Tag Archives: Gerry Alexander

Rossi would give BIAW a State Supreme Court Seat

So how do you reward your biggest benefactor? How about a seat on the Washington State Supreme Court? The BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington) has now spent some $7 million dollars through its so called independent PAC called “It’s Time for a Change” to try to elect GOP (AKA Republican) Dino Rossi Governor this year. This money has been spent both supporting Dino Rossi and opposing Governor Chris Gregoire.

In past years the BIAW has spent a huge amount of money trying to get their selected candidates unto the Washington State Supreme Court so that they can weaken state environmental and land use laws and regulations.

In 2004 they succeeded in getting Jim Johnson elected as a Supreme Court Justice by helping him out raise his opponent Mary Kay Becker by $539,000 to her $157,000.

In 2006 they threw their support behind their candidates Stephen L Johnson to run against Justice Susan Owens and John Groen against Chief Justice Gerry Alexander.

They funnelled their money through their independent PAC’s like It’s Time for a Change and ChangePAC so that they could avoid the new limits set for contributions to candidate committees to include the State Supreme Court races for the first time.

The BIAW set new state records in campaign spending in the Washington State Supreme Court races via their independent expenditures. Groen saw some $1,356,000 spent independently on his behalf and Stephen Johnson saw some $532,000 spent in so called independent expenditures. Despite this record spending and probably because of it, the BIAW’s effort backfired and alerted the state’s voters to their blatant attempt to buy seats on the Washington State Supreme Court.

Justices Owens and Alexander won re-election.

The BIAW is concentrating their efforts this year in trying to get Dino Rossi elected Governor and have spent over $7 million dollars so far in their efforts.

Judge Alexander will reach the mandatory retirement age before his 6 year term expires. He was 70 in 2006 and is now 72 years old. In three years he will be 75.

As noted in the PI,“the statutory retirement age of 75 will require Alexander to leave the court at the end of 2011, a year before his six-year term expires. The governor then would appoint a successor who would have to run for election in 2012.”

Sure its a couple of years down the line and there will be 3 more Supreme Court races up in 2010, but it is just another example of the power one has as Governor. If Rossi is elected Governor he will have at least one Supreme Court appointment for sure and you know it will be a payback to friends.

Rossi in fact note the importance of the power of appointments as Governor. In an article in the Tacoma News Tribune, it is stated that Rossi“vows to change the “tone and tenor” of state government through the power of appointments. If he’s elected governor, Rossi says he will get to appoint 1,000 people “from Blueberry Commission on up.”

One of those positions would be a Washington State Supreme Court Justice.

Early Primary Results Give Justice Alexander Slight Lead.

Early AP results reported at 9:30 P.M. by King 5 News give Chief Justice Gerry Alexander a 53% to 47 % lead over his BIAW supported opponent John Groen. This is with approximately 44% of the vote counted. This race is still too close to call.

The AP has declared Justice Tom Chambers the winner with a 58% vote to 42% for his conservative opponent Jeanette Burrage.

The third Supreme Court race has Justice Susan Owens with 45% and next Steve Johnson 33%. With 5 candidates in this race, it was expected that there would not be anyone getting over 50%. Unless there is a drastic change, this race will appear on the November general election ballot. We can expect to see a lot more money spent in this race.

Update 11:00 P.M. results not much different, but looking better for Alexander. He now leads by 54% to 46% . Only 15% of King County voted have been counted.

With 49% of the vote: its Alexander with 252,483 to Groen 223,785.

Chambers still 58% to 42% over Burrage 271,584 to 188,855

Owens 45% to S.Johnson 33% 213,725 to 156,583

BIAW and Cronies out to Slaughter Alexander, Anoint Groen to Supreme Court!

Everything that the Washington State Legislature tried to prevent in limiting campaign contributions to judicial candidates in Washington State has come to naught. The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) and its cronies are laughing at Washington’s State Legislators.

One could very well ask them, Do you have no shame?

They are literally trying to bully their self anointed candidates onto the Washington State Supreme Court by steamrolling over their opponents with their voter contact and media saturation campaign. They are literally trying to cram their candidates down our throats. I guess they don’t trust the voters to be able to make reasoned decisions on their own.

Washington voters should be outraged at this holier than thou money controls all challenge to fair elections by the BIAW. Doesn’t it make you wonder why they think they have to spend so much money to convince voters to vote for their candidates?

