A San Bernardino Indian tribe is airing television spots featuring former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura criticizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's demand that tribes pay a fourth of their gambling profits to California.
Deron Marquez, chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, said the ad, costing more than $1 million, is the "first of many" being contemplated by his tribe to counter what he said has been Schwarzenegger's effort to "demonize tribes."
The commercial airs as the San Manuel and other tribes continue to campaign for -- and Schwarzenegger denounces -- Proposition 70, an initiative that would allow Indians unlimited rights to expand casinos on their reservations.
Schwarzenegger sniped back in a radio appearance Wednesday, calling Ventura's spot "really funny -- a guy from Minneapolis coming in here and getting involved in this."
"But that's what your friends are for," the governor said on Sacramento radio station KTKZ.
The spot is not part of the Yes on 70 campaign. Ventura merely alludes to the initiative, referring to the Proposition 70 provision that tribes pay the state 8.84% of their net casino revenue, California's corporate tax rate.
The Minnesotan then criticizes Schwarzenegger for demanding that casino tribes pay "three times more than other businesses." Schwarzenegger has called on tribes to pay as much as 25% of their revenue to the state in exchange for maintaining their monopoly on Nevada-style casinos in California.
"Didn't the governor promise a balanced budget without raising taxes?" Ventura says in the ad, then concludes bitterly, "I guess it's OK to rip off Indians."
The line is a reference to Schwarzenegger's statements during the Proposition 70 campaign that some tribes are "ripping off" California by refusing to pay the state what the governor believes is an appropriate sum.
Ventura, a onetime wrestler and action movie star, appeared in two films with California's weightlifter-turned-governor, including "Predator," in which the advertising line was: "Nothing like it has ever been on Earth before." On Wednesday, some political experts were wondering whether there had ever been an ad quite like the one in which Ventura verbally smacks at Schwarzenegger.
"This is the Halloween ad of the season," Democratic consultant Bill Carrick said of the spot, which features Ventura wearing dark clothes against a heavily shaded backdrop. "We very seldom have former governors from other states weighing in on our issues."
