Opinion: Tribes in Minnesota spend big to keep gaming exclusivity

Tuesday, November 9, 2010  

"Minnesota tribes’ contributions to their friends are eye-popping. The contributions have favored, nearly exclusively, the Democratic-Farmer-Laborparty. Why is that not surprising?

Fact: American Indians who run the five largest casinos in Minnesota — two in Prior Lake and one each in Red Wing, Mille Lacs and Hinckley — anted up close to $900,000 in political contributions as of Sept. 14, 2010 — all of it to DFL “party units.”

Two tribes, Shakopee’s Mdewakanon Sioux and the Onamia-based Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe, enriched DFL “party units” (such as the DFL House and Senate caucuses) to the tune of $725,000. There’ll be a lot more to come. Bet the ranch on that.

Not a scintilla went to a Republican or an Independence Party “party unit.” Nada. Zilch. It’s a matter of record in tribal financial disclosures. One could even look it up at cfbreport.state.mn.us.

The Shakopee tribe alone put up $436,000 to the DFL, not counting amounts to individuals. Meanwhile, the Ojibwe band anted up $264,500 to DFL “party units.”

Not new, this game: History reflects state tribes with casinos, out to protect their “gaming exclusivity” (as one reporter delicately labeled it), deep-sixed even an impoverished, would-be Indian casino in Wisconsin through well-connected lobbyists in Washington, D.C. In 1995, the same consortium of wealthy tribes in Minnesota, joined by their casino-owning brethren in the Badger state, “successfully” (if that is the term) blocked three impoverished bands of Ojibwe in Wisconsin from opening a casino in Hudson, Wis., at the now-closed St. Croix Meadows dog-racing track. Newly enfranchised tribes flexed their political muscles at the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s watch to deny the poor American Indians’ bid for a casino at a failing dog track."

Get the Story:
Gary Larson: How does state-sponsored gambling affect Minnesota? (The Duluth News Tribune 11/9)
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Related Stories:
Nine Minnesota tribes contribute nearly $1.2M to state politicians (11/3)