With only weeks to go before Election Day, one of the deepest-pocketed political players in Washington is in trouble.

State regulators on Monday decided that a subsidiary of the Building Industry Association of Washington and another builders' group “committed multiple apparent violations” of the state's election finance law. They're asking the attorney general to investigate. Click here for links to the two PDC investigations discussed today.

In nearby Thurston County Superior Court, meanwhile, a recently-filed lawsuit charges that the BIAW and its affiliates are wrongly spending millions of dollars on politics. Critics are seeking an injunction that the builders say would “cripple” the politically-active trade group in the final weeks of a seemingly-tight governor's race.

On Monday, attorneys for the builders told the state Public Disclosure Commission that any violations were an accounting misunderstanding, not an effort to hide anything. As a big-spending group on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and other conservative candidates, they say they're being unfairly targeted.

“It's harassment,” said BIAW attorney Tim Harris. “It's an attempt to shut down political speech.”

Critics scoffed.

“We don't see this as a simple oversight but as a calculated disrespect for the law,” said Cheryl Murfin, with the liberal political advocacy group Fuse.

At issue is about $585,000 that the builders set aside in July 2007 to spend on this year's governor's race. The money and where it came from wasn't reported until Aug. 20, 2008, when it was dumped into a BIAW-backed political committee opposing Gov. Chris Gregoire.

“It doesn't take a chorus of pin-dancing angels to tell me this is not the spirit or the letter of the law,” said Ken Schellberg, chairman of the state Public Disclosure Commission. “I think it is an egregious lapse of judgment.”

The Spokane Home Builders Association was the

---

---