Locke Letter For Stadium Draws Flag 1,000 Demos Get Letter On Official Stationery; Copying, Distribution Done By Others, Aide Says

Gov. Gary Locke may have run afoul of state lobbying laws and definitely has angered some Spokane Democrats with a letter asking party members to push for a public vote on the Seahawks football stadium.

The March 14 letter urges “Washington State Democrats” to support the new stadium, explains some aspects of the funding for the $425 million project and urges recipients to call their legislators.

“Tell them you support putting my proposed stadium funding on the ballot in June,” Locke wrote in the letter, which carries the state seal and the letterhead of the governor’s office.

An estimated 1,000 Democratic activists around the state received the letter last month.

Melissa Warheit, executive director of the state Public Disclosure Commission, said the letter may violate laws against the use of state resources in political efforts. Official stationery is a state resource, she said.

“You may not use public funds to engage in grass-roots lobbying efforts,” Warheit said, adding the commission has not yet investigated the letter. “This is the first we heard about it.”

Marylou Flynn, a spokeswoman for Locke, said the letter was never intended to be sent to Democrats around the state.

“We sent out one copy,” said Flynn. “The copying and distribution was done by others. We were not consulted.”

Locke had no comment Friday on the propriety of others sending out the letter.

The letter was prepared for top party officials who met last month for their Executive Committee meeting, Flynn said.

The committee endorsed the stadium proposal at that meeting.

One member of the committee is former state chairwoman Karen Marchioro, who now runs a political consulting firm that is working on the campaign by Football Northwest to put the stadium issue to a vote.

Jeff Smith, a member of the consulting firm, said it did not ask Locke to write the letter.

“It was something he’d already written,” Smith said, adding that the firm didn’t research state law on lobbying restrictions.

“We didn’t ask that question. We got this in our hands and decided to use it.”

The Locke letter, along with one from state Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt and another from Marchioro, was mailed to about 1,000 party leaders and activists around the state.

Berendt, who is also supporting the proposal, said Locke didn’t ask them to circulate the letter, and neither he nor Marchioro asked permission to send it.

“There’s nothing wrong with taking a public document and reproducing it,” Berendt said.

Several Spokane Democrats said they questioned the priorities of Locke and their party leaders when the first letter they received from the governor was a request to support a new football stadium in Seattle.

“I’m disappointed that both the state party chairman and the governor seem to have this as their top priority, at a time when the Republican Legislature seems to be dismantling 60 years of Democratic programs,” said precinct committee officer Bill First, who added that he still supports Locke on other issues.

The county Democratic Party has not yet taken a stand on the stadium, although its executive committee will vote later this month on whether to support the statewide vote, County Chairman Ken Pelo said.

Pelo said he could understand why some party activists would be disturbed by the lobbying campaign directed at them.

“We have a lot of other big problems in the state we need to stand up for, in terms of jobs and children and higher salaries for teachers and community college instructors,” he said. “But I can understand that (state party leaders) are looking at the stadium as an important part of the economy of the whole state.”

Berendt called the stadium a source of hundreds of jobs. “It’s important to the labor community,” he said.

Spokane Valley Democrats recently voted to support putting the stadium issue on the ballot, said Sally Jackson, the leader of the party’s 4th Legislative District organization.

“It’s not an endorsement of the stadium. It’s an endorsement of the right to vote,” Jackson said.

She saw nothing improper about Locke’s letter, or its distribution by Marchioro’s consulting firm.

“That’s just the way you do business,” she said.

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