I guess it’s not surprising that all those lying ads the BIAW has been running about Gov. Gregoire are paid for with illegal contributions. At least that’s the conclusion of the state Public Disclosure Commission which found today that the Building Industry Association of Washington and the Master Builders Association of Snohomish and King Counties have committed multiple “egregious” campaign finance violations, including failure to report at least $1.2 million in political contributions.
In a press release issued after the ruling, attorney Knoll Lowney stated:
“It is now confirmed that the builders were operating a massive illegal fundraising campaign for Dino Rossi. We expect the Attorney General to file a lawsuit against the builders for these serious violations.”
Well… I wouldn’t bet on it. Rob McKenna is a close ally of the BIAW and a major recipient of their ill-gotten largess, so it’s hard to imagine him forcefully going after his buddies in an election year… except maybe as a delaying tactic. I’m guessing the more likely outcome would be a civil suit brought by retired Supreme Court justices Faith Ireland and Robert Utter, who filed the complaint in the first place. They’ve given the AG until September 19th to file a lawsuit, barring which they’ll file their own.
And this may just be the least of the BIAW’s troubles. In a separate lawsuit in Thurston County, BIAW Trust beneficiaries are seeking an injunction to stop the BIAW’s diversion of trust funds for political purposes. A hearing is scheduled for September 26th, and could end up putting a huge hole in the BIAW’s $3.5 million warchest.
Golly. Who controls the state PDC?
Why, the demos of course.
That’s why they haven’t gone after Fraudoire for taking all that money from the injuns!
Watching SNL last Saturday, I saw one of those crappy casino ads funded by BIAW.
Something about 140 million in lost revenue in return for campaign contributions.
Pretty sleazy. A bunch of lies. That’s BIAW for you.
I’m glad they’re finally going to get what they deserve.
BIAW is not a “builder” and someone should
tell that stupid fuck attorney Lowney. BIAW
is just trying to help keep retarded democrats
and their retarded vision of nirvana at bay.
To allow democrats to control housing would
mean nobody could afford a home around here.
YLB, you are right, its probably way more
than 140 million. Nothing will happen to
BIAW because they have done nothing wrong.
Couple that with the fact that the good
Republican boys at the BIAW are ten times
smarter than any sleazy liberal. GO ROSSI.
@1: Dead-on right brother!
Unfortunately, much of the damage has already been done. Rossi’s had about three weeks of campaign ads to which Gregoires’ had no response. It’s not surprising that Gregoire has lost her lead in the polls.
Rossi’s campaign is moving forward on three lies: (a) that the state is in a financial crisis, (b) that it’s all due to Gregoire’s “reckless spending, and (c) Rossi will solve the problem without harming the needy.
Until Gregoire forcefully hits Rossi on all three lies, she won’t be able to regain the lost ground. She needs to start spending the money now. And her current ads don’t make an impact – she shouldn’t be spending money on ads which show her with schoolchildren & such. She needs to look directly in the camera in a close-up and tell people why they need to vote for her.
Supertroll in # 1 doesn’t bother to address the central issue, that the BIAW is raising money for Rossi’s campaign in violation of the campaign-financing laws. He just tries to dismiss it as being a partison ruling.
Problem is, the ruling is correct. And he knows it. He’s just trying to deflect attention.
It’s a common Rovian campaign tactic. Anybody who says anything which is inconvenient to you is alleged to be “biased”, so the charge need not be addressed. That way they can avoid discussing even the most clearly provable facts.
The problem for the Republicans is that it’s not the speaker who is biased against Republicans, it is the facts. Facts have an inherent bias against Republican interests.
Supertroll, there are at least two Republican members of the PDC–Bill Brumsickle and Jim Clements. Both were appointed by Gov. Gregoire. Don’t know about party affiliations of the others.
The BIAW got a couple of punk-ass lawyers elected onto the Supreme Court: Sanders and Jim Johnson. They are up for re-election in 2010. We’ve got to start now campaigning against them.
Sanders is no “libertarian” – he’s an unbalanced whack job who was sanctioned by the CJC (look it up, kiddos), and he’s been the subject of civil actions. He’s a disgrace to the judiciary and he needs to be shown the door.
Jim Johnson – that BIAW tool drafted Eyman’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL ballot measure. He’s a dull tool at that . . . .
Justice Madsen’s also up in 2010. She’s got an excellent progressive voting record.
@1 “Who controls the state PDC?”
The law does. You fuckers have broken the law so long now you think criminal behavior is a Republican birthright. You’re about to get an education.
