Lawmakers seeking corporate funds for Seattle event

TACOMA – Washington lawmakers are using a special exemption to raise up to $1.6 million in corporate contributions to help put on a national legislative conference in Seattle next month.

The Legislature will host the annual summer meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures Aug. 16-20.

The host committee, including lawmakers, lobbyists and others, is soliciting big-dollar donations for everything from catering to child care.

The list of donors, ranging up to $100,000 apiece, include interest groups with business before the Legislature and counterparts in other states, the News Tribune reported.

Contributors will get to rub elbows with lawmakers at business sessions and social events, such as a Seattle Mariners baseball game and a gala on the Space Needle observation deck.

About 7,400 attendees are expected from all 50 states and will generate an estimated $17.5 million in economic activity in the Seattle area, said Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, co-chairwoman of the host committee.

Expenses include $120,000 to cater the party at the Space Needle, $20,000 for Mariners tickets, $75,150 for coolers that will be given away as convention mementoes, $1,500 for the All-City Marching Band to perform, and $24,700 for services of a professional fund-raiser.

Ordinarily, the Legislature and its agents would be limited in fund-raising, or even prohibited in some cases. But in preparing for the NCSL meeting, lawmakers in 2003 approved an exemption to the state ethics law that allows them to solicit unlimited contributions.

The gift limit in most cases would be $50 per member per event or gift.

Donors include some companies with business before the Legislature. Examples: Philip Morris’ parent company, which battles big cigarette tax increases, kicked in $50,000, and Corrections Corporation of America, which sought permission to operate a new prison, gave $10,000.

Critics say conference fund-raising, especially during a legislative session when campaign fund-raising is expressly forbidden, can create an appearance of skirting the ethics law.

“It seems a violation of the spirit of the ethics laws,” said Bill Asbury, Olympia, a founding member of the Legislative Ethics Board.

Because detailed reporting is not required, it can’t be determined which legislators solicited the NCSL contributions.

Lawmakers also have exemptions for fund-raising for tourism and trade promotion, Capitol renovations and other causes. Asbury said all are worthy causes, but that it’s problematic for lawmakers to ask lobbyists for money for anything.

“It may be the easy way (to raise money), but it’s not the right way,” said Asbury, who recently retired from the ethics panel.

Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for the watchdog group Common Cause, said lobbyists give money to the conference for the same reasons they give campaign contributions or to the national party conventions.

“In situations where companies are giving thousands of dollars, it is an effort to gain access and influence with lawmakers,” she said. “Just because you have a big wallet, you shouldn’t be the one to get access to the elected official, when many people can’t afford to do the same thing.”

Santos said she didn’t know whether some donors gave because they see the conference as a lobbying opportunity.

“I know the way we’ve been characterizing it when we’ve gone to talk to folks – and that is to remind the potential donors that we have a chance to educate the lawmakers about a variety of issues that affect us locally, as well as regionally, as well as nationally.”

Many local donors wanted to boost the regional economy, not because they felt pressured or wanted access, she said.

“Sometimes people try to read too much into things,” said Grant Lynch, vice president of International Speedway Corp., which pledged $5,000.

Still, he conceded that the contribution might enhance his company’s bid to build a NASCAR race track in Kitsap County.

Legislators didn’t ask for the board’s clearance before approving the NCSL exemption and the Public Disclosure Commission didn’t take a position.

The conference drew $100,000 in pledges of cash or in-kind support from Microsoft, Boeing, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Washington Wine Commission and Institute.

The host committee also got $50,000 apiece from Altria Corporate Services, Amgen and KKR and Co., $25,000 gifts from AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical, Beer Institute, and MoneyTree. Premera Blue Cross gave $20,000 and Comcast and the Washington Education Association $15,000. A long list of donors pledged $5,000 or $10,000.