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Lance Gumbs, who spearheaded the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s bid for a casino starting in 2001 and saw it through most of the last nine years, was voted back onto the tribe’s Board of Trustees during the Nation’s elections Tuesday night.
Four candidates vied for three spots on the board, and when the votes were tallied, Mr. Gumbs and incumbent Tribal Trustees Randy King and Gordell Wright were elected. Incumbent Fred Bess, who has been at the fore of the tribe’s casino effort for the last year, lost his bid for reelection.
Mr. King was the top vote-getter and will remain chairman of the Board of Trustees. The tribe does not release vote totals for each candidate.
In the last year, the visions of Mr. Bess and Mr. Gumbs have diverged, each man advocating different paths the tribe should follow toward a future casino in development. Mr. Bess has been the front man and intermediary between tribe members and Detroit casino investor Michael Malick, and he has said the tribe should be focused on getting a casino close to the population center of New York City, even if that meant accepting offers of property in the Catskills region. Mr. Gumbs has said the tribe should be looking to Suffolk County for its casino development, so that the facility could provide jobs for the tribe members and could be managed more closely by the tribe.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Gumbs was reticent to talk about whether he thought their differing views played a role in the tribal vote and noted that individuals often miss being elected to the Board of Trustees by only a few votes, or are elected to the board intermittently.
“The tribe spoke—that’s all I’ll say,” Mr. Gumbs said. “Their message is pretty clear.”
Mr. Bess could not be reached for comment on Wednesday morning.
During the year Mr. Gumbs was off the board, his role in the casino effort was clearly marginalized. Last summer, when a large contingent of Shinnecock officials, led by Mr. Bess, attended a gaming convention in Saratoga Springs with Mr. Malick—flying in on Mr. Malick’s private jet—Mr. Gumbs paid his own way and traveled to the convention by himself.
Mr. Gumbs said Mr. Bess, his longtime partner in the casino effort, offered him congratulations after the vote on Tuesday night and will not vanish from the scene.
“We still have a lot of work to do, and we’ll all be working together,” he said. “Fred is an integral part of our community. He and I have worked together for the last 20 years on this, and it’s not something he’s going to walk away from, just like I didn’t last year.”
on Apr 7, 2010