OLYMPIA – Battles over medical malpractice and a statewide gas tax increase raked in the most money among statewide initiatives in the week leading up to a cutoff on large donations, state records show.
As of Oct. 18, statewide campaign committees can no longer accept contributions totaling more than $5,000 from any single source, except political parties.
In the week before that deadline, three initiative campaigns collected more than $1 million, according to Public Disclosure Commission reports.
The fundraising leader was the campaign against Initiative 330, a medical malpractice measure supported by doctors, hospitals and insurers. The effort to defeat I-330 collected more than $1.7 million between Oct. 10 and Oct. 17.
The No on I-330 committee’s largest collection in the week was a $750,000 loan from the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association.
The anti-330 campaign also got $600,000 from a political committee promoting the second malpractice measure on this fall’s ballot, Initiative 336. Both of those committees are largely supported by lawyers.
In the same week, the campaign promoting doctor-supported I-330 collected about $1.1 million. That campaign got $300,000 from a fundraising group for hospitals, and $292,000 from Physicians Insurance, the state’s largest malpractice insurer.
The malpractice campaigns will easily set a spending record in Washington, surpassing some $7 million spent during the push to build a new NFL stadium in Seattle.
All told, the two sides have raised about $14 million.
The other large fundraiser in the final week of large contributions was the campaign against Initiative 912, which would roll back the Legislature’s 9.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase.
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