State Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee.

OLYMPIA, Aug. 23.—State Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, knew there was something suspicious about the activity on his credit card when he saw the charge from President Obama.

A player in the Republican ranks at the statehouse, Condotta is about as likely to give money to the Obama re-election campaign as he is to be invited to a state Labor Council banquet. But according to his bank statement, it really happened.

Condotta says he dropped by a Les Schwab outlet to make a payment and the clerk couldn’t run his card. So he called his bank and learned a hold had been put on his card. It seemed someone in Chicago had tried to use his credit card number – yet there was no charge. A sign someone was testing it.

Then the next day, a token amount was charged to his card. “They said ‘You have a five-dollar charge to the Obama reelection campaign,’ and I said what?”

Condotta is chairman of the House Republican Organizational Committee, the committee that runs the Republican campaigns for the state House. Has been for the last five years.

“Of all the people to hack my credit card,” he says.

Well, it probably wasn’t the Leader of the Free World himself. You have to figure the thieves were just running another test, in advance of a big score. You just have to wonder what it would have been. Paying off the national debt?

Your support matters.

Public service journalism is important today as ever. If you get something from our coverage, please consider making a donation to support our work. Thanks for reading our stuff.