Attorney General Jerry Brown Sides with Campaign Contributors versus the People of California

"SHOW ME THE MONEY!" say Jerry Maguire (oops, Jerry BROWN)

Why did Attorney General Jerry Brown side with Indian gaming tribes over his own regulatory partner, the California Gambling Control Commission?

Does he genuinely believe that the vote, for a set of desperately needed casino security standards, was just "advisory," and therefore, we suppose, unnecessary? OP: Aren't menu calorie info and surgeon generals warnings ADVISORY?

"I am committed to doing everything I can to ensure that the casinos are regulated," Brown said. "As a matter of timing, and a way to make it work, I want to bring it all together."

Uh-huh. Brown's actions don't make much sense - until you remember that he's a likely candidate for governor in 2010.

Here's the basic story: The National Indian Gaming Commission used to enforce basic standards for gambling tribes across the country. (These standards, known as minimum internal controls, cover important security measures like internal audits, surveillance, money transfer and slot machine calibration.) In 2006, a federal court decided that the commission lacked the authority to do so - meaning that state gambling regulators had to impose rules of their own.

It should have been easy enough for the state commission to impose an emergency regulation adopting national standards, but of course, it wasn't. Now more than 40 gaming tribes have gone nearly two years without minimum internal controls, and they continue to resist them - only now they're doing so with the attorney general's help.

Story at SFGATE