Cashing in? A California tribe bought campaign ads for lawmaker who cast key gambling vote

Assemblymember Evan Low represents a Silicon Valley district that could lose tens of millions of dollars in local tax revenues if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill that would allow casino-owning tribes to sue their competitors, private card rooms.

So it was surprising that Low, a Democrat who’s running for Congress, twice voted this summer for the measure and against the card rooms.

Now, one of the bill’s biggest supporters, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, has bought $60,000 in radio ads supporting Low’s campaign for a congressional race that’ll be decided by voters almost 500 miles from the tribe’s reservation and its large casino in San Diego County.