Here’s a shocker: Political advertising is sometimes misleading.
It’s up to voters, with the help of a vigilant press, to see through attempts to deceive. In our state, that’s why voters approved a strong public disclosure law nearly 40 years ago. It shines a light on the money in politics, requiring timely and meaningful reporting of who is paying for campaign activities and lobbying.
Washington voters know powerful interests are trying to influence their vote; they demand to know who, and how, while it matters.
The recent primary election exposed a loophole in the law that potentially works against that principle. Allowed to remain, it will surely be exploited in the future.
State Sen. Jean Berkey last week filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission, alleging that some who opposed her re-election in the 38th District broke election law by failing to disclose who paid for two mailers that were sent to voters days before the Aug. 17 primary. The mailers were produced and sent by Moxie Media, a political consulting firm that coordinated a $300,000 campaign by labor unions and other progressives to oust the moderate Berkey and elect political newcomer Nick Harper.
The mailers in question, though, were sent in support of conservative candidate Rod Rieger, under the name of a newly formed political action committee called Cut Taxes. Its top contributor was listed as Conservative PAC, another brand-new group. Neither has reported any donations, or pledges, to pay for the mailers. Technically, at this point, the mailers are an in-kind contribution by Moxie Media to the Conservative PAC.
Political consultants are in business to be paid, however. If a donor surfaces in the coming days, and the proper paperwork is filed, it could all be ruled legal. If so, the law needs to be changed. Voters had a right, and a need, to know before election day whether left-leaning interests were making a pitch for a right-wing candidate in order to knock the moderate out of a three-way race. This kind of case is why the Public Disclosure Commission was created.
Whether the mailings made the difference in Berkey’s third-place finish, as she claims, will never be known. She was in second place on election night, ahead of Rieger, but trailed him by 122 votes after Wednesday’s final count. That followed a region-wide trend, however, of conservative candidates making gains in later vote counts. Harper and Rieger will advance to the general election.
The winner should help lead an effort to close this loophole, and require that all donors report their pledges or contributions upfront, not days or weeks after that information would have done voters any good.
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