WASHINGTON — Just months after President Bush took office, the Republican Party accepted a $100,000 check from an Indian tribe seeking help in getting a meeting with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, according to internal GOP records.
After the check was sent, the lobbyist for the Agua Caliente Indian band sent a thank-you letter to the GOP suggesting Norton's office was considering its meeting request. The leader of the tribe eventually got to air its concerns to the Interior secretary during a congressional tour near the tribe's home in Palm Springs, Calif.
Republican Party officials say tribal officials were never promised anything in return for their six-figure check in 2001. "We may pass along a request, but that's the extent of it," said Jim Dyke, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
Agua Caliente tribal chairman Richard Milanovich said Thursday there was no connection between the tribe's check and the request for a meeting with Norton, adding, "It wasn't to look for any particular favors from anyone."
The donation and contacts are reminiscent of Clinton-era fund-raising practices that Republicans sharply criticized and investigated during the 1990s.
Following President Clinton's re-election in 1996, Republicans in Congress hammered home the issue of campaign donations by Indian tribes to the Democratic Party.
In one instance, a $107,000 donation got Cheyenne-Arapaho tribal leaders meetings with Clinton and Vice President Al Gore and complimentary passes for the Democratic National Convention.
The RNC was forced to reveal its dealings with Agua Caliente and other six-figure donors as part of an ongoing court battle over reforming the system of financing political campaigns. The court released the documents to the public.
Unlike the poor Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe, the Agua Caliente band operates two casinos, is increasing its political donations and is replacing its two Washington lobbyists with 14 new ones, including Jack Abramoff, a longtime ally and friend of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The tribe gave the GOP $120,000 last year, four times the amount it gave the Democratic Party.
In spring 2001, Agua Caliente chairman Richard Milanovich, a Republican, expressed an interest in joining Team 100, a roster of donors who contribute at least $100,000 each to the GOP.
Before writing a check, the tribe wanted a meeting.
RNC deputy director Jack Oliver, one of Bush's key fund-raisers, agreed to meet after Team 100 handler Dee Dee Lancaster scrutinized the tribe's past political contributions.
"The only donations found for 2000 cycle was $1,000 personal ... to McCain," Lancaster e-mailed Oliver on June 1, 2001, referring to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"Let's take it," Oliver replied.
Oliver is now deputy finance director of Bush's re-election campaign.
Handwritten notes from the meeting outline the tribe's concern about its lack of connections at Interior.
"Norton pushing off mtg.," the notes state.
Milanovich was concerned that governors and other elected officials were having too much influence on a proposed Interior regulation placing land in trust for Indians.
The regulation, proposed in the last days of the Clinton administration, was suspended by the Bush administration.
"I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss this issue with you from a tribal perspective," Milanovich wrote Norton in a letter that turned up in the RNC's files.
In a separate contact with the Republican National Committee, Agua Caliente's lobbyist said that while Bush was promising major spending for the nation's schools, Indian schools and health services were "a mess" and "awful" with a "100 percent Federal unfunded need," according to handwritten notes of the conversation.
Dyke says Oliver told the tribe it should expect nothing from the party in return for a donation.
"We make it clear to people in meetings that they are giving because they support the party and in fact in this particular case Jack suggested maybe the money would be better spent on scholarships" for Indians, Dyke said.
Agua Caliente's July 5, 2001, check went to the GOP, instead.
Two months after the check, Agua Caliente's lobbyist sent a thank-you fax to Lancaster saying that schedulers at Interior and Norton's chief of staff would discuss a meeting for Milanovich.
A stick-on note with the fax says that Lancaster wanted her boss Oliver to call Norton's chief of staff "& see if this has been done & can you see if you can get it to happen." The note adds that a Team 100 member is involved.
Dyke said Oliver doesn't remember making a call to Interior. Regarding any GOP overtures to the Bush administration, he said, "We don't encourage anyone to do anything." Interior Department spokesman Mark Pfeifle said he doesn't know if anyone called Interior from the Republican Party.
The tribe's lobbyist at the time, Scott Dacey, recalls that rather than offering the tribe a meeting with Norton, the Interior Department suggested Milanovich meet with the No. 2 official at the department's Bureau of Indian Affairs. Milanovich declined, but Dacey and lobbyists for other tribes proceeded with their meetings.
Milanovich and Norton subsequently forged a relationship. Milanovich was in a group that spent a day in January 2002 with Norton on a tour of the scenic Coachella Valley in California.
A news story about the visit said Milanovich and Norton discussed tribal issues, adding that as Norton was speaking to reporters, Milanovich stepped into the group and praised Norton for taking "positive steps." Pfeifle said it is customary for the interior secretary to visit Indian tribal leaders when she travels.