The Oneida Indian Nation announced June 7 it would give its financial and political support to U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna in the Republican primary for U.S. Senator against New York Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports.
Tenney has had a long and rocky relationship with Ray Halbritter, CEO of Turning Stone Resort Casino. She opposed the 2013 state-tribe deal that gave the Oneidas thousands of acres of trust land and gave the tribe exclusive rights to gaming over 10 counties in Central New York. That deal also required the tribe to pay 25 percent of casino revenues to the state.
Tenney also represented Melvin Phillips, who identifies himself as chief of the Orchard Party Band of Oneidas, in a lawsuit against the Oneidas.
A tribal official told the Post-Standard the nation will donate more than $100,000 to the Patriot Prosperity PAC to support Hanna, also a Republican, in the June 24 primary.
“Rep. Hanna has been a strong supporter of the Central New York economy and he has helped build a constructive relationship between the Oneida Nation and surrounding communities,” the Oneidas said in a statement.
“Tenney, by contrast, has been the opposite,” the statement went on. While the rest of the region’s leaders have been working together with the Oneida Nation to heal old wounds and build on the economic success of Oneida Nation Enterprises, Tenney has pushed to shut down Turning Stone, which would impact untold numbers of jobs.”
Last summer, Tenney called the deal brokered by Governor Andrew Cuomo “a corrupt bargain” that would “rob taxpayers, cost us more jobs, shatter our state’s sovereignty and take an innocent man’s land away from him and his family.”
In October, she interrupted a news conference in New York City in which Halbritter demanded the Washington Redskins change their name, which some Indians say is racist. At the news conference, Tenney repeated her claim that Halbritter is not an Oneida Indian.
