Referendum Update

Thoroughbred Owners of California endorse amended compacts

The 9,000-member Thoroughbred Owners of California has formally endorsed the four recently amended compacts. Industry insiders describe the stand, announced Tuesday by the Coalition to Protect California's Budget and Economy, as unprecedented because it omes on the heels of a rigorous, costly and unsuccessful $20 million push by the entire industry for authorized slots at tracks and California card rooms.

It also pits the thoroughbred owners against The Bay Meadows Land Co., which owns race tracks at Hollywood Park near Inglewood and Bay Meadows in San Mateo and as a longtime friend of organized labor joined the Unite HERE opposition campaign for referenda to defeat the compacts.

In an Aug. 24 letter cosigned by the Thoroughbred Owners of California chairwoman, Marsha Naify, and president, Drew Couto, to tribal representatives handling the campaign to defeat the referenda, they said: "We believe the recently approved compacts should stand as is."

With regard to the referenda proposed by Bay Meadows, it noted: "We are vehemently opposed to the notion that the referenda is in some obscure way of paramount importance to the future of the racing industry: It simply is not."
Jack Liebau, president of Hollywood Park, said he would not comment on the effect the endorsement might have other than to say of the Thoroughbred association, "They're doing what they do best."

"Everyone has a different view,'' Liebau said.

Al Lundeen, who manages “No on the Unfair Gambling Deals”, said he didn't think the endorsement will sway voters when they consider this is one of the largest expansions of gaming in the history of the state.

The coalition, while describing the owner of two California tracks as a "rogue" land speculator who wants to hold down competition, said the endorsement casts a striking contrast.

"It demonstrates that the opponents of these agreements are all about self-interest," a spokesman said on behalf of the four tribes.

Michael Lombardi, an Augustine Casino gaming commissioner, commenting on the impact as an observer, said what appears clear to him is that the horse racing industry is not a monolith.

"Just because Hollywood Park is playing a significant role in opposing the compacts doesn't mean they own the whole industry,'' he said.

Del Mar, which operates a marketing campaign with two Indian gaming tribes in the San Diego area, has been enormously successful, Lombardi added.

"They haven't been hurt by Indian gaming. It's one of the most concentrated areas for Indian gaming casinos, and one of the country's most successful race tracks operates in its midst."

Full Article:
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071114/NEWS06/711140312/1026/news12


Judges Rule Against Tribes

Two Sacramento County judges this afternoon rejected identical lawsuits by the leaders of two Inland tribes seeking to block voter referendum measures on the tribes' recently ratified casino-expansion agreements.
In their Oct. 10 suits, Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Banning, and Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians near Temecula, argued that crtitics of the deals took too much time collecting voter signatures and failed to make a 90-day deadline to qualify referendum measures for the Feb. 5 ballot.

But in his ruling on the Martin suit, Judge Jack Sapunor said compact critics complied with state law. The public's right to a referendum needs to be "jealously guarded," he said.

"We have to respect the judge's opinion but I think who really loses in this is the people of California," Martin said afterward. He referred to the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue the Morongo tribe would pay the state in return for permission to install up to 5,500 more slot machines under the deal.

Representatives of both tribes said they plan to appeal.

"The process started here in trial court and we're going to take it up and proceed with this," said former state Assembly speaker Robert Hertzberg, a lawyer working for the Pechanga tribe.

Article:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_webtribes1.1bcf01e.html