JORDI BRADSHAW | staff writer

Propositions 94 through 97 were approved by roughly 56% of California’s voters on Super Tuesday.

Voter support for the measures seemed to be fueled by a growing recognition of the need to balance California’s $14.5 billion deficit.

The gambling initiatives asked voters to either approve or deny agreements between the governor and California’s largest Indian gaming tribes. The compacts allow four tribes—the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, Morongo Band of Mission Indians and Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation—to add 17,000 slot machines to the 8,000 they currently operate.

In exchange, the tribes will pay a total of $123 million to the state annually in addition to 25 percent of the revenue from the newly added slot machines.

All together, the Indian gaming compacts will bring the state upwards of $200 million annually and $9 billion over the next 22 years.

“Right now it looks like the voters are saying yes to hundreds of millions of new dollars each year,” said Roger Salazar, spokesman for the “Yes on Propositions 94, 95, 96, and 97” campaign.

Those opposed to the agreements included hundreds of newspapers, taxpayer associations, public safety officials, educators, elected officials, federal and local unions. They also include Native American rights, environmental protection, and anti-gambling groups. The campaign supporting the agreements outspent the opposition 4 to 1.

Although he wasn’t sure where he stood on the gaming propositions, Dr. Chris Flannery, Director of the Humanities Program and a professor in the Department of History and Political Science, expressed concern Tuesday over the way California elections have been held in recent years.

“Most of the explanations of these measures make them sound like they’re the opposite of what they are,” Flannery said.

Ballot initiatives such as Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 are a result of what Flannery identifies as the Progressive movement in politics.

“The initiative, referendum, and recall are progressive innovations that are intended to remedy what progressives thought were flaws in the founding system,” he noted. “The representative government intended by the framers was much more productive of good government.”