Hope targets lawyer who targeted him with PDC complaints

Investigators with the state Public Disclosure Commission are recommending two complaints against state Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens, be dismissed.

Commissioners are expected to endorse the recommendation Thursday.

Go here to read the investigation and findings.

Hope, meanwhile, isn’t waiting for Thursday’s outcome before going after Olympia attorney William Ferrell who triggered the PDC investigation.

Hope said last week that his campaign treasurer has already filed a grievance against Ferrell with the Washington State Bar Association alleging the attorney’s actions violated the association code of ethics.

An association official would not confirm or deny that anything had been submitted.

Ferrell of the Evergreen Law Group filed complaints against Hope in April and again in June. One alleged Hope’s current campaign for Snohomish County executive improperly benefited from an organization he launched in March to come up with 100 Ideas for improving state government.

Ferrell’s other complaint included allegations that Hope did not properly disclose travel expenses incurred in 2010 while campaigning for passage of a constitutional amendment reforming state bail laws.

Hope is convinced Ferrell’s actions were frivolous and intended solely to undermine his campaign against Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon. Privately, Hope’s supporters believe Ferrell acted at the behest of Reardon but they can’t prove it and thus aren’t making any such allegation publicly.

Folks at the PDC are getting pretty familiar with the Hope-Reardon contest.

Earlier this year, a Republican activist in Hope’s hometown of Lake Stevens filed a complaint against Reardon for failing to disclose who paid the bills for a couple of trips he took as county executive.

That investigation found Reardon did err and fined him $750 with $500 of it suspended.