A New Swing Vote?

The voting patterns of Native Americans are often hard to quantify and in many places do not show a partisan tilt toward Democrats or Republicans. But political strategists in both parties are eyeing this group as a potential swing voting bloc in several key 2002 races.

The Democratic National Committee has launched an effort to win NativeAmerican votes in six states, including South Dakota, which features a close U.S. Senate race between Sen. Tim Johnson (D) and U.S. Rep. John Thune (R).

Party strategists, led by DNC chairman Terry McAulliffe, intend to send field organizers to states to register Indians to vote. Another part of the strategy includes providing Internet access to reservations.

"It's a very grassrootsoriented campaign," said DNC spokesman John Norton.

The DNC expects to hire a staff person soon who will be assigned exclusively to helping to increase voter registration among Indians, Norton said.

Republicans, too, are hoping to include Indians in voter registration and other outreach efforts. In Arizona, Sen. John McCain (R) has received substantial support from Indian communities, for work on issues dear to them, said Eileen Luna-Firebaugh, a professor of Indian law and policy at the University of Arizona.

According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are 559 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, with about 1.4 million members. Voter registration in such communities often falls below 10 percent, said Luna-Firebaugh, who is Choctaw and Cherokee.

Mobilizing the votes of Native Americans can often be challenging because residents of Indian reservations in many cases do without phones, Internet access and other forms of rapid, modern communication technology.

Not all Indian reservations, however, are on the same level for communications. On each reservation, coordinators have their own systems, often geared toward new voters less distrustful of the federal government.

"It seems there's a lot of energized youth" to go out and vote, said Pat Smith, a Missoula, MT, attorney and Fort Peck Tribal member, who has helped coordinate the Indian vote for the Montana Democratic Party.

In that state, at least, those efforts seem to be paying off, as Indian voters are becoming a major factor in races for state office. When it came time to redraw state House district lines in Montana in 2002, the Districting and Apportionment Commission voted to create three new House districts designed to have a majority of Indian voters. The districts will take effect in 2004.

And during the 2000 election cycle, Indian voters helped elect six American Indian lawmakers to the Legislature.

Back in 1992, Indian voters were credited with helping presidential candidate Bill Clinton win Montana, an otherwise Republican stronghold.

In addition to South Dakota and Montana, other states where Indian votes are thought to be a potential factor in swinging elections are New Mexico, which this year features an open seat governor's race, and Nevada, where a new U.S. House seat has been created for the Las Vegas area.

And in Arizona's sprawling 1st Congressional District, Indians are considered a key swing voting bloc that must be wooed, for a newly drawn, competitive open seat, which could help determine which seat controls the House after the November elections.

Even voter mobilization efforts can have a limited effect, said LunaFirebaugh.

"A lot of American Indian voter don't think national, state or local elections affect them at all," she said.

And when there is a direct connection on an issue, some Native Americans are turned off by 30-second soundbites and slick campaign ads, she said.

That represents a very different way of solving problems than many tribal members favor, Luna-Firebaugh said. In tribal meetings, "you're attempt is not to have a vote - it's to have a consensus," she said.

-David Mark