Election mailers from a national Democratic group targeting Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, drew a stern rebuke from the state Republican Party on Tuesday, with party leaders charging that the mailers were illegally issued because the group hasn’t filed as a political committee, and hasn’t divulged who’s funding them.
But as Republicans sought to escalate the controversy by calling for formal investigations to begin, it was uncertain if this case would be a one-day barrage with Election Day a week out, or if it would become a prolonged scandal like the case Republicans are comparing it, the 2010 Moxie Media campaign that knocked out then-Sen. Jean Berkey.
The Mason County Prosecutor’s Office, which has been asked to start a criminal investigation, the state Attorney General’s Office, which filed suit against Moxie Media three years ago, and the Public Disclosure Commission haven’t said how they’ll respond to the Republicans’ charges, or if they’ll look into the matter at all. The group behind the mailers, American Values First, says it’s certain it’s operating within state election laws because its primary purpose is not a political organization, but rather focused on social welfare – voting rights.
The mailers they sent are certainly political. They went to voters in the 35th District, which covers parts of Mason, Kitsap and Thurston counties, portraying Sheldon as having liberal positions on federal immigration, funding for Planned Parenthood and health care reform. The president of American Values First, Michael Sargeant, is the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
Republicans have seized on this as an attempt to turn off conservative voters from casting ballots for Sheldon, a member of the Majority Coalition Caucus who’s locked in a close re-election fight with a fellow Democrat, Irene Bowling.
“It’s about loyalty,” Sheldon said at a news conference, referring to his belief Democrats are retaliating against him for joining the MCC at the end of 2012. “They put this big target on my back because I haven’t followed the party.”
The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee has distanced itself from the controversy, with Political Director Alex Bond saying the mailers were paid for by an independent group with no coordination from the Washington State Democratic Party.
However, Bond said the issues raised in the mailers are legitimate questions Sheldon should answer to voters.
“Sheldon should talk about issues that matter to the voters of his district, not go crying about out-of-state boogeymen,” Bond wrote in an email Tuesday.
When asked about the mailers’ claims at the news conference, Sheldon said he didn’t want to lend credence to their assertions by responding to them.
They claimed he supported expanding federal health care reform and Planned Parenthood based on his vote for the state budget in 2013, and supports pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants based on his vote for the Real Hope Act earlier this year, which supplies $5 million in funding for children of undocumented immigrants to compete for financial aid to attend college.
“There’s always a little truth in every big lie,” Sheldon said. “That budget that we’re talking about passed 44-4. I’m proud of how I voted.”
INVOKING MOXIE MEDIA
Republicans are comparing it to a 2010 scandal involving a political consulting firm called Moxie Media, which used a similar tactic in defeating former Democratic Sen. Jean Berkey, whose conservative voting record had alienated labor groups and sent their funding and support to another Democratic candidate, Nick Harper.
The Moxie Media campaign swung conservative voters away from Berkey to an unknown Republican candidate, who bested her in the primary but went on to be soundly defeated by Harper in November of that year. Then-Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, filed suit against Moxie Media, which was settled for almost $300,000 in penalties.
The case also prompted the Legislature, in the following session, to enact stricter reporting requirements and institute criminal penalties for violations of the state’s campaign laws.
Sen. Bruce Dammeier, chairman of the SRCC, called the American Values First mailers a test for the new laws, and has asked the Mason County Prosecutor’s Office to open a criminal investigation. Representatives with the Mason County Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Mark Lamb, an attorney with the SRCC, said the group was attempting to hide behind federal tax laws that don’t require disclosure of contributors to political nonprofits called 501(c)(4)s, and argued that doesn’t exempt them from Washington’s campaign finance laws.
“It’s wrong and it’s not legal under the laws of Washington state,” Lamb said. “Federal tax law does not exempt you from Washington state law.”
Bill Burke, spokesman for American Values First, rebutted Lamb’s claim and said his organization was operating with the state’s laws because it’s a social welfare group. American Values First has filed a series of independent expenditures noting the Washington, D.C., firm that produced the mailers, and their costs of about $27,000.
The organization has also pointed to independent expenditures made by the conservative Koch Industries in Washington elections in 2010, which supported Republican candidates but did not identify sources of funding.
“The Republican Party’s claim that only political committees may make independent expenditures is flatly wrong,” American Values First said in a statement. “This is all just an attempt to draw attention away from the Party’s obvious discomfort with Senator Sheldon’s clear record on hot-button issues. Their problem is not with what we filed, but with what we said.”
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