March 1, 2002
Dear Senator _______________________
It has been reported that President Bush recently asked congressional leaders if
there is a tribal campaign loophole. Tribal representatives are actively denying
that any loophole exists. Is there a tribal loophole, and if so, what is it?
Consider the following:
LOOPHOLE #1: Tribal governments are the only governments that are allowed
to use government funds to actively support issues and candidates in local,
state and federal elections. No other government may make campaign
contributions, much less use taxpayer dollars to do so.
LOOPHOLE #2: Unless legislation expressly and specifically includes
"Indian tribes" as subject to the proposed legislation, Indian tribes
are exempt from its requirements. The current, and most past, Campaign Finance
Reform legislation does not expressly include "Indian Tribes."
LOOPHOLE #3: Tribal government campaign contributions violate the general
rule that campaign contributions must be voluntarily given. Tribal contributions
can't represent the political diversity of tribal members.
LOOPHOLE #4: The FEC ruled in Advisory Opinion No. 2000-05 (May 15,
2000), that tribal governments are considered as a "persons" for
campaign finance purposes. Tribal government's status as "persons"
combines with their attributes of partial "sovereignty" (independent
supremacy) and sovereign immunity. This means that tribal governments influence
local, state and federal campaigns without effective disclosure and
accountability.
LOOPHOLE # 5: While tribal governments are "persons" for
purposes of disclosure and accountability, they are not limited to contributions
as "individuals." They are treated like PACs who can give without
restriction on aggregate contributions. Thus tribal governments can use
government funds for essentially undisclosed and unrestricted campaign
contributions.
We challenge anyone doubting the above loopholes to quantify the amount of hard,
soft, direct and indirect tribal governmental contributions to just the members
of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. We further ask that they document the
original source of that money. This is a very small sample of what is happening
in the entire country.
The above five significant "tribal loopholes" have significantly
corrupted and unbalanced the elected political process. Every tribal member is
equally represented along with every other citizen by state and federal elected
officials, without the involvement of tribal governments. Even if the
Shays-Meehan bill effectively stops the soft money contributions of tribal
governments to political parties, these loopholes will continue. Therefore, if
the Shays-Meehan bill can't be amended to correct these loopholes, Citizens
Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) respectfully requests that you vote against it.
Sincerely,
Howard B Hanson, Chairman