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Davis defends giving casino interests a voiceBustamante: Tribal fund raising was within the law
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- California Gov. Gray Davis defended his proposal Saturday to allow Native American tribes with casino interests to recommend candidates for a board that oversees gambling in the state. At a Labor Day weekend event, Davis said it has been his longstanding policy to allow entities with an interest in a regulatory board to make recommendations about who should be on it. The gambling oversight board has two open positions. "They are sovereign nations, and they are entitled to make recommendations," Davis said of the tribes. "I will make the final judgment." Since Davis' first run for governor in 1998, he has accepted nearly $2 million from casino-owning tribes, according to his campaign staff. Davis has not received any money from those tribes since the recall race began. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is running to replace Davis on the October 7 recall ballot, called the governor's position "unfortunate and misguided." Allowing the tribes to recommend board members creates potential questions of conflicts and undermines the board's credibility, the actor said. "This is yet another example of Davis putting his own political interest ahead of the public interest," Schwarzenegger said. "I oppose this decision and I call upon Governor Davis to immediately reconsider and reverse it." Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat and the leading candidate in the race to replace Davis, also faced questions Saturday regarding Native American tribes. Bustamante was pressured to explain a $500,000 contribution from the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. Proposition 34, a state campaign finance law passed in 2001, allows candidates running for office to raise a maximum of $21,200 from any individual or entity. Bustamante has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from tribes with casino interests, and he has deposited the money in his lieutenant governor's campaign account, which predates the 2001 law. California's Fair Political Practices Commission, the board that oversees, regulates and investigates campaign law, contends that such actions are against the spirit of the law. "The commission has advised that state candidates may not solicit contributions into a pre-Proposition 34 committee for the purpose of using those funds in a post-Proposition 34 election," the commission said in a statement. It went on to recommend that the law be amended. "The commission has urged the authors of Proposition 34 to enact legislation to apply its contribution limits to committees that existed before the effective date of the proposition." Bustamante has defended his fund raising by saying his campaign is doing "everything according to the law. "We've had our attorneys look at it. We've had the FPPC look at it. And as far as we're concerned, we're complying with every piece of the law," Bustamante said. "If there was a change of any kind, we would comply with that, but right now the law is the law, and we're following the law."
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