Rossi to give deposition before election

SEATTLE – Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi must give a deposition before Election Day as part of a lawsuit alleging illegal campaign spending by his biggest backer, the Building Industry Association of Washington, a judge ruled Monday.

King County Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas said the public interest demands that Rossi give his answers before, not after, the election is over. Rossi’s deposition was scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“Early discovery allows the parties to confirm – or dispel – the allegations before the election,” she hand-wrote in the order.

The lawsuit was brought against the BIAW by two former state Supreme Court justices, Faith Ireland and Robert Utter, who are supporting Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire’s re-election bid. It alleges that Rossi coordinated campaign fundraising with the BIAW, and therefore the trade group should be constrained by state limits on direct campaign contributions – $3,200, rather than the more than $6 million in independent expenditures it has spent backing Rossi this election cycle.

“There’s strong evidence that suggests every dollar being spent by BIAW to influence the governor’s race is illegal,” said Knoll Lowney, a lawyer for the justices. “It’s important because the act says voters have a right to know about political committees’ coordination with candidates, and they have a right to know it before the election.”

Rossi told the Associated Press the lawsuit was a political gimmick to pull him off the campaign trail in the final days of the race.

“Christine Gregoire and her friends were willing to do absolutely anything in 2004 to get the job, and I guarantee you they will be willing to say and do anything to keep the job,” Rossi said. “This is just more evidence of it.”

Rossi said he plans at this point to comply with the judge’s order, but he’ll try to move the date of the deposition because his lawyer is out of state and won’t return until Wednesday.

Rossi had sought to have his subpoena quashed, or at least to have his deposition delayed until after the election. The judge rejected that attempt.

“It is precisely because Mr. Rossi seeks public office that he must bear the burden of the contemplated deposition,” Kallas wrote.

The Gregoire campaign welcomed the order, with spokeswoman Debra Carnes saying in an e-mail, “The allegations of campaign finance violations in this case are serious, and voters deserve to know all the facts as they are making their voting decisions.”

The lawsuit cites phone calls that Rossi made in 2007 to officers of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, at a time when the BIAW was seeking contributions from the affiliate group to build its campaign war chest.

Rossi maintains he did nothing wrong. He told reporters the phone calls in question were intended to smooth out a political dispute among his past supporters. The topic involved political spending, he said, but he didn’t make any specific mentions of where the affiliate group should spend its dollars.

In a court filing Monday, the BIAW asked Kallas to refuse the justices’ request to take depositions before Election Day. It argued that Lowney and his co-counsel, Mike Withey, had known since January about Rossi’s contacts with the BIAW-affiliated group, but timed its complaints for maximum press coverage before the election.

Lowney called that argument “silly,” saying the BIAW didn’t do anything wrong until it began spending money on the campaign in late May. Six weeks after that, the justices and others complained to the attorney general’s office, and then they waited a required 45 days before filing the lawsuit.