Latest figures show money being raised for BIAW candidate John Groen and for opposing Chief Justice Gerry Alexander now tops $1.7 million. The latest up to date figures posted by
www.VotingforJudges.org shows that the BIAW has spent almost a million dollars in their effort. Adding their $141,829 unreported C-6 expenditures for Walking for Washington to their other $807,993 cash and in-kind expenditures brings their current effort to $949,717.

The Washington State Legislature was right to fear the BIAW was trying to buy Supreme Court Justices. But they really misjudged that the BIAW would listen to the message and restrain their efforts to pack the Supreme Court with developer friendly judges. The Washington State Legislature needs to come back next year and amend the campaign laws to limit contributions to PAC’s. Other states already do this.

The issue is not one of limiting spending which the US Supreme Court has frowned on. The issue is one of reasonably limiting special interests from overwhelming the media, mail and other efforts to reach voters such that they drown out the voices of anyone else who wants to have a say in the election. We have a one person/one vote system everyone agrees to.

We need a one person/one contribution amount for all campaign contributions whether directly to the candidates own campaign committee or indirectly through a so called independent expenditure. The limit needs to be the same whether you give directly to the candidate or indirectly to some so called independent PAC also trying to influence the outcome of the election.

If you don’t limit also limit individual contributions to PAC’s then limits to candidate committees make no sense. The law says the BIAW could only give $1400 directly to Groen. But they are spending a million dollars to help elect him. Unlimited contributions to PAC’s now drown out the voice of the candidate.

The almost million dollars spent by the BIAW to try to anoint a former lawyer to the BIAW is obscene. It drowns out other peoples voices. Hopefully Washington voters will realize what is going on and reject the BIAW’s attempt to take over the Washington State Supreme Court for the own narrow interests. I urge people to vote for Gerry Alexander and spread the word to others. The final chance to vote is this Tuesday Sept.19 if you are not voting absentee. This race will be decided Tuesday.

Text of PDC Complaint Filed Against Groen Supporters by Majority Rules Blog

Join the following complaint today against John Groen backers violating Washington State ‘s Public Disclosure laws. Just e-mail the PDC Executive Director and ask that your name be added to the complaint filed against Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse filed by Steve Zemke of Majority Rules Blog. The e-mail address is vrippie@pdc.wa.gov Please note in the comments thread below that you have done so. Thanks.

Sept. 13, 2006
To Vicki Rippie – Executive Director
Phil Stutzman – Director of Compliance
Jane Noland – Chair

Dear Public Disclosure Commission:

I would like to file the following complaint with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. An out of state PAC named Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse -WA has filed a C1PC with you and has reported receiving some $400,000 in contributions but then lists its source literally as coming from itself, namely Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse, which is filed with the Virginia Board of Elections which doesn’t require any reporting until Oct.15, 2006.

I believe that Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse is really a PAC of a Washington DC Association called the American Tort Reform Coalition. But in the C1PC filed with you, which asks “If committee is related or affiliated with a business or association, union or similar entity, specify name” it leaves this blank and does not respond other than to name itself again with the WA missing.

Besides a Cari O’Malley, it lists no other PAC committee officers’ names or title. $400,000 is a lot of money to just come from nowhere. I believe this whole filing is a pretty patent intent to hide the true source of the funds being spent against Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and for John Groen. By my best estimation over $1.35 million is being spent by Groen’s campaign committee and others PAC’s supporting his election as of now.

This record spending, particularly by out of state interests, deserves to be accurately reported. Because the Washington State Liability Reform Coalition, the local state coalition affiliated with the American Tort Reform Coalition, includes members like the Building Industry Association of Washington (which is itself spending hundreds of thousands of dollars against Alexander) and the Washington State Restaurant Association (both a member the local and national group of the American Tort Reform Coalition) , there is the possibility of funds going from Washington State to the American Tort Reform Coalition and back to Washington State via Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse.

Because of what happened in the Deborah Senn and Rob McKenna race for Attorney General race, where about $1.5 million was spent against in the same manner as here and eventually revealed as coming from the US Chamber of Commerce, I believe you need to require that Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse immediately report to you their source of funding and that you announce it to the press.

The fact is that the US Chamber of Commerce is one of the members of another coalition run out of the American Tort Reform Coalition’s Office raises concern. Maybe they are involved again.

