Letter to President Bush on Campaign Finance Reform
The following letter was sent to President Bush February 23, 2002. Darrel Smith’s article on the Hicks & Atkinson decision was included as an enclosure.
Dear Mr. President;
Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) has spent over 15 years, informing and educating the country about the increasing civil and constitutional problems arising from Federal Indian Policies. We believe the current Shays-Meehan bill will increase these problems because it ignores the issue of tribal government campaign contributions. These political contributions are financed primarily from federal funds, state and federal grants and by casino gambling revenues. These revenues total approximately ten to twenty billion dollars.
On May 15, 2000, the FEC ruled in Advisory Opinion No. 2000-05 to essentially allow tribal governments to contribute as much as they choose to political campaigns each year. Under the ruling, tribal governments are considered as a "person", but are not considered individuals. While individuals are limited to the amount they can contribute annually to $25,000, tribal governments are not. In reality, tribal governments are not “persons” or “individuals” or “trade groups, associations and partnerships,” or even “special interest groups.” They are tax-supported, federally-recognized governments.
According to the National Journal, six of the top 10 soft money donors among interest groups nationwide in 1999-2000 were Native American tribal government interests. Tribal governments are the only governmental entities that can make campaign contributions, and they can make them in essentially unlimited amounts. We think this is clearly unfair and wrong.
In the 1996 election cycle, a report from Center for Responsive Politics showed that tribal government interests gave more than $1.5 million to national party committees. Interestingly, it appears the top individual recipient of this money during the 2000 election may be campaign finance crusader John McCain, who also sits on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Federal Indian policy, federal grants and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act are intended to improve the social and economic condition of tribal members not to provide political contributions for partisan elections. While tribal leaders sometimes talk about the great economic achievements from gambling (the "new buffalo") the fact is, only a small number of Indians actually benefit, and they often benefit enormously. According to Bill Lawrence, Editor of Native American Press/Ojibwe News, the nation’s only major independent Indian newspaper, "... federal government expenditures on Indian reservations have grown, doubled or tripled, in the last ten years. Indian graduation rates are declining. Arrest and crime rates are increasing. Social problems, especially on the reservations, are increasing. Despite extensive federal, state and tribal housing programs, Indians are twenty times more likely to be homeless than the majority population. Despite multiple nutrition programs, Indians disproportionately patronize food shelves--and have the worst health and lowest life expectancies of any identifiable group in the U.S."
Tribal government campaign contributions divert funds designed for the benefit of tribal members. Tribal government campaign contributions can’t represent the diversity of their members and effectively force tribal members, without their consent, to donate funds to political campaigns they may, or may not, personally support. Tribal government campaign contributions provide tribal governments with an unfair political advantage because tribal governments can effectively use tax, grant and gambling money that is difficult, if not impossible, for opponents to match. This unfair political advantage will be increased after the passage of the Shays-Meehan bill. In fact, the possibility exists that tribal governments may become conduits for the campaign contributions of other entities. Tribal governments are cooperating with each other and are rapidly increasing the amount and sophistication of their campaign contributions. These campaign contributions threaten to corrupt the entire political process of this country at the local, state and national level.
All governments should be equally barred from direct or indirect involvement in this country’s partisan political campaigns. Mr. President, we ask you to do everything in your power to see that this bill is either amended or vetoed before it further corrupts Indian communities and our democratic process. We further ask that you initiate a comprehensive and inclusive study of the impact Federal Indian Policy is having on tribal members and the entire country.
Sincerely,
Howard B. Hanson