@3 “BIAW is just trying to help keep retarded democrats and their retarded vision of nirvana at bay.”
What gives them the right to do that with L & I taxes?
@5 “She needs to look directly in the camera in a close-up and tell people why they need to vote for her.”
I agree! She can’t use the phrase “fucking liar,” but she can use the word “liar.” But here’s something else: If Rossi succeeds in winning this election with his lying ads paid for with BIAW’s illegal campaign contributions, the Democrats who control the Legislature can make it impossible for him to govern, and that’s exactly what they should do. Not a single negotiation, not one compromise, with this rat bastard.
You KLOWNS still hang on to some dilerious pipedream that Gregoire actually wants to win.
SHE HAS TANKED THE ELECTION!
Why??
Because she has boxed herself in on balancing the Budget without major tax increases due to pandering to the State Employees & Teachers Unions and the Tribes.
Gregoire has failed.
The Pension Fund is probably underfunded by $8-9 BILLION now.
The upcoming biennium DEFICT numbers that come out next will be even worse (unless Gregoire’s goons get them to cook the books)>
Hey – this is business as usual for the corrupt republicans. Lie, cheat and and break any and all laws to try and win elections.
The BIAW is as corrupt as they get – cheating to try and get around the law that prevents them from trying to manipulate elections. Of COURSE, the wing nut trolls love corruption and cheating – and will chime in. But the bottom line is that the BIAW is illegally trying to influence the election for Rossi and his fellow crooks.
Oh, just to be consistent here is the McCain wiki that keeps track of McCain’s lies: over 50 major lies, many of them repeated over and over. Serial liars and lawbreakers are the heart and soul of the GOP.
Link: http://www.mccainpedia.org/ind.....t_the_Lies
@12 At least Gregoire doesn’t pander to oil companies, developers, insurance companies, and gambling interests. Rossi can’t say the same. Teachers and state employees don’t rape the land or rip off consumers.
Membership to BIAW is voluntary and not a dime
of L&I taxes goes to them. Unlike unions where
the members are forced into paying dues and
then the lying cheating scumbags that head up
the unions give that money to scumbag democrats. See the difference. BIAW VOLUNTARY.
UNIONS STEALING FROM ITS MEMBERS. See the
difference. Why do union people use non union
construction companies when they build or
remodel their houses? No one ever answers that
question. Why is this? Roger Rabbit answer
that question.
Ha!
Go rhp6033!!!
@15 Unions have to spend money on office space, equipment, rent, wages, and goods and services to serve their members. It’s unfair to let some employees freeload off union dues paid by others. If they accept union wages and benefits, then they should help pay for them. If they don’t want union wages or benefits, they should seek employment with a non-union employer, or in a right-to-work state. No one has to belong to a union, even in union shops; any employee can remain a non-member and work there by paying shop fees in lieu of union dues.
No one is required to make involuntary political contributions by reason of working in a union shop. That’s simply a lie. Employees have the right to opt out of political contributions.
“Why do union people use non union
construction companies when they build or
remodel their houses? No one ever answers that
question. Why is this? Roger Rabbit answer
that question.”
Damn right I’ll answer that question. In the construction industry, union work is confined to commercial jobs. Few, if any, residential builders or remodelers are unionized. You can’t hire a union homebuilder even if you want to because they don’t exist.
It isn’t practical or economical for unions to attempt to organize homebuilders because the field is dominated by a vast number of tiny companies, they come and go, most employ only a half dozen workers, and the workers frequently move between employers.
And before you try to make out homebuilders as heroic small businessmen fending off big evil unions, let me ask you this: Have you visited a homebuilding site lately? How many American citizens do you see working on these jobs? Practically all of the homebuilding crews I’ve seen have one white guy supervising a gang of Spanish-speaking Hispanic laborers. So don’t try to kid anyone that homebuilders provide good jobs to American citizens, because they don’t. They hire the cheapest labor they can find, and that’s usually immigrant labor. And I’ll bet 97% of them don’t check the legal status of these workers or ask to see their green cards.
@8 Richard Sanders is a lot of things, but BIAW tool isn’t one of them. I don’t doubt that BIAW has donated to his campaigns, but neither they nor anyone else owns Sanders. I disagree with him on a lot of things, but he has been one of the strongest defenders of civil liberties on the court. Whatever he is, he’s not a goose-stepping robot marching to a neocon tune.
