Let’s Go Washington accused of violating campaign finance law

By Jerry Cornfield Washington State Standard For the Tacoma Daily Index • September 19, 2024 1:30 am
Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard Let’s Go Washington, a political committee, faces allegations it did not properly disclose information on money raised and spent in its signature-gathering drives for six initiatives in 2023. These boxes contain signed petitions for one of them, Initiative 2109, which would to repeal Washington state’s capital gains tax. It will be on ballots in November 2024.
Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard Let’s Go Washington, a political committee, faces allegations it did not properly disclose information on money raised and spent in its signature-gathering drives for six initiatives in 2023. These boxes contain signed petitions for one of them, Initiative 2109, which would to repeal Washington state’s capital gains tax. It will be on ballots in November 2024.

A 14-month investigation has led to charges against the political committee founded by businessman Brian Heywood for allegedly violating campaign finance laws in the course of gathering signatures for six initiatives last year, including three on the ballot in November.

Staff of the state Public Disclosure Commission filed administrative charges on Sept. 9 alleging Let’s Go Washington did not “accurately and timely” report its spending on signature-gathering for each of the measures.

Staff also assert the committee failed to obtain and disclose information from vendors on their spending on subcontractors for signature-gathering. And, they accuse the committee of not producing requested campaign records. After being issued a subpoena in July, Let’s Go Washington produced 9,000 pages of materials for the campaign finance watchdog.

The five-member Public Disclosure Commission will consider the charges in a special meeting Oct. 3. The panel had been slated to hear the matter on Thursday but Let’s Go Washington requested more time.

Heywood said the group “has been transparent in all of its campaign reports.”

Commission staff “does not dispute that we have reported every penny we have received and spent,” he said in a statement. “This issue concerns only technical details of how we reported that information.”

This dispute is rooted in Let’s Go Washington’s unprecedented success last year in gathering signatures for six initiatives to the Legislature. Lawmakers adopted three – dealing with guidelines for police pursuits, parental rights and taxes.

Voters will decide the fate of three others that seek to repeal the capital gains tax and the cap-and-trade system, and make the state’s new long-term care services program voluntary.

An alliance of progressive groups opposed to the ballot measures filed a complaint in July 2023 alleging Lets Go Washington failed to disclose details about the flow of money in and out of the committee coffers for each of the six initiatives.

They alleged that by using Heywood’s “deep pockets” as its near exclusive source of cash in 2023, the committee circumvented the need for filing of regular reports of contributions. They also argue he failed to report pledges intended to cover in-kind expenditures.

Lawyers representing SEIU 775, Washington Conservation Action, Planned Parenthood and Civic Ventures have argued for action on the allegations before the fall election. At a commission meeting two months ago, they pressed commIssioners to refer the case to Washington’s attorney general but were rebuffed in part because their staff had not finished their investigation.

Defend Washington, the name of the coalition, said in a statement this week that the charges show Let’s Go Washington “has been trying to conceal relevant facts from voters as they weigh how to vote on these measures … and then stonewalling the PDC as they attempted to investigate.”

The crux of the charges centers on how Let’s Go Washington reported its spending on signature-gathering for the six measures in 2023.

Reports originally filed by the political committee treated it as a single undertaking, lumping together everything raised and spent. Earlier this year, at the commission staff’s behest, the committee filed amended reports breaking it down into specific amounts for each initiative.

Another charge filed by the staff concerns Allstate Petition Management, or APM, one of two signature-gathering firms hired by Let’s Go Washington.

According to commission documents, the political committee reported $1.9 million in payments to APM but did not collect information on amounts the company paid to subcontractors, such as signature-gatherers, as required by state law.

Let’s Go Washington sent a letter seeking the information to Roy Ruffino, APM’s top executive. Ruffino, a former collaborator with initiative promoter Tim Eyman, responded that what the political committee sought “is proprietary information and is outside the realm of reason to disclose to you.”

The case is still under investigation, and charging documents can be amended, according to PDC officials.

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