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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

State Uses Foreman Case To Test Campaign Laws Candidate For Governor Accused Of Violating Contribution Laws

Lynda Mapes Staff Writer

Dale Foreman, a GOP candidate for governor, is running afoul of the state’s election watchdog again.

At issue is whether Foreman, R-Wenatchee, raised money for his campaign during the legislative session and accepted contributions larger than allowed by law.

More than 70 percent of state voters approved an initiative in 1992 that bans fund raising by politicians from 30 days before the start of a legislative session to 30 days after it ends.

Statewide candidates are also limited to individual contributions of no more than $1,100 per election.

Foreman is the House majority leader. He said he’s done nothing wrong.

Public Disclosure Commission investigators say Foreman deliberately skirted the election law by setting up a political action committee called Campaign for Washington in 1995.

The PAC raised more than $50,000 during the session when the fund-raising freeze was in effect, investigators say.

Many of the same people involved with Campaign for Washington are now on Foreman’s gubernatorial campaign as consultants or paid staff. About half the contributors to Campaign for Washington also gave to Foreman’s current political campaign.

Foreman says the PAC was organized solely to gain public support for the House GOP agenda and had nothing to do with his race for governor.

PDC investigators disagree. They say the PAC was intended to build a statewide political base for Foreman, to lay the groundwork for his gubernatorial race.

“The issue is whether Campaign for Washington was acting as a front for Foreman for governor,” said Susan Harris, deputy director of the PDC. “We think that’s the case.”

Harris called the alleged violations a “test case” that will determine the strength of the state’s election law.

“It’s precedent-setting. It would give meaning to I-134, and close some of the loopholes people have found by not letting them start these kinds of committees that allow them to circumvent the law.”

The PDC began its investigation after Glen Davies of Olympia filed a complaint last January about Campaign for Washington. Davies is a contractor and GOP candidate for the state House seat.

He called Foreman’s involvement with Campaign for Washington “unacceptable” and “obscene.”

Foreman has been a lawyer for more than 20 years and has two degrees from Harvard University. Davies said that’s part of Foreman’s problem.

“Lawyers think different from normal people. They see laws as an obstacle. In my opinion, he violated not only the spirit but the letter of the law approved by more than 70 percent of the people of this state.

“We have to get people who are willing to violate the public trust out of government,” Davies said.

The PDC fined Foreman $2,500 this month in connection with an unrelated case in which commissioners found him guilty of multiple violations of the state’s contribution limit.

The continuing flap over Foreman’s campaign finances is hardly the kind of press any candidate wants.

The Campaign for Washington complaint will be heard by the PDC Aug. 27 - the day absentee ballots are mailed out, and just weeks before the September primary.

Christopher Bayley, co-chairman of Foreman’s campaign, insisted the charges haven’t had a negative impact.

Bayley helped start the Campaign for Washington and said the PDC’s charges are “simply incorrect and impossible.

“All of us are sophisticated people with integrity. We were extremely careful not to do what the PDC says we were. Dale was not a candidate when this was started. He was simply thinking about it,” Bayley said.

Foreman said he is eagerly awaiting an opportunity to plead his case. He said the charges are a classic infringement on partisan political speech, protected by the First Amendment.

If what he did was wrong, then people everywhere have to be worried about ever championing a political issue, for fear it could be used against them if they become a candidate, Foreman said.

Foreman, 48, is an orchardist and relative newcomer to politics. This is his third year in the House. He is a native of Seattle and has three children.

, DataTimes