Baca Target of Tribes’ Campaign

Indian tribes that own casinos launched a campaign Wednesday to pressure Sheriff Lee Baca to abandon a proposed initiative that would threaten their monopoly on Nevada-style gambling in California.

Consultants for the tribes released a mailer sent to Los Angeles County voters denouncing the initiative -- although it has not yet qualified for the ballot. And they held a telephone news conference to associate Baca, one of the measure’s official proponents, with Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, one of its financial backers.

The consultants sent out more than 1 million mailers statewide, many of them also going to voters in Sacramento County, whose sheriff, Lou Blanas, is the other official proponent.

The mail will start arriving at voters’ homes today, before petitions to place it on the ballot have even been submitted to officials and more than six months before voters go to the polls.

Although the mailers don’t name Baca or Blanas, the broadside is timed to pressure the elected officials to abandon the initiative by not authorizing the submission of the petitions. Once the petition signatures -- which backers plan to submit Friday -- are counted and validated, and if the measure is deemed qualified, backers cannot change their minds.

“Call it a warning flare,” said Republican campaign consultant Dan Schnur, who represents tribes opposing the initiative, which they call the “Larry Flynt Gambling Proposition.”

In the telephone new conference, Schnur said that if the measure qualified for the ballot, Blanas and Baca would “spend the rest of their political careers attempting to explain why they got into bed with Larry Flynt to pass a ballot initiative that increased casino gaming that led to increases in crime.”

Added Democratic consultant Garry South, Schnur’s partner in representing the tribes and opposing the initiative, “It would be fair to say that the two sheriffs’ constituents have a need to know about their involvement in this.”

Baca said he was unfazed by the mailer, paid for by a coalition of tribes, adding that the initiative would be “decided by the voters, not high-paid consultants.

“The initiative cannot be sidetracked through insulting innuendos,” Baca said in a phone interview, calling the mailer a “smoke screen” and “just another political tactic.”

The initiative, supported largely by card clubs and horse racetracks, would require tribes that own casinos to pay a far larger share -- 25% -- of their revenue to the state than they now pay, and to comply with an array of other rules. If a single tribe declined, slot machines would no longer be restricted to Indian land, and 11 card rooms and five racetracks would win the right to divide 30,000 of the devices.

In exchange, the tracks and card parlors would pay 33% of their winnings, or roughly $1 billion a year, to local law enforcement, firefighting and education-related programs.

Blanas said he had “real issues with what Indians are doing to the local government up and down the state,” adding that tribes should pay “their fair share” to cover the costs of their casinos to counties and cities.

The two sheriffs said they agreed to act as official proponents because of the money the measure would generate for law enforcement. Initiative backers estimate the card rooms and racetracks would pay $2 billion a year in taxes, with law enforcement statewide receiving almost $700 million a year.

Foes and proponents alike say the battle over the initiative could end up costing tens of millions of dollars. So far, five tribes, each with major gambling operations, have contributed a combined $7.5 million to defeat the measure. Backers have raised $5.5 million.

In their mailer, the tribes charge that the initiative -- which proponents call “The Gaming Revenue Act of 2004” -- “would put huge Vegas-style casinos in family neighborhoods.” Under the initiative, Flynt’s Hustler Casino card room in Gardena would stand to receive 1,000 slot machines.

The mailer says Flynt’s operation is close to a dozen schools and attacks the Hustler owner for publishing “pictures portraying brutal violence against women.”

Flynt, who has donated $276,000 to the campaign for the measure, said Wednesday that he had no immediate plans to respond to the mailer, leaving that to consultants for the card rooms and racetracks.

“I think most people will see through this,” he said, adding that he underwent a lengthy background investigation before he received a license from the state Gambling Control Commission allowing him to operate his card room.

George Gorton, one of the consultants for the card rooms and racetracks, called the mailer “heavy-handed” and said he doubted that voters would care about Flynt’s involvement in the initiative.

“If that is the best they’ve got, then they’re in deep trouble,” Gorton said. “They are off on a wild tangent.”

In addition to attacking Flynt’s involvement, the mailer lashes out at Dr. Edward Allred, owner of Los Alamitos Racetrack, though it does not name him. The mailer refers to him as “an abortion doctor” who owns “abortion clinics.” Allred owns family planning clinics where abortions are performed.

The racetrack, which could receive 3,000 slot machines under the terms of the initiative, has donated $530,000 to the campaign for the measure.

Allred declined to comment Wednesday. He is a major political donor, particularly to Republicans, although he gave $25,000 in 1999 to consultant South’s most prominent client, former Gov. Gray Davis.

Greg Larsen, spokesman for the card room-racetrack initiative, said the backers “absolutely” would submit the requisite signatures Friday as planned. He dismissed the mailer as “self-serving character assassination.”

“The piece is not discussing the issue: why the tribes are not paying their fair share,” Larsen said.