By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Oct. 30.—State Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, one of the big beneficiaries of independent expenditure spending by labor and its allies this year, says he thinks the consulting firm behind it ought to prosecuted to the max for the massive fakeout of Everett Republican voters that cost state Sen. Jean Berkey her seat in the August primary.

            “I hope she gets reseated or there is a special election,” he said. “It’s despicable, beating up on a 74-year-old woman like that.”

            Campbell was supposed to be helped in the primary by a series of five hit pieces mailed by Moxie Media to voters in his Second Legislative District. They hammered his opponent, fellow Republican J.T. Wilcox, scion of a prominent farming family in the area.

But Campbell said he was appalled when he opened his mailbox and found out the nasty things his friends were saying for him. Because it was an independent campaign, state law forbade him to communicate with the people running it. The troubling thing with independent campaigns like that one, he said, is that when they attack people, voters think the candidate had something to do with it.

            “True or not, I would never say the things about my opponent that have been written in these sleazy hit pieces,” he said. “The pieces are extremely distasteful. I would never approve anything like that. It’s shocking and discouraging.”

            May Not Have a Lot to Lose

            Campbell right now is staring defeat in the face in the Tuesday election. He finished 41-59 in the primary, one of the worst scores of any incumbent on this year’s ballot. It’s the kind of deficit that almost never is made up in the 11 weeks between a primary and a general election.

            So in some respects you might say he doesn’t have much to lose by blasting the consulting firm that produced hit pieces for the coalition of labor, trial-lawyer and activist groups that rose to his aid last summer.  The hit pieces and the robocalls have kept right on coming, too, right up through this last weekend.
            But Campbell said he is genuinely disturbed by the sort of advertising that is being pumped out by independent campaigns. Candidates have no say in what they do. And he said the Legislature ought to pass some sort of a bill next year to clamp down on them – even if he isn’t around to introduce it.

            “My name is very important to me,” he said. “They hijacked my brand.”

            Little Monopoly People

            The pieces were clever, all right. They featured cartoony drawings in the same ’30s-vintage line-art style as the game cards used in “Monopoly.” One showed a happy fatcat aboard his yacht, hoisting a martini glass to the sky. Said the headline, “While J.T. Wilcox made a fortune off of his workers… Tom Campbell has been working hard for us.”

            Another showed a happy fellow jumping with glee while a couple open sacks of gold coins sat in the foreground. The caption: “While J.T. Wilcox took thousands in government subsidies… Wilcox’s workers feared for their safety.”

            And then there was the one with the anguished young man sitting on a milking stool: “While J.T. Wilcox laid away a million dollars in profits… Wilcox’s workers got laid off.”
            Campaign finance records show the progressive coalition spent $100,000 on its efforts in the Second District race, recorded as an independent expenditure against Wilcox.

            “People assume it was me,” Campbell said. “I had zero knowledge of the little Monopoly people.”

             Link to Berkey Case

             The hit pieces aside, there’s another element that gives Campbell standing to comment on what happened in the Berkey race. His name has been drawn into the affair, because of something that happened behind the scenes, and with which he had nothing to do.
            After the coalition started dumping money into his race last July, it read the tea leaves and figured out what was about to happen in the Second District primary. Its members decided to divert funds from a political action committee that had been set up to fund activities in the race. Money from the “Second Defense PAC” was earmarked for a sneak attack in Everett that aimed to knock Sen. Berkey out of the running.  

            In that notorious case, the state Labor Council, the Washington Federation of State Employees and the Washington State Association for Justice, a trial-lawyer organization, pledged money for a fake Republican campaign that aimed to build up a hopeless right-wing candidate. While they publicly attacked moderate Democrat Berkey for not raising taxes enough, the clandestine Republican campaign attacked her for raising taxes at all. And the tactic worked — the favored candidate, Democrat Nick Harper, advanced to the general election ballot with conservative Rod Rieger. Berkey lost by 122 votes.

Moxie Media coordinated that campaign as well. The firm never collected on the pledges – the Labor Council got cold feet after the matter was reported in the press. And now Moxie Media is in hot water for failing to disclose the pledges in campaign finance documents. Attorney General Rob McKenna filed charges against the firm Friday afternoon. One possible outcome – the courts might order a new election.

            Independent Campaign for Independent Cuss

It should be noted that Campbell didn’t reject all the help he got from outside sources. When the Labor Council sponsored a “Labor-Neighbor” doorbelling campaign in the district last July – direct help for Campbell, not part of the independent campaign – Campbell rallied the troops at a pre-session gathering.

But you might wonder why labor was supporting a Republican at all. And for that you have to know a little about Tom Campbell.
            The Spanaway chiropractor is what you might call a career-long fence-straddler. When he was elected for the first time in 1992 he was a Democrat, but he switched parties after his second election. He voted so frequently with Democrats that the Dems even awarded him the chairmanship of the House Environmental Health Committee. But when the two parties go behind closed doors in the state House of Representatives to talk over matters of strategy, Campbell sits by himself on the floor, making phone calls and answering emails – a man without a country. Labor considers him a good vote, or at least a better one than Wilcox.

            Wants a Bill

Campbell said traditional campaign support is one thing, but he says his case shows candidates can suffer when independent campaigns go too far. “They whack people,” he said. “The candidates are powerless. That can’t go on. That has to stop.”

Campbell said he’s researching the constitutionality of a possible bill that would give candidates a say in independent campaigns. He would require them to prefile ads and mailers with the Public Disclosure Commission and allow candidates to review them before they are used. If a candidate disapproves, the message would be required to say so.

“The lives and people they [Moxie] played with — it’s illegal, inappropriate and unethical,” he said. “I hope they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

He even suggests that McKenna might appoint a special prosecutor to handle the Berkey case. Not that he doubts McKenna’s ability to handle the case impartially, but he said it might be “too hot” for an elected official – and he wants the charges to stick.

             Not a Helpful Suggestion