Spokane7
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October 29, 2010 in City
Democratic strategist faces sanctions
Agency calls tactics in race ‘reprehensible’
A Democratic political strategist active in shadowy independent ads in a Spokane legislative campaign faces court sanctions for campaign violations in an Everett primary race.
Lisa MacLean’s tactics to hide who was contributing to efforts to sway the 38th District state Senate primary were so “reprehensible” that the election may have to be overturned, the Public Disclosure Commission said Thursday. It voted 3-0 to refer the case to Attorney General Rob McKenna.
MacLean and her firm, Moxie Media, of Seattle, have set up a series of political committees this year to funnel money from unions, abortion rights groups and trial lawyers into hard-to-track independent campaigns all over the state, including two committees that attacked GOP challenger Mike Baumgartner this month.
MacLean and Moxie also set up committees that funded separate independent campaigns for a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican running against Democratic Sen. Jean Berkey in the Aug. 17 primary. In e-mails gathered by the PDC staff, MacLean assured labor donors they could conceal the sources of money being spent for Republican Rod Rieger until after the Aug. 17 primary. Democrat Nick Harper finished first in the race and Rieger finished second, 124 votes ahead of Berkey. The source of the funding wasn’t revealed until mid-September.
MacLean used a process that has become common over the past decade in which political operatives set up a political action committee and collect money from big donors like labor unions, professional organizations or business groups. They set up a second PAC, which receives the money from the first PAC and buys a commercial or a mailer. The ad lists the two PACs as sponsors or donors, but not the original source of money.
MacLean and Moxie collected some $55,000 from several unions in early October for Care PAC, then moved most of it into Strong PAC, which sent out ads against Baumgartner. They also took $32,000 from the service employees union and two abortion-rights groups for Safety PAC, then moved $25,000 into Healthy PAC for anti-Baumgartner efforts.
Baumgartner’s opponent, Chris Marr, faced a similar tactic when a Senate Republican organization that collects money mainly from business and corporate donors set up Working Families for Change, which funneled money into Spokane Families for Change for ads against the Spokane Democrat.
Although the practice makes tracking campaign contributions difficult, it is legal as long as paperwork is filed on time with the PDC. MacLean didn’t meet filing rules on the campaign against Berkey, and the commission rejected a proposed $30,000 settlement, instead asking McKenna to file a civil suit that could void the primary after the general election takes place.
In a statement released to the Associated Press, MacLean said she was disappointed the matter wasn’t resolved Thursday and will work with McKenna’s office. “Going forward we will make our good faith, best efforts to comply with all PDC filing requirements,” she wrote.
There’s no precedent for overturning a primary in Washington and no one is sure how that would affect the general election between Harper and Rieger, state elections director Nick Handy said. “I’m assuming … the court would provide direction. If not, we’d go back to the court and ask for it.”
Romney/Paul split weighing on county GOP 
ZagChuck on October 29 at 12:07 p.m.
Jim,
“News” stories such as this are precisely why journalist are now more commonly referred to as “cheerleaders formally known as journalists.”
Democrat Chris Marr should have to file PDC reports for in-kind contributions every time you guys decide to write a “news” article about his campaign. The mis-information and half-truths are unmistakable, intentional and show the clear violation of the journalistic integrity. The reporting on this story is nothing more than a political hack job that shows how far you and your paper and willing to perform to keep your endorsed candidate in office.
If you’d have checked the PDC’s you could’ve quickly determined your $50K number is way off.; over $41K from Strong Pac and over $26k From Safety Pac, for a total north of $67k spent on behalf of Democrat Chris Marr.
These union thug criminals have spent over $4.2 Million in the last 12 months alone, in their attempts to control government and elect candidates who will continue their revenue stream. In Spokane County, a Republican caucus threw a pittance of less than $40k at these union giants and their candidate.
The SEIU and its political thugs have invested over $4.250,000.00 since last November in efforts to defeat candidates and initiatives across the state. Combine that with the nearly $2,000,000.00 the teachers unions have spent since the last election and we’re starting to talk about some serious money.
In this article, you’ve decided to let them off the hook with some sort of equivalency.
Perhaps you could write an article on the nearly $6.5 Million in the last 12 months alone spent by government employee unions in Washington state.
That’s right, at least $6.5 Million dollars in the last 12 months spent by government employee unions in Washington state. yet they still demmmand more money from a broken government?
As a journalist who covers these things, you are expected to report the news. Instead, you have decided to report the news you want the public to see, and leave out the facts that could damage the candidate you, your editorial staff, and your paper have been supporting.
This is part of the reason papers are losing revenue. Perhaps you could address that issue as well.