Tuesday, August 21, 2007

New Gig for Lyin' Leon...

The community of Jamul Casino opponents focused for years on the man they nicknamed “Lyin' Leon”: Leon Acebedo, the chairman of the Jamul Indian tribe. Whatever you thought of Leon, he was an effective front man for the casino project – whether he was as effective for the tribe in general is something I know nothing about. However, I learned from this morning's news that Mr. Acebedo was recently voted out of office by the Jamul Indians:
Acebedo recently lost a re-election bid to continue leading his 53-member tribe and its controversial push to build a high-rise casino on a small, six-acre reservation in Jamul. It's doubtful that his new job with an organization that represents the diverse, conflicting interests of 65 gaming and nongaming tribes, will be any less stressful.
Well, that's darned interesting. I wonder why he lost the election? Perhaps he was ineffective in his other duties, or perhaps the Jamul Indian tribe in general is unhappy with the casino efforts. Do any of my readers have more information on this?

But Mr. Acebedo apparently had little trouble finding new work. From the CNIGA press release on his new appointment:

The California Nations Indian Gaming Association announced today that the membership has selected Leon Acebedo as the organization's new executive director.

"After an exhaustive search, we concluded that Mr. Acebedo was the best candidate for the position. We look forward to putting Mr. Acebedo's extensive experience and professionalism to work as CNIGA continues its mission of protecting the right of tribal governments to conduct gaming on federally-recognized Indian lands," said Anthony Miranda, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association.

As executive director, Mr. Acebedo will be responsible for the overall management and implementation of the policies and programs established by the CNIGA membership and executive committee.

In this same press release, I also learned that Mr. Acebedo is a psychologist. Somehow I am unsurprised by this; I'm sure this training and experience helped him as he constructed the slippery and deceptive language for which he is notorious.

Personally, I'm delighted to see Mr. Acebedo in a role that should keep him far away from Jamul, and uninvolved with the Jamul Casino project. I'm curious to see how his successor compares…

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