Washington State Democrats Chair Dwight Pelz, and The Sierra Club, filed complaints with Washington State Public Disclosure Commission against Americans for Prosperity Washington (AFPWA). AFPWA is the Washington arm of Americans for Prosperity, founded by David H. Koch. The complaints, filed last October, remain under investigation.
Last November, 41st Legislative District Democratic Senator Randy Gordon, my Senator, was defeated by just 192 votes.
From Pelz's complaint:
"Throughout the election season, AFPWA produced and executed both political advertising independent expenditures and electioneering communications against Democratic incumbent senators in the 30th, 41st, 45th, and 48th Legislative Districts. This has included mailers, canvassers distributing leaflets, and advertisements in the print media."
Tag lines on the the advertisements read: "No candidate authorized this ad. It is paid for by Americans for Properity Washington PO Box 240 Duvall, WA 98019.
More from the complaint:
"On PDC, under committees, under independent spending, under in-kind donations, no records of any kind exist for AFPWA. They have not filed a single C1, C3, C4, or C6 report – they do not exist on paper with the PDC. This is a direct violation of many campaign finance laws."
The complaint goes on to the list the campaign finance laws that are known to have been ignored, including a failure to provide, variously, the "top five contributors"; "the name and address of each person who has made one or more contributions...the aggregate value of all contributions received from each"; and "the name and address of each person to whom an expenditure was made in the aggregate amount of more than fifty dollars."
I Just checked, and there is still no information on AFPWA on the PDC website. I'm curious as to what their strategy is. I have a feeling they are going to receive a fine, that will be the end of it, and their contributors and expenditures will remain a secret
Bottom line, in clear violation of Washington public disclosure laws, we don't have any idea how much money (and from whom) the Koch group spent to influence state races in Washington, and we may never know.
Meanwhile, Randy Gordon lost by 192 votes, and AFPWA continues to operate with impunity.