Official Accused Of Ethics Violation Lawmaker On Insurance Panel Asks Insurance Agents For Cash
The vice chairman of the House insurance committee has sent a letter to hundreds of fellow insurance salesmen, seeking campaign donations with the promise he will “continue to represent our interests in Olympia.”
The development comes months after the Legislative Ethics Board reprimanded a state senator for inviting his law colleagues to contact him if they had concerns about legislation. The board said the offer implied “special privileges were being offered.”
Republican Rep. Scott Smith of Graham scoffed Friday at the notion that his letter, sent recently to fellow Farmers Insurance agents, could be construed in the same way.
“There’s nothing in there giving insurance agents any preferential treatment over anybody else,” Smith said of the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
It was not known whether the letter had sparked a complaint to the ethics board. Such proceedings are kept secret until a preliminary investigation determines whether there is evidence to justify a hearing, said Tim Burke, an attorney for the House.
But Smith’s letter was criticized by several people, including Sen. Kevin Quigley, D-Lake Stevens, who was reprimanded by the Legislative Ethics Committee in April for writing to a few dozen colleagues in his law firm in 1994, telling them they were welcome to contact him if they had concerns or questions about legislation.
“If you apply the standard that was applied to me, what I did is nowhere near as serious as what Representative Smith is doing,” Quigley said.
“In Representative Smith’s case, he is soliciting something, campaign money. In my case, I wasn’t soliciting anything. I was simply letting my colleagues know that I would listen to their concerns,” Quigley said.
“As the vice chair of that insurance committee, he’s got to hear with an open mind legislation that protects consumers as much as it protects insurance agents. I wonder if he can do that?”Smith rejected the criticism.
“All this letter is saying is I’m an insurance agent and I care about things that affect insurance agents. I’m not saying that’s all I care about. I’ve told pro-life people I will represent their interests. I’ve told Realtors the same thing,” he said.
In the letter, written on Farmers Insurance Group letterhead and sent to hundreds of Farmers agents, Smith wrote:
“As you may know, I am the only insurance agent in the House of Representatives and I sit as vice chair on our Insurance Committee. This has been a great opportunity for us to fight off (Insurance Commissioner’s) Deborah Senn’s legislation. Most of the committee members, Republican and Democrats, look to me for guidance.”
Noting that the Legislature this year slashed business taxes paid by insurance agents, Smith urged fellow agents to contribute “between $25 and $50 per agent, on the average,” to ensure he has the campaign money to beat back a challenge next year.
“If you can’t afford $25, anything will help - $20, $15 or even $10. We just need an average of $25 per agent. Some will even send $100 which will help offset the smaller contributions, but every dollar makes a difference. It’s the group as a whole, when contributing, that makes the biggest impact,” he wrote.
“I will continue to represent your interests in Olympia, but I need your help to stay there,” Smith concluded.
“Nothing in that letter says special influence. It just says I’m a business person talking to other business people just like me,” he said. “It’s no different than me saying, ‘I’m a father and you’re a father and I’ll represent our common interest,”’ Smith said.”This certainly has the appearance
to me of a conflict of interest,” said Chuck Sauvage, a lobbyist for the public interest group Common Cause.
“A vice-chairman of a committee has a powerful position and has a responsibility to represent everybody in his district. But not everybody in his district necessarily has the same objectives or goals as those of insurance agents,” Sauvage said.