The Public Disclosure Commission voted to concur with a staff report today, finding the Washington State Republican Party guilty of numerous egregious violations of our state’s campaign finance and public disclosure laws, including at least $150,000 of illegal expenditures on behalf of Dino Rossi in the weeks leading up to the August primary. Lacking the authority to impose a large enough penalty proportionate to the violations, the PDC has referred the case to Attorney General Rob McKenna for further prosecution.
This is the second time in as many weeks that McKenna has been handed an investigation of close political allies, following the PDC ruling that found the Building Industry Association of Washington guilty of failing to report at least $1.2 million in campaign contributions. There is no word from McKenna as to when he might take action on either of these cases. But don’t hold your breath.
As first reported here on HA, the WSRP flagrantly used “exempt” soft money contributions to illegally finance direct advocacy, specifically a pro-Rossi/anti-Gregoire direct mail smear campaign. And as I wrote at the time, the case against Rossi and the WSRP was pretty cut and dry:
This isn’t rocket science. It’s Campaign Finance 101. All the political candidates, consultants, committees and parties know damn well what is or is not allowed. And yet the WSRP chose to blatantly violate campaign expenditure laws that have been in place for the past 16 years.
[…] Let’s be clear, this is no mistake or accidental oversight; WSRP chair Luke Esser, allegedly a lawyer, deliberately and knowingly violated the law, feebly attempting to disguise these illegal expenditures by mislabeling them as “member communications” (a label that would not make these expenditures exempt, even if true.) The WSRP could have run the mailing past the PDC ahead of time—campaigns do this all the time—but they knew the answer they would get. Which of course is why they never asked.
The distinction between “exempt” and “non-exempt” funds is clear. The former are “exempt” from normal campaign contribution limits, and may be used for party building, organizing and get out the vote efforts, but not for direct advocacy for or against a candidate. The latter may be used for any purpose, but are subject to strict contribution limits. Buy using exempt funds for non-exempt purposes the WSRP has intentionally violated the law, using large lump sum contributions from GOP fat cats like Rufus Lumry ($80,000) and Eastside developer Skip Rowley ($30,000), and from powerful special interests like the National Electrical Contractors Association ($50,000) and Walmart ($25,000) to illegally finance Rossi’s campaign.
But, well, I guess Esser just figures that breaking the law, and the inevitable fines, are just part of the cost of running an effective campaign.
No doubt the WSRP fully understands that it faces a substantial penalty for such a flagrant and deliberate PDC violation, but that won’t come until after the election, so no harm done. No, if there’s a penalty to be paid ahead of this election it will have to come at the hands of the local media, but whether they’ll give this story the scrutiny it deserves, or merely brush it off as another “he said, she said” between two feuding camps, remains to be seen.
Personally, I don’t have much faith in our local media to express the outrage such deliberate flouting of our campaign finance laws rightly deserves, and I’m afraid that McKenna, now with two major cases on his plate, against his two biggest financial backers, won’t substantively move on either case until well after the November election.
And if my fears are proven correct, that means the WSRP and the BIAW will well learn the lesson that crime does indeed pay. Voters will never know about the extent of these violations because our amen editorialists can’t be bothered to muster up the outrage, and the fines, however large, will simply be paid with more lump sum contributions from the same wealthy Republican benefactors.
What they hope to buy with all their illegal money is the governor’s mansion. And you can be sure that they’ve already made the calculation that even a hefty post-election fine would be money well spent.
Doesn’t begin to touch the $650,000 that Fraudoire got from the injuns.
Doesn’t begin to touch the $140 million PER YEAR that Fraudoire gave back to the injuns.
Rossi could break wind and it would smell sweeter than Fraudoire’s best perfume!
Pretty much says it all…
Non-Sequitur Cartoon 17Sept2008
Funny, nobody but Rossi’s campaign has validated Rossi’s allegations against Gregoire. Even the Republican Attorney General signed off on the Casino compromise. Lots of allegations by Republicans, but no substance.
cmiklich @1,
I’m happy you bring that up, because it makes my point. The tribal contributions you are talking about (though it was not $650,000) were almost entirely made to the state Dems “exempt” fund, and as such were restricted by law from being used to directly advocate for Gregoire or against Rossi, and as far as I can tell by looking at PDC reports, none of those funds were used for any “non-exempt” purposes. If you have evidence to the contrary, you should file a PDC complaint.
As for giving the tribes back $140 million a year, you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about. Simple as that. Everybody, Republicans and Democrats alike opposed the revenue sharing agreement in the rejected compact, and it never would have amounted to $140 million a year. Not even close, based on current tribal gaming revenues.
rhp @2,
Perfect. I’ve thrown that into the post.
Goldy–
In all fairness and full disclosure, it is important to point out that the PDC was 100% appointed by DEMOCRAT Governors. And the PDC has made huge mistakes in the past resulting in being fined themselves for failure to comply with Public Records Requests and other anti-open government stuff.
You will try to make the case that some of the members are “Republicans” because they were some time back in their past. That just doesn’t wash.