Also, Sanders isn’t on the court because of BIAW or rightwing money. He’s there because he’s never had a viable opponent. I voted for him in his last two elections because his challengers were so awful I had no choice. If you want to get Sanders off the court then come up with a plausible opponent to run against him, because that’s what it’ll take and that’s what’s been missing.
When I was a judge, Sanders once appeared before me to argue a case for a client. I was unimpressed with the representation he provided to his client on that occasion. I’ve heard him speak at legal seminars, and at least once, I had the opportunity to engage him in brief one-on-one conversation concerning legal issues. He’s bright, articulate, witty, and well-read. There’s a problem, though. Although his legal reasoning is invariably logical, on close examination, you often find him going outside the law and underpinning his reasoning with extralegal philosophy. Sanders is to some degree a proponent of so-called “natural law” and applying this in judicial decisions is directly counter to the axiom that the Constitution, not natural law or philosophy, is the supreme law of the land and underlies all of our other laws, and all the judicial reasoning that flows from constitutional, statutory, and common law. It’s like a gifted base-stealer running outside the base paths: You admire his talent, but he’s not allowed to do that. That’s the problem I have with Justice Sanders. And that’s why I would vote against him if he had a qualified opponent.
Jim Johnson is an entirely different story. He’s as different from Sanders as night from day. I have some respect for Sanders, but none for Johnson. I first heard Johnson speak when he was Slade Gorton’s top deputy when Gorton was state attorney general, and that speech consisted of a bigoted rant against tribal fishermen. Johnson was Gorton’s hatchet man in the Northwest Indian Fishing Wars. After Gorton moved on to the U.S. Senate and Johnson went to private practice, Johnson continued to be one of our state’s noisiest and most visible Indian-haters. He also ingratiated himself to the so-called “property rights” crowd, who as far as I can determine are more or less the same folks as the shadowy “militia” groups, and of course he is owned lock-stock-and-barrel by BIAW, who funded his supreme court race. Johnson is a bleeding cancer on our state’s judiciary, and although I believe God is just, it’s hard to believe She’s paying much attention to our corner of infinity, or Johnson wouldn’t be soiling a seat on our state supreme court. I hope they wipe it down with disinfectant every time he gets up and leaves the courtroom, and burn his robes at least weekly.
“When I was a judge . . . . ”
The only thing Rog ever judged was the 1992 “Mr. Beefcake” semi-finals at Chippendales in Portland.
He got to be the judge because the management liked tossing bones to regular patrons who tipped.
Actually Rog is into Playboy “Bunny’s”…the 4 legged kind.
Over the past couple of years two other cases in other states come to mind: One in Colorado, where the builders group had a lobbyist who robo-called voters and told them a consumer protection bill would raise taxes, which was false, and one in FL where a builders group rather covertly funded a smear campaign to improve the chances of their pick getting elected. In the FL case there was a lawsuit over it, and in CO, the legislature and/or ethics commission decided that the lies were protected free speech. (Never mind that builders have sued their own customers for truthfully complaining about shoddy construction!)
Both examples, plus this new one in WA, should result in people getting banned from lobbying and possibly some should do jail time. Instead, these groups bulldoze over the law and everyone, and get away with it, because they have so many politicians in their pockets and they have a lot of money.
It’s not just on the state level, either. Nationally, the NAHB lobbies for laws that would curl people’s hair in some cases if they knew it was going on. E.g.: Brownfield legislation to absolve developers of liability and a duty of disclosure when they build on sites that are/were polluted. Clean up seems to be on the honor system; we all know how well that works with the home building industry!
Also, the NAHB lobbied hard for a builder bailout from congress when their poorly run industry tanked from its own greed and foolishness. When it was not getting what it wanted in the housing bills, the NAHB publicly stated that it was withdrawing campaign donation money from congressmen. Money was restored later when congress apparently agreed to negotiate on the bailout bills. Most of the housing “rescue” legislation that passed this year rescuses the real estate and finance industries, no big surprise since that’s who wrote the bills and pushed for them. Of course these bills, much like smear ads, etc, were touted as being good for consumers. The amount of untruth coming from home building industry lips is appalling. If you really want to take power away from this or any industry whose practices you don’t like, stop buying their product, and speak up. Every time someone thinks “It doesn’t affect me,” and buys one of their shoddy new houses, they help perpetuate the problem. If they think it doesn’t affect them, they should try having a construction defect case.
Your comments are retarded! Get your facts straight before you blab your fat mouth!
Gregoire is a selfish pig! Leave BIAW alone and get a life! You should check and see who Gregoire received $$ from…then we can talk!
Again, your dumb!