The largest and third largest donors to Alaska U.S. Senator Mark Begich’s campaign is a gaming tribe and the casino the tribe, the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, owns, the San Pablo Lytton Casino in California’s Bay Area.
The casino donated $25,000 to Begich’s Put Alaska First PAC several months ago, added to $32,500 the casino donated last year to the PAC. It has also donated $5,200 to the senator’s campaign and another $5,000 to a fundraiser committee controlled by him. The casino also donated $10,000 to the Alaska Democratic Party.
The senator is considered a solid champion of Indian causes. He sits on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and is running for reelection in November. He is considered in a tough reelection campaign.
According to Anchorage attorney Lloyd Miller, quoted by the Anchorage Daily News, Begich is “one of the more vocal and effective legislators in the Senate” about Indian affairs.
The Lytton Tribe has applied to put 124 acres in Windsor into trust for a reservation. Begich visited the tribe’s office near Santa Rosa in 2013.
According to an official with the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C. Begich is one of the top recipients of the Lytton tribe’s money.
Last year the tribe spent $420,000 on lobbying the U.S. government and elected officials.
A spokesman for the Begich campaign said the senator has never voted on any bills of interest to the Lytton tribe, and added, “He has always championed Alaska Native and American Indian issues.”
