Home Builders
September 20, 2008 - Washington State
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Attorney General Rob McKenna filed a lawsuit Friday alleging campaign-finance violations by the Building Industry Association of Washington and a builder group in King and Snohomish counties. |
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Full Story - Below |
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Attorney General Rob McKenna filed a lawsuit Friday alleging campaign-finance violations by the Building Industry Association of Washington and a builder group in King and Snohomish counties. BIAW has been a major supporter of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, spending $585,000 of disputed funds on ads that criticized Gov. Chris Gregoire or supported Rossi. "We don't have any idea what kind of fines they might seek," McKenna spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie said of AG staff lawyers handling the lawsuit. "It's actually too soon to be able to tell." BIAW leaders were not surprised by the charges and say their handling of money from 11 of the association's 15 local affiliates was done for tax reasons. "We did not knowingly or intentionally break any laws. We're confident that a thorough investigation by the AG's office and the courts will show that BIAW makes every effort to comply with the state's complicated finance laws," BIAW executive vice president Tom McCabe said in a telephone interview. Background The two lawsuits grew out of charges referred by the state Public Disclosure Commission earlier this week. That action, in turn, was spurred by a citizen complaint from two former Supreme Court justices and activist lawyers, including Knoll Lowney, who filed the suit. The suit against BIAW targets $585,000 in funds collected in July 2007 from 11 local affiliate builder groups by BIAW's Member Services Corporation. The money was not disclosed until the MSC transferred it one year later to the builders' ChangePAC Committee, which has spent more than $2 million in the governor's race. The attorney general filed a separate suit against the Master Builders of King & Snohomish Counties. The allegations against the MBA group deal with its "Just 10%" program, which collected more than $700,000 in recent years for political uses but did not disclose where the money was from. The PDC said the "Just 10%" program failed to file as a PAC. A separate Thurston County Superior Court judge has been assigned to handle each case. Conferences are scheduled in each case for December, well after the election. Lowney, the Seattle lawyer who filed the original complaints against BIAW and MBA, called the suit a good first step. But he questioned the ability of McKenna — who received $181,000 in third-party support from BIAW in his 2004 campaign — to push the case appropriately. Lowney said the attorney general should seek a restraining order to keep ChangePAC from spending the money on ads. But Guthrie, the AG spokeswoman, disputed whether that was possible. She said the case is against BIAW, not ChangePAC. Fuse, a left-of-center activist group in Seattle, applauded the filing decisions. "This trade association of ultra-conservative developers can run a ruthless campaign to elect Dino Rossi governor, but they are not above the law. The attorney general's decision to enforce Washington's campaign laws is a victory for the people of Washington," Fuse leader Aaron Ostrom said in a news release that also accused BIAW of lying about Gregoire's record in ads. The BIAW faces a separate suit to be heard Friday. Lowney is seeking an injunction that would keep BIAW from using funds from its industrial-insurance rebate program, dubbed "retro," for political purposes, including ads for Rossi. |