PDC may punish Moxie Media for its PAC activities in primary

Published 8:47 am Monday, October 25, 2010

The state Public Disclosure Commission on Thursday will consider a report alleging Moxie Media of Seattle concealed the identity of donors behind mailers it produced attacking state Sen Jean Berkey in the primary.

You can read the 130 pages of findings and exhibits compiled by the PDC staff here and my story on it here.

The commission will conduct an enforcement hearing unless an agreement of some sort is reached between the state and Moxie Media, which is run by Lisa MacLean. Commissioners would then consider whether to accept or reject the deal.

Berkey, the Everett Democrat who finished third in the primary, filed the complaint that prompted the investigation.

She contended Moxie Media violated state election laws by not disclosing the source of money used to pay for two mailers sent to thousands of voters in the final days of the primary. Those mailers criticized Berkey and urged support for Rod Rieger, a conservative candidate who wasn’t campaigning. Rieger had only raised $800 and wasn’t spending any of it.

Up to that point in the campaign, Moxie Media had been the strategist for a mostly union-funded campaign against Berkey and for her liberal Democratic challenger, Nick Harper. (Harper did win the primary and is facing Rieger in the Nov. 2 election.)

As documents in the report show, when MacLean decided to attack from the right, she had the blessing of leaders from some of those unions as well as a trial lawyers group. Berkey contends that the strategy was intended to deliberately mislead voters.

She may sue to try to convince a judge to set aside the results of the primary election then get a special election to fill the seat.