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Injunction to be filed to force Mashpee Wampanoag tribal recall election
By Christine Legere
Posted Sep 3, 2019
MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Election Committee’s abrupt cancellation of Sunday’s recall election for two top Tribal Council officials was met with outrage by the Tribal Council member who is the driving force behind the effort
Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Treasurer Gordon Harris were the targets of the recall, which was prompted by petitions bearing the signatures of 100 registered voters of the tribe.
On Thursday, the election committee posted a notice canceling the upcoming recall election.
On Friday, Tribal Council member Aaron Tobey Jr. said he planned to file a complaint and request for injunctive relief with Tribal Court, saying the election committee exceeded its authority.
Tobey will ask the court to order the committee to schedule the recall election within the next 30 days.
To support the injunction request, Tobey said in his complaint that the recall petitions had been certified as sufficient by the election committee several months ago.
The committee had been slowly moving forward with election plans, providing packets to enrolled tribe members, as well as outlining reasons given by petitioners for the recall and Cromwell and Harris’ responses to the accusations.
Meanwhile, efforts to stop the recall, which was to be the tribe’s first such election, have been ongoing ever since the signatures on the petition were certified in April.
That includes a great deal of pressure from the tribal chairman himself to squelch the election, according to Tobey.
“Cedric Cromwell has done everything he could to stop the recall, and he has a large political machine,” Tobey said.
Cromwell could not be reached for comment.
Trish Keliinui, tribe spokeswoman and a member of the election committee, said the cancellation was “based on the language of the Aug. 22 court case.” She said she could not elaborate beyond that.
The case, filed by Tobey in May against the election committee chairman and dismissed by Tribal District Court Judge Amanda WhiteEagle on Aug. 22, was not related to the recall of Cromwell and Harris, Tobey’s attorney, Jonathan Polloni, said. Instead, he said it pertained to a petition to recall Tribal Council Vice-Chairwoman Jesse “Little Doe” Baird.
Tobey filed the complaint because he believed election committee Chairwoman Rita Lopez had overstepped her authority during her certification of signatures on a recall petition for Baird, Polloni said. Petitioners were short of the 100 signatures needed for a recall on Baird’s petition.
In the Aug. 22 decision, Judge Amanda WhiteEagle said that “the court finds the recall petitions insufficient as presented” and dismissed Tobey’s complaint.
The words “as presented” define the judge’s decision, Tobey said. The documents provided to the court did not contain the full petition with accompanying reasons for the recall, he said.
“It was an error,” Tobey said.
But the petitions to recall Cromwell and Harris were certified by the election committee long ago, Polloni said.
“They didn’t have a problem with them back then, and only have a problem now,” the attorney said of the election committee. “They just endlessly delay.”
“I think if they’re allowed to do this, it will set a dangerous precedent that you can never have a recall election because the election committee can do whatever it wants,” Polloni said.
Cromwell and Harris had been facing multiple allegations from a group of tribe members who accuse the two of malfeasance, or “wrongful conduct,” in connection with issues stemming from, among other things, the more than $500 million owed to the tribe’s financial backer, Genting Malaysia, and decisions to keep Tribal Council Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird in power after she resigned Jan. 25.
Cromwell responded to the allegations in a letter addressed to the tribe’s Election Committee dated May 15. In that letter, he denied that charge and noted that Tribal Council voted not to accept Baird’s resignation letter.
″... therefore, there was no vacancy for the Vice Chair position,” Cromwell wrote.
Cromwell also touted the economic growth that took place under his leadership as a result of Genting’s commitment to loan the tribe money to support its programs and services. Genting has since withdrawn its support after writing off its more than $440 million investment in the tribe as a loss in late 2018, forcing rounds of layoffs at the Mashpee Wampanoag headquarters.
Throughout Cromwell’s tenure, critics have attempted to rally tribe members to force open the administration’s books, including its casino records, and to protest the periodic silencing and shunning of members who’ve raised questions about its finances.
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