A couple of days ago, I received a “hit piece” aimed at Loni Hancock. The piece accused her of having lowered educational standards, supposedly making it harder for children to reach their chosen career. I found the logic of the piece hard to follow, and it was sent out by an independent expenditure committee with the odd title of “Education Leaders for High Standards Independent Expenditure Committee.”

I learned today of an FPPC website where you can find information on recent expenditures and contributions for such committees. With this opportunity, I decided to investigate. Looking up this committee on the webside, I found that it’s only expenditure was in this race, and the expenditure was totally funded by another committee, entitled, “California Tribal Business Alliance,” to the tune of about $49,000. In otherwords, the “education leaders” committee was serving as a front.

I could find no details on the Secretary of State’s website about where the “California Tribal Business Alliance” gets its money, but by its name, my guess would be it comes from indian gaming interests. I’d further guess that the expenditure probably is probably related to Loni Hancock’s opposition to the proposed expansion of the indian casino in San Pablo and the proposed new indian casino at Point Melote in Richmond.

I’m not taking any position here about tribal gambling in the East Bay, but I do think it’s highly deceptive for a group to call itself “education leaders”, when it’s really about tribal gambling. On it’s face, at least, the group has no connections to Wilma Chan’s campaign. I would hope she would strongly repudiate the flier and ask it’s sponsors to “butt out”. In any case, I have to confess the flier makes me much more prone to support Loni Hancock.