Sheriff’s Stand on Slots May Benefit Big Donors

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca’s promotion of an initiative to allow slot machines at card rooms and racetracks could benefit one of his biggest donors, a review of his campaign finances shows.

Card clubs, horse tracks and people affiliated with them -- who could profit from the measure if it makes the ballot and passes -- have given Baca $50,000 since he was elected five years ago. While that is a fraction of the $2.2 million he has raised for campaigns, it is not all he has received from gambling interests.

Baca’s nonprofit corporation, the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation, has received $115,700 since 2001 from the state’s largest card room, the Commerce Casino.

Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas, the other prominent law enforcement official backing the initiative, has accepted almost $50,000 from donors with gambling interests since 1996.

Card rooms and horse tracks are financing the initiative, which is intended for the November ballot. It could end the state’s restriction of Nevada-style gambling to Indian lands and allot 30,000 slot machines -- the most lucrative game for any casino owner -- to existing card clubs and racetracks in Southern California and the Bay Area.

Many law enforcement officials shun the measure, but a letter bearing the two sheriffs’ signatures will arrive in mailboxes starting Monday, urging voters to sign petitions to place it on the ballot.

The letter says the measure would provide $2 billion a year for law enforcement, education-related programs and fire protection by forcing Indian tribes, which currently make relatively modest payments to the state from their gambling proceeds, to pay more or lose their monopoly.

“The enclosed petition simply asks the Indian casinos to agree to pay their fair share for the exclusive monopoly that we have given them,” the letter states.

The initiative specifies that, if tribes do not agree, the card rooms and racetracks will be entitled to slot machines and will pay the state a percentage of their take.

Both sheriffs dismissed any connection between their endorsements and the contributions they have received.

“There is no sustained source of funding for law enforcement,” Blanas said, adding that his department stands to receive $12 million yearly in gambling proceeds if the initiative passes.

“I need more public safety money,” Baca said in an interview. “That is my motivation.”

Baca oversees the nation’s largest sheriff’s department. He is promoting the initiative at the same time he warns against cuts to his $1.65-billion budget. To save money, he has been releasing inmates early from county jails.

USC law professor Elizabeth Garrett, director of the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics, said the donations to the sheriff give the “appearance” that he supports the measure, at least partly, because of the campaign funds.

“However independently he made up his mind,” Garrett said, “there is an appearance that part of what went into his decision was a feeling of gratitude for that group’s support for a cause that is very important to him.”

The sheriffs’ letter, being sent to 2 million Californians, is intended to help proponents obtain the 600,000 valid signatures of registered voters needed to put the measure on the November ballot. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is pushing a competing initiative that would allow tribes unlimited casino expansion rights on their own land.

Under the initiative backed by Baca and Blanas, if tribes declined to pay the state 25% of their gambling winnings or to abide by all of several other terms spelled out in the measure, five horse racetracks and 11 card rooms would get the 30,000 slots. Seven card rooms in Los Angeles County and three racetracks in Los Angeles and Orange counties would be entitled to 20,200 machines.

The gambling concerns would pay local and state governments 33% of their winnings. The sheriffs’ letter pegs that sum at $2 billion annually; the legislative analyst’s office estimated it to be $1 billion a year or more.

Blanas was first to endorse the measure late last year after his political consultant, David Townsend, presented it to him. Townsend is also one of the consultants working to win passage of the initiative. Blanas urged Baca to endorse it.

Rick Baedeker, president of Hollywood Park racetrack, said the endorsements were “very important” and helped solidify support for the campaign from Churchill Downs Co., the owner of Hollywood Park. The track could get 3,000 slot machines, and a card room on the grounds could get 1,700.

“Voters want to have confidence that this is a positive measure,” Baedeker said. “These are names they’re familiar with. They lend a great deal of credibility to it.”

In 1998, as Baca sought to unseat Sheriff Sherman Block, he attacked the incumbent for taking donations from card rooms. But among Baca’s donors with gambling interests, the biggest contributor is the Commerce Casino, which has 230 tables.

The club and its directors or employees have given Baca’s campaigns $27,500 since 1998, campaign records show. He has received four-figure donations from the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, Ocean’s 11 in Oceanside, the Hustler Casino in Gardena -- owned by Hustler magazine’s Larry Flynt -- and Magna Entertainment, which owns Santa Anita racetrack. Each would receive slot machines if the measure were approved and tribes rejected its requirements.

Baca’s youth foundation also has received $1,000 from the Agua Caliente band, according to Lt. Bondel Golden, who oversees the organization’s daily operations.

A Los Angeles County ordinance caps individual campaign donations at $1,000 a year. No such caps apply to contributions to nonprofit corporations such as the youth foundation.

And nonprofit corporations are not covered by the state’s “sunshine” requirements, which force politicians to disclose the identities of donors to their campaigns.

“I welcome that money from the casinos,” Baca said. “I will take any donation legally for the youth of Los Angeles County.”

Baca told The Times last week that he would release a list of the foundation’s donors, but he has not done so. Golden said the Commerce Casino has been the organization’s third-largest donor since 2001.

The Commerce Casino could get 1,700 slot machines if the initiative became law. Those slots could generate $186 million a year, based on a projection by the legislative analyst’s office that each machine would bring in about $300 a day.

Andrew Schneiderman, general counsel to the Commerce Casino, said Baca had “never linked” the casino’s financial support to his endorsement. Schneiderman said he believed Baca was backing the initiative in part because the Commerce Casino is “an extremely clean operation that provides generous support for our cities and local causes.”

An analysis by the initiative’s proponents shows that, if card rooms and racetracks received the slot machines, law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County would receive $195 million. The county would get a total of $634 million in gambling revenue, which would be shared with education-related programs and firefighting. Overall, law enforcement agencies statewide would receive almost $700 million.

Citing such numbers, the 8,000-member Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs is endorsing the initiative.

“I don’t see how people can turn their backs on it,” said Roy Burns, president of the deputies’ union. “If it puts 1,300 deputies on the street, I consider it a huge plus for the citizens of Los Angeles County.”

But many in law enforcement say casinos breed crime, and the money would come at too great a cost. The California Police Chiefs Assn. is opposing the initiative. While the state association of sheriffs is officially neutral, several sheriffs oppose it.

Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer said through a spokesman that the initiative was “ill-advised and doesn’t solve anything.”

In San Diego County, “we have enough gambling,” said Sheriff Bill Kolender, who plans to campaign against the initiative and is a critic of tribal gambling as well. “More gaming is not going to make it better for California.”

Noting that gambling is legal within certain limits and widely popular, Baca dismissed such critics. He cited statistics showing that crime had fallen in cities with card rooms, such as Commerce and Hawaiian Gardens.

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Times staff writers Hugo Martin, Sandra Murillo and Holly Wolcott contributed to this report.