see that a governor trying to cultivate a reputation as a reformer has several better options here than striking a treaty with the Mohawks. One would have been to open casino opportunities statewide to any business wanting to open one, thereby eliminating the need for would-be casino operators to try to purchase the favor of politicians. Another would have been not to open any new casinos, thus avoiding what Newfield so aptly and presciently described as a murky world."

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Editorial: Spitzer and the Mohawks (The New York Sun 2/21)