Republican Rob McKenna and Democrat Jay Inslee.
OLYMPIA, July 17.—Everyone knew the big bucks were coming, but not where they were coming from. Now we have at least half the answer. The national Democratic Governor’s Association last week kicked in with $1 million for the independent campaign for Democrat Jay Inslee. So consider that mystery at least partly solved.
Meanwhile, in the official fund-raising race for the governor’s mansion, Republican Rob McKenna has pulled ahead of Inslee. McKenna has finally erased the advantage that the Democrat gained during the “session freeze,” when McKenna was forbidden to raise money and Inslee was not. State elected officials were barred from raising money during the 4 ½ month legislative session, a rule that applied to Attorney General McKenna and not to former Congressman Jay Inslee. But that’s over now. McKenna reports a total $6,847,772.58 to Inslee’s $6,742,491.85.
Those are the standout stats from this week’s campaign-fund-raising reports – but other news mcnuggets may be coming today when campaigns for candidates are required to file their first detailed campaign spending reports since the beginning of June. The reporting deadlines fall on the 17th this month because it is 21 days before the primary. Today we may start finding out, for instance, how much the various candidates this year have reserved for their big pre-election ad buys.
Big Money for Inslee Was Expected
For the last five weeks, we’ve been waiting to see where the big money would be coming from for the independent campaign for Jay Inslee. Last month “Our Washington,” as it is called, reserved a whopping $3.2 million in television ad time for the fall election. The campaign was doing its buying early when the ad rates were low. Exactly where that money was coming from — that was the part no one could tell. At that point, the independent campaign had raised only $1.3 million.
It was a safe bet that money would be coming from one or more of the usual suspects. The initial money for the independent campaign came from the traditional Democratic sources – the Federation of State Employees, the trial lawyers, the labor council, the Washington Education Association and the various branches of the Service Employees International Union. Also kicking in with about $250,000 was the Democratic Governors Association.
That left somewhere around $2 million to raise. Who would be the angel?
Now we know. The national Democratic group kicked in with $1 million last Wednesday. SEIU Local 1199 kicked in with another $100,000, giving the independent campaign a grand total of $2.4 million.
That means there’s still about $1 million to go.
The ad purchases for the independent Inslee campaign are being made by Democratic consultant Frank Greer’s GMMB, a firm that is a frequent consultant for the state on projects requiring public outreach — $12 million worth since the Gregoire administration took office in 2005. Greer was media consultant to Gov. Christine Gregoire in her gubernatorial campaigns, and has been a longtime Inslee supporter. Two weeks ago the state decided not to award Greer’s company a no-bid $400,000 contract to advise the governor’s office on health care reform — critics raised questions regarding an appearance of impropriety.
On the Republican side, special-interest groups so far have not established a similar independent campaign for McKenna.
McKenna Back in Lead
Because of the independent campaign, it appears that the Democrats probably will have the advantage this fall when it comes to blanketing the TV airwaves. But where the fund-raising between the official gubernatorial campaigns is concerned, the numbers have been pretty even. The key difference between the two types of campaigns is that most contributors to the official ones are limited to $3,600, while the union interests — which are considered corporations with the right of free speech — may contribute unlimited amounts to the independent campaign.
The official campaigns, therefore, are a bit more of a horse race. Both campaigns launched at roughly the same time, last June, and McKenna posted somewhat stronger numbers every month. Inslee, meanwhile, was bolstered by contributions from the state party and transfers from his congressional account, which amounted to about a quarter of his total. Some money that Inslee was not allowed to transfer to his gubernatorial campaign was given to the state party instead – and presumably wound up going back to Inslee, in an indirect fashion.
McKenna was forced to cease fund-raising activities at the end of November. It took two months for Inslee to overtake him. The ban was lifted for McKenna when the Legislature adjourned April 11.
Since then it’s been a matter of catch-up – and if it hadn’t been for those state party contributions, the lead might have switched already. Last week the state party didn’t come up with a dime for Inslee, and the latest reports showed what happened. McKenna raised $171,316.80. Inslee raised $74,879.33.
So now McKenna is in the lead by $105,280.
Other Fund-Raising News
In the less prominent state races, we can see that a few candidates are trying to raise big bucks before the primary. The amounts are budget dust by comparison with the governor’s race, of course, but still a few figures are worth noting.
The race for attorney general is looking pretty even. Republican Reagan Dunn has raised $934,000, and Democrat Bob Ferguson has raised $897,000. Both are members of the King County Council.
In the race for secretary of state, two Democrats have amassed big pots of money – former Sen. Kathleen Drew has raised $130,000 and former Seattle mayor Greg Nickels has raised $121,000. State Sen. Jim Kastama, who antagonized Democratic financial supporters this year when he voted with Republicans on the budget, has amassed just $63,000. Kim Wyman, the lone Republican in the race, has raised $109,000.
Looks like former state Sen. Bill Finkbeiner has a massive fund-raising advantage over Rep. Glenn Anderson in the race for lieutenant governor. Finkbeiner has raised $121,000 to Anderson’s $8,000. The two Republicans are challenging longtime Democratic incumbent Brad Owen, who has raised $155,000.
There’s a surprising result in the numbers for the auditor’s race. State Sen. Craig Pridemore has been running the table where Democratic endorsements are concerned, but he’s a distant second in fund-raising. Out in front is Democratic Rep. Troy Kelley with $190,000, much of it from the business community. Pridemore has about $130,000, with about an even combination of business and labor contributions. Democratic Rep. Mark Miloscia has raised $64,000, and Republican James Watkins has raised $56,000.
And it looks like Peter Goldmark doesn’t have much to worry about from tea partier Clint Didier, who made something of a splash in the U.S. Senate primary two years ago. Democrat Goldmark has raised $341,000 to Republican Didier’s $7,000.
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