Democrats Neutral on Ballot Measures

08:39 PM PST on Sunday, November 18, 2007
By MICHELLE DeARMOND
The Press-Enterprise

Despite impassioned pleas from labor leaders to join in a fight against four tribes, California Democrats decided Sunday to steer clear of the feud and stay neutral.

The state party's executive board voted Sunday morning to take a neutral position on four February ballot measures that would undo new gambling expansion agreements approved this year by the Legislature. The decision means the party, which often throws its money and manpower behind ballot-measure campaigns, will not devote any resources to supporting or defeating the measures.

Bob Mulholland, a California Democratic Party operative, said the party sometimes stays above the fray in divisive areas.

"If we have a lot of friends who tend to be split, we'll go neutral," he said Sunday after the three-day meeting in Anaheim came to a close.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, one of three Riverside County tribes involved in the feud, was pleased with the party's decision.

"There are different opinions within the party," said Nancy Conrad, press secretary for the tribe. She pointed to the state's budget crunch as proof that it needs the revenues the tribal casinos will generate for the state.
The Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians and a San Diego County tribe also are targeted in the ballot measures.

The decision was disappointing for Steve Valkenburg, a Redlands resident and representative of UNITE-HERE, the hotel and restaurant employees union that has been leading the fight against the gambling agreements.

"I would have liked them to say these compacts are bad and need to be rewritten," said Valkenburg, whose Local 50 represents food workers at Disneyland.

Nonetheless, Valkenburg was glad to see his party won't be fighting his efforts in the coming months and said the move won't sour his ties to the Democrats. He expects the San Bernardino County Central Committee, to remain neutral on the issue, too.

The Riverside County Central Committee has wrestled with the issue and may do so again.
UNITE-HERE and its supporters say the gambling agreements don't protect workers' rights and make organizing workers too difficult.

The tribes say the casinos are good to their workers, who are free to organize under a tribal-labor relations ordinance enacted in 2000. The tribes also say their expansion plans will be good for the state because the new agreements will give the state up to $800 million annually in slot-machine profits.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_dems19.2906b2c.html