Oh and Goldy–
You forgot about the Dems largest fine in history for huge misleading PDC Reports.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ms03m.html
The Dems will do anything for retaliation.
Anything to change the discussion away from Gregoire’s $8 BILLION of increased spending in the face of a recession resulting in a $3.2 BILLION Deficit for the upcoming Budget to face.
This is me caring about the PDC. Exciting, huh?
It’s not exactly a good sign that the Dems have to file these false complaints and file some lawsuit that’s without merit in an effort to smear Rossi.
Shouldn’t an exceptional Governor’s record stand on it’s own to crush the supposedly tarnished reputation of the Republicans?
It’s pretty telling that it is not the case in this situation.
Perhaps we should reach out to Algore’s buddy at Lehman Bros…..Teddy Roosevelt the IV!
Theodore Roosevelt IV
Managing Director, Lehman Brothers
Chair of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change
Theodore Roosevelt IV is Managing Director at Lehman Brothers and a member of the Firm’s senior client coverage group, which oversees the Firms client and customer relationships. Mr. Roosevelt is an active conservationist. He is Chair of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Vice Chair of the Wilderness Society, and a Trustee for the American Museum of Natural History, The World Resources Institute, the Institute for Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, and a Trustee of Trout Unlimited.
Mr. Cynical @7
So you’re saying the Democrats are relatiating for the large fine leveled against the party by the PDC in 2005 for their campaign violations.
That would be the same PDC that Mr. Cynical @6 pointed out consists entirely of Democratically appointed commissioners.
What you’re really saying is the Democrats are retaliating against the Republicans for the Democratically-appointed PDC fining the the Democratic Party?
Huh.
Cynical… the evidence is undisputed. This is merely a question of interpreting the law. And the law is obvious.
If Republicans could only steal an election then they could appoint someone like the BIAW’s Mark Musser to the PDC.
Republican pedophile hangs himself.
http://wizbangblue.com/2007/10.....uicide.php
This has been another edition of “Puddy’s Heroes”.
For years, the GOP touted themselves as the “law and order” party. That was a baldfaced lie. Republicans have no respect for law.
CONSIDER COMPLAINT ~ MAY BE IN VIOLATION ~
AG TO LOOK INTO THE CASE.
Wash PDC asks AG to consider complaint against GOP
The state Public Disclosure Commission says that the state Republican Party may be in violation of campaign finance laws and has recommended that the state attorney general look at the case.
OLYMPIA, Wash. —
The state Public Disclosure Commission says that the state Republican Party may be in violation of campaign finance laws and has recommended that the state attorney general look at the case.
In a 4-1 ruling the commission ruled that the party made apparent violations when it used a certain account to pay for three mailers that promoted Republican Dino Rossi over Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, in the state primary election.
Commissioner Jim Clements was the only one who opposed the action, saying he feared that the timing so close to the election made it a political action.
The Republican Party says the mailings were “internal political communications” sent only to members of the party as it defines them.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Does Alaska hang witches?
@1 Gregoire traded away a few hundred million dollars of gambling tax revenue in exchange for no expansion of Indian gambling. That was a great deal for Washington citizens, which even Republicans in the Legislature supported.
And what’s the GOP’s position on gambling? If they got their way, we’d have slot machines on every street corner.
@6
Yep, the PDC is appointed by the governor and there hasn’t been a republican governor in a long while. But, the PDC has more than one republican sitting on it and they ruled 4-1.
Cyn. – You are lying about a deficit that does not exist.
Why waste your time lying here at HA.
Why not lie to the credulous retards at uSP — like ‘the Crutch’. He uses big words, but it’s like putting a silver saddle on a ten-dollar horse (the horse being Republican ideology). No matter how much you spend on the saddle, it’s not gonna get you anywhere.
Just look at the record. You guys just flat-out suck.
@9
Off topic
@8
Considering that the PDC voted 4-1 that the Republicans broke the law it doesn’t really rate as a false complaint.
A little off-topic, okay a lot, but it does concern Republican crime (fucking pedophiles): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26843836
@22 I should think that Republican pedophilia is never off topic.
“As a group, Alamo’s church despises homosexuals, Roman Catholics and the government; Alamo has preached that girls are fit for marriage once they are sexually mature.”
“”Consent is puberty,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press last week while agents raided his compound at Fouke.”
Good Lord! Republicans are fucking sick in the head.
We’ll add this perv to the ever growing list.
Where’s Puddy? Fucking that poor goat again?
Hey, Pudnuts, still in denial? Fucking perv.
Steve
Do the Rs grease up the goats before, well, before whatever it is they do to them?
@1: The amazing thing about the right wing trolls on here is how pathetic they are. they get their sorry talking points refuted and they come back with the same BS as if it was real. Do they not read the comments that trash waht they wrote or are they to dumb to understand that their nonsense has been refuted?
Maybe their sole purpose is to come on here with their talking points – false though they may be – and let them sit in the hope that thye can have the last word or just sew doubt.
In any case, making a fool of oneself, repeatedly, is not a good thing. Even if you are Sarah Palin.