December 06, 2002 

Campaign cost tribes $4 million
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOISE -- Idaho's Indian tribes spent another $480,000 in the final two weeks before the Nov. 5 election and afterward to ensure voter passage of the initiative clearly legalizing the electronic gambling machines in their reservation casinos.

Campaign finance disclosure reports filed with the secretary of state on Thursday showed the final infusion of cash, nearly all of it again from the tribes themselves, pushed to more than $4 million the money they committed to convincing voters the state has been wrong in trying to prohibit the machines.

The most expensive proposition campaign in state history also benefited from a cash payment from its opponents.

Straight Talk: Gambling in Idaho Inc. paid the tribes' campaign organization $866 a week before the balloting to cover court costs in the antigambling group's failed attempt to block a vote on the initiative.

The initiative passed with nearly 58 percent of the vote after the tribes, using two California firms that successfully engineered passage of Indian gambling propositions in California, spent millions of dollars on an effective broadcast and newspaper advertising campaign.

But while it was enacted last month, a court challenge is expected, and the tribes still have more than $200,000 left in their campaign fund.

The initiative's opponents raised about $100,000 and spent nearly $90,000, most of that on legal fees.