Political smear campaigns often wilt under light of fact

The campaigns for November’s elections are already turning ugly. Last week, 10,000 automated calls warning of a sex predator went out in Snohomish County. The calls accused Rep. John Lovick, a retired state patrol officer from Mill Creek, and Rep. Hans Dunshee, the chair of the House Capital Budget Committee from Snohomish, of voting against putting child rapists behind bars for life. What’s up with this?

What’s up is an organization called the Speaker’s Roundtable, run by Republican campaign officials. They have decided that the best way to take seats away from Democrats is to gin up sleaze campaigns that bear little relationship to reality.

We like to think of the Legislature as a deliberative body that follows a process of hearings, committee reviews and a step-by-step process of building good law. The Republicans tried to hijack this procedure on the first day of the recently completed legislative session by forcing through a bill about sex predators that looked good but was in fact quite flawed.

They were voted down. And that is how the Speaker’s Roundtable can claim that Democrats voted against a bill to protect citizens from sex predators.

What the Speaker’s Roundtable doesn’t tell you is that the Democrats developed better legislation that was much more likely to put more sex predators behind bars by mandating jail time from 25 years to life. The minimum will make it more likely that abused family members will testify against a predator, knowing they are not part of a process in which a relative will be put away with no chance of rehabilitation, never to see the light of day again.

That’s a pretty heavy load to expect a relative to bear. Some would refuse, prosecutions would falter and predators would more likely walk free.

While this explanation gives us insight into the complications of making policy, those very complications provide the grist for all sorts of scary, misleading and sometimes false flyers and phone calls. My advice: Do a little research yourself.

Here’s how: When you have a question about a particular piece of legislation, go to the Legislature’s Web site: www.leg.wa.gov. You can search all the bills related to a specific topic. “Sex offenses with children” comes up with four bills. Follow the link and you get all the committee reports, committee votes, bill analyses, who testified pro and con, and votes taken. (If you don’t have Internet access, you can call the Office of the Chief Clerk in Olympia at 360-786-7750 and someone will help you out.)

This year, the Legislature passed an overhaul of the sex offender law. Among other things, it significantly toughened penalties. The bill passed unanimously in the House. No Republican legislators testified against it. A little more research will get you to the bill sponsored by Lovick and Dunshee that requires global positioning (GPS) trackers to follow every movement of released sex offenders. All Republicans and Democrats voted for this bill.

So why is the Speaker’s Roundtable going after Democrats Dunshee and Lovick? The Speaker’s Roundtable is linked to the House Republican Organizing Committee.

You’ll find that information on the state’s Public Disclosure Commission site (www.pdc.wa.gov); you can follow the link to who gave the group money and how it spent it. One of the largest contributors is Phillip Morris.

Premera Insurance just gave $5,000. In the past three months the Speaker’s Roundtable has spent close to $70,000 on polling, mailings, television advertising, automated phone calls and political consultants.

Why Dunshee and Lovick? Apparently, the Republicans think they can win in the 44th District. But you can decide that for yourself. Just go to vote.wa.gov/general/legislative.aspx and you will find the election results from 2004. Lovick got 59 percent, and Dunshee got 54 percent. Maybe the smear campaigns have to start early to be effective.

It is going to be a long 71/2 months of propaganda flooding our mail and the airwaves. When it comes down to campaigns, take every pitch with a grain of salt. In this case, a quick check of the official, neutral legislative and public disclosure Web sites will give you the straight story, not the smear.

John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute (www.eoionline.org), writes every other Wednesday. Write to him in care of the institute at 1900 Northlake Way, Suite 237, Seattle, WA 98103. His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.