Ad attacking Bingle falsely attributes wrong committee in apparent violation of state law

An attack ad against Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who is running for re-election against reproductive rights organizer Sarah Dixit, was allegedly produced by an independent political committee funded by two unions that have endorsed Bingle.

Except that committee no longer exists, and the “error,” as the actual creators called it, appears to violate state election law.

The mailer itself is standard fare: an unflattering photograph of the candidate and flashy text derisively linking the candidate to President Donald Trump. In small text, a disclosure states it was “Paid for by Citizens for Liberty and Labor” with top donors including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – a labor union that represents most of the city’s workers – and the Spokane Firefighters Union. These disclosures are required by state law in order to inform voters about who is attempting to influence elections.

But the mailer’s disclosure raised eyebrows, because the AFSCME and Spokane Firefighters union have endorsed the candidate the ad targets .

The Citizens for Liberty and Labor is a real political action committee that has been active in past years, including funding ads against Bingle’s conservative colleague Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart in 2023.

The mailer was, in fact, paid for by the Eastern Washington Freedom for All PAC.

The PAC acknowledged in an email that the false disclosure was “an error,” put on a draft version of the mailer “as a placeholder for design purposes only, but unfortunately was not updated before printing.”

The state Public Disclosure Commission, which regulates state election finances and disclosures, declined to comment on “a potential enforcement matter.”

“We can’t comment in advance about something that someone could file as a complaint,” commission spokesperson Natalie Johnson said.

In a prepared statement, the PAC claimed the error was unintentional.

“We regret the error and will ensure the right disclaimer language is included in subsequent mailings,” the organization wrote in a prepared statement. “As a coalition based in our community, we are grateful for the organizations in labor and other organizations in Spokane who fund this work and will ensure we continue to be good stewards of their dollars now and in the future.”

Notably, almost none of the organization’s funding comes from Spokane or Eastern Washington. Of the $50,000 the organization has raised, all but $1,000 came from organizations based in Seattle and Kent, Washington, according to the latest data provided to the state Public Disclosure Commission.

NWP Consulting, a Seattle-based firm that the committee paid to design the mailer, and Lawton Printing, a Spokane-based printshop, did not respond when asked how the error evaded their quality controls.

It’s also unclear how the error appeared on the Bingle attack ad, but not on a mailer commissioned and mailed the same day supporting Spokane City Councilman Zack Zappone, who is also running for re-election this November. That mailer correctly discloses that it was commissioned by the Eastern Washington Freedom for All PAC.

Bingle remains unconvinced that the false disclosure was not meant to purposefully confuse voters ahead of the election, with the mailer appearing just as ballots are also arriving in voters’ mailboxes.

“That’s the problem: There’s no real time to correct this,” Bingle said. “The damage has been done, which is why I think it’s so egregious from the group that sent this out. They know better than this.”

The Freedom for All committee’s chair, Sabrina Kimm, previously served as the co-chair for the Citizens for Liberty and Labor.

Bingle questioned another connection: treasurer Geoffrey Bracken, who served as a program manager at the state Department of Commerce while Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown served as the head of that agency and has worked for years on various local campaigns as both a treasurer and at least once as a campaign manager. Bracken serves as treasurer of the Eastern Washington Freedom for All PAC, and notably also used to serve as treasurer for the Citizens for Liberty and Labor. But Bingle questioned his role as treasurer for Dixit.

While candidates themselves have strict limits on campaign donations, political committees do not, and are able to spend an unlimited amount in support or opposition to a candidate so long as they do not coordinate with the local candidates. These “independent expenditures” must be independent.

Having the same person work on both sides of that firewall raises questions about the integrity of that independence, Bingle said Friday.

“I have a hard time believing that you can remain neutral in that space when you know what everybody else is doing,” he said. “Even if you were, why would you want to cast doubt on a candidate you support by putting them in this position in the first place?”

Sharing treasurers between campaigns is not necessarily an issue, Johnson said.

“A lot of campaigns use the same treasurers, especially in the case of professional treasurers,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if it would be an ethical issue if they’re just keeping track of the books.”

“If both organizations have the same treasurer and there’s an independent expenditure, then it’s possible there could be coordination, but it’s hard to tell without knowing the details of the case,” she added.

In an interview, Bracken strenuously denied playing any role with either Dixit’s campaign nor the PAC outside of managing their books.

“I literally just report that they made expenditures,” he said. “I’m not involved in strategic decisions, I don’t have a say in how money is being spent. I can provide compliance, such as providing consulting with a disclosure or something like that.”

Though the PAC has paid $500 for compliance consulting from Bracken, he said he was not asked to ensure the attack ad’s mailer was compliant with state law.

“I can’t consult unless I’m consulted,” Bracken said.

Dixit also denied that Bracken was involved with strategizing for the campaign, praised his work preventing her campaign from making similar compliance mistakes, and said she hadn’t seen the mailer as of Friday afternoon.

As for the possible impact of the misleading disclosure:

“I support our state’s campaign finance transparency laws and, I don’t want to speak for this group, so I’m not sure of the background on it, but I think we should be holding all people accountable, not just one side or another,” she said.

Christian Sinderman, who responded on behalf of the PAC, deferred to Bracken on whether he had been inappropriately involved in the PAC’s strategy.