Department of Corrections: Penny Sweet, reported the Realtor's Quality of Life PAC in-kind on Schedule B on October 30, 2007. In-kind contributions should be filed on a C-6 form. But Latte wants to acknowledge that Penny did report the funds. Thank you, Penny.Yesterday, Sam Taylor, over at "The Bellingham Herald," reported that the Realtors Quality of Life PAC has negotiated a settlement with the PDC which includes a fine of $130,000 ($50,000 waived if the Realtors do not have any additional violations - yes, I do my homework too, Sam). The PDC hearing is scheduled to take place on September 25th.
Taylor also reports that the PDC will not take any enforcement action against Mayor Pike for refusing to report over $19,000 dollars for in-kind contributions he received from the Realtors during his 2007 campaign. Mayor Dan Pike is quoted as saying "we were sort of innocently... caught up in this". Sam Taylor's blog can be read here: http://blogs.bellinghamherald.com/index.php?blog=12&title=breaking_pdc_says_clear_pike_big_fine_fo&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 *
If that is indeed the case, then Chad Minnick, a professional campaign consultant for the Realtors, must have a crystal ball on his desk that allows him to create mirror images of a candidate's mailers, without ever seeing them...
Not only were the Realtor mailers identical, in color, size and layout to the Pike campaign's mailers, the "text" used by the Realtors appeared to be taken directly from the Pike campaign's mailers. (Which had not been mailed out yet- so Minnick did not obtain a copy of Pike's mailer from the mail). In fact, the mailers state that they were prepared in coordination with the Pike campaign. Please see Professor Todd Donovan's PDC complaint for photos of the mailers. http://www.pdc.wa.gov/archive/compliance/complaints/pdf/2007/08-103.pdf
To add insult to injury, Mr. Minnick told Ms. Whiting, (a Realtor employee), around the 20th of October, that the mailers could not be converted to independent expenditures, because too much coordination had taken place between Minnick and members of the Pike, Crawford and Farr campaigns.
Ms. Whiting collaborated Minnick's testimony in her subsequent testimony to the PDC.
Of course, we have yet to see the PDC complaint against the Realtors. The hearing hasn't even been held yet. And, bless Sam Taylor's kind heart, he has a documented history of jumping the gun in his eagerness to make his "favorite candidate", Mayor Dan Pike, "look good".
But there's a larger question looming before us. You see, there were a number of candidates across the state who did not report in-kind contributions from the Realtors. And none of the candidates have been mentioned in any of the reports of investigation, even though the Realtors named them as recipients of in-kind contributions in their PDC reports and allegedly notified the candidates that they needed to report the in kind contributions to the PDC.
In other words, the PDC is not asking any of the candidates who refused to file a C-6, to report in-kind funds received from the Realtors, nor is the PDC identifying any of those candidates in it's complaint.
That seems unusual, considering that the PDC named every Republican candidate who received an in-kind in it's complaint against the Republican party last month.
So, what's going on here? Is the PDC telling the public that none of the candidates have a legal obligation to report the in-kind contributions? The message being - it's not important for the public to know who received the money?
Or, is the PDC telling the public that a PDC staff member erroneously told all of the following candidates that they do not have to report the contributions - ever? A decision, that would in effect, hide Realtor contribution information from members of the public?
If, by chance, a mistake was made by a PDC staff member, (the report of investigation names an employee - and that employee (I will not name her) is no longer listed as an employee of the PDC). Wouldn't you think the PDC would want to correct the error?
If the candidates who received in-kind contributions from the Realtors are as "innocent" as Mayor Pike claims, why didn't the PDC list each of the candidates in the ROI, documenting each of the in-kind contributions, like they did with the complaint against the Republicans?
Apparently, only the PDC gets to know the answer to that question. (Or, something appears to be really rotten in Denmark).
Here is a list of candidates who did not report contributions, even after the Realtors filed an amended report naming each of them as a recipient of in-kind contributions. (According to the Realtors, each of the candidates received written notification (a few days late in some cases) that an in-kind contribution had been made on their behalf).
Liz Aspen, $3,031.84 - Campaign for City Council of Woodinville (won her race for council)
Sam Crawford, $12,874.60 - Campaign for County Council of Whatcom County (won his race for council)
Liz S. Pike, $1,943.24 - Campaign for Mayor of Camas (lost her race for the mayor's seat)
Daniel V. Pike, $19,038.23 - Campaign for Mayor of Bellingham (won his race for the mayor's seat)
James Slowick, $3,481.81 - Campaign for Mayor of Oak Harbor (won his race for the mayor's seat)
John Tarrant, $2,502.63 - Campaign for Mayor of Shelton (won his race for the mayor's seat)
Robert A. Van Schoorl, $7,672.07 - Campaign for Port Commissioner of Olympia (lost his race for Port Commissioner).
*The above figures do not include independent expenditures made by the Realtors on behalf of the candidates. Independent expenditures are reported by the PAC or political organization, not the candidates.
I would like to publicly thank the following candidates for taking the time to report the realtor's in-kind contributions, as required by law.
David Carson - candidate for City Council, City of Redmond in King County. His treasurer is Karen Howard. Mr. Carson reported receiving in-kind contributions of an aggregate total of $6,805.84.
David Crosby - candidate for City Council for the City of Spokane Valley. His treasurer is Sandy Conner. Mr. Crosby reported receiving in-kind contributions of $8,136.05 on October 10, 2007.
Larry Farr - candidate for City Council for the City of Bellingham in Whatcom County. Mr. Farr reported in kind contributions for $14,737.64 on October 16, 2007.
John L James was a 2007 candidate for City Council for the City of Sammamish. His treasurer is Christine P James. Mr. James reported receiving an in-kind mailer on October 16, 2007, for $2,983.75 and in-kind postage of $1,501.20 for a total of $4,484.95 on October 16, and an aggregate total of $9,984.95 for the 2007 campaign cycle.
Dayle (Hank) Margeson was a 2007 candidate for City Council for the City of Redmond in King County. Mr. Margeson’s treasurer is Sheri Sanders. Mr. Margeson reported receiving an in-kind mailer on October 14, 2007 for $3,572.00 and a fee for the preparation of a mailer of $545.87 plus in-kind postage for mailer for $2,287.97 for an aggregate total of $6,405.84.
Penny Sweet, $6,276.88 - Campaign for City Council of Kirkland. Penny Sweet reported receiving an in kind contribution of $6,276.88 on Schedule B, on October 30, 2007.
Lynn E Walty was a 2007 candidate for City Council for the City of Lake Stevens. Lynn’s treasurer is Muriel Cooper. Lynn Walty reported receiving an in-kind mailer from the RQL PAC on October 14, 2007 for $4,991. Lynn also reported receiving in kind postage for $837.71. Lynn also received in-kind postage for $716.36 for an aggregate total of $6,666.42.
Randy Ransom was a 2007 candidate for City Council for the City of Woodinville, King County. His treasurer is Laura Ransom. Mr. Ransom reported receiving an in-kind mailer contribution of $2,278.50 and in-kind postage for $753.34 for an aggregate total of $3,031.84.
Brad Stark was a 2007 candidate for City Council for the City of Spokane. Mr. Stark reported a Last Minute Contribution of $11,047.64 on October 15, 2007 from the RQL PAC.
*The above contributions do not include independent expenditures made on behalf of candidates by the Realtors. Independent expenditures are reported by the PAC or political organization, not the candidate.
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