Papers Detail Demo’s Denial Ebersole Swore He Didn’t Know Of Illegal Campaigning By Staff

A top Democratic House leader had no idea his staff was illegally campaigning for members on state time, the leader says in a batch of legal documents released Tuesday.

Rep. Brian Ebersole, D-Tacoma, who was House Majority Leader when the campaigning occurred between 1988 and 1990, said under oath that he never saw or was aware of the activity. Then-House Speaker Joe King of Vancouver said in documents released last month that he also had not been aware of the activity.

Ebersole is now running for Tacoma mayor. King left the Legislature in 1992 and ran for governor.

“Did you ever come to the conclusion that some staff members felt that they had to work on campaigns as a condition of keeping their jobs?” Ebersole was asked in a deposition conducted by an attorney for Charles Coach, a former legislative aide who sued the House for wrongful dismissal. Coach contended he was fired for refusing to campaign for House Democrats.

“I don’t have direct knowledge of that,” Ebersole said. “I’ve heard that ventured as an opinion.”

Ebersole and then-House Clerk Alan Thompson also said in separate depositions that they had not been aware that top House aide Terry Thompson had purged his computer of evidence of illegal campaigning in advance of a state probe.