I believe you need to investigate, because of the associations involved and the attempt to conceal the true sponsors of this stealth PAC, whether any money has been funneled from Washington State to conceal its origins.

Because this race will be decided next Tuesday, Sept 19th, 2006, I urge that you act as quickly as possible to provide the voters of Washington State with the best possible disclosure you can regarding who is spending money in this race.

And I urge that appropriate fines be levied for any violations and infractions of Washington State Law.

Steve Zemke

The following blog posts are added as supporting this complaint:

See: Groen Supporters Violate Public Disclosure in their Intent to Deceive and Hide who they are.

Record $1.3 million Spent so far to Elect Groen to Washington State Supreme Court http://www.majorityrules.org/blog/2006/09/record-13-million-spent-so-far-to.html

Groen Supporters Violate Public Disclosure in their Intent to Deceive and Hide Who they Are.

A so called independent out of state PAC calling itself “Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse” has filed with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. They have so far spent some $357,500 to produce and run attack ads opposing Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and supporting his opponent – Building Industry Association of Washington backed lawyer John Groen.

They also intend they say to spend money supporting Stephen Johnson, another BIAW candidate in his race to unseat sitting Justice Susan Owens.

Their filing and tactics are one meant to deceive Washington voters. They list their address as PO Box 30223, Alexandria, Virginia 22310. And I believe they violate Washington’s Public Disclosure Act.

RCW 42.17.020 (43) states that the “Sponsor of an electioneering communications, independent expenditures, or political advertising” means the person paying for the electioneering communication, independent expenditure, or political advertising. If a person acts as an agent for another or is reimbursed by another for the payment, the original source of the payment is the sponsor.

A phone call to 571-230-2852 – the contact number of the mysteriously named PAC supporting Groen only results in a message machine asking you to leave a message.

A call to the number that faxed the forms to the PDC, a Mike O’Malley, results in the following message. “Hi, you’ve reached the O’Malleys. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible. And have a great day.” That must be a home number. They must be rich! So far it looks like they’ve contributed $400,000 to their (sic) PAC.

A Cari O’Malley is the only person’s name on the PDC forms filed. She lists herself as both treasurer and campaign manager/media contact.

So who is this Cari O’Malley. When I called the phone number, 425-868-2695 which was given for where campaign records will be available to look at 10 days prior to the election and asked who the ATLA -WA was, a woman said they were only a local contact and that I should call Cari O’Malley at 202-682-1163. Oops, wrong number to give out.

Because this is where it gets interesting. That number is actually the number for a Carolyn O’Malley that works for the American Tort Reform Coalition. Under their staff she is listed as:

Carolyn O’Malley Director of Public Affairs and Fields Operations comalley@atra.org
Cari joined ATRA in September of 2004. Cari was Regional Political Director for the American Medical Association. She also served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee and spent several years working for the Illinois General Assembly and the Illinois Republican Party.

Are they the source of the money? Most likely. The reason they work the filing out of Virginia is that PAC’s in Virginia only have to file quarterly with the Virginia Board of Elections and they aren’t required to say much. On the last reporting they had almost nothing in the bank and the next reporting is Oct 15. In the fourth quarter last year they received $150,000 – all from the America Tort Reform Coalition. This was all spent.

Where is this new money coming from that they are now spending to try to influence the outcome of an election on the opposite side of the country that should be one decided by our own state’s voters, not some special interest group in Washington D.C.? And why all the secrecy and deception trying to hide who they are? They have set up a dummy PAC , used a PO Box number for an address, set up an answering machine on some dummy phone line to give the appearance that they are an actual organization, and have an employee’s husband (?) FAX PDC reports to Washington State from their home.

Maybe they have something to hide because the American Tort Reform Coalition has definite connections to Washington State. Which raises serious questions. Where is their money coming from? Has money moved from Washington State to the American Tort Reform Coalition to Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse then back to Washington State? I raise this question because it is obvious that their intent is to not be open in their dealing with Washington State voters. You don’t go to all this trouble unless you have something to hide, do you?

One thing they may be trying to hide is their Washington State Connection. The American Tort Reform Coalition says that “One of ATRA’s greatest assets is its network of tort reform advocates (state coalitions) that advance ATRA’s agenda in state capitals”

Their Washington State coalition contact – none other than the office which said they were only a “local contact” and who did not want to talk about or tell me who Americans Tried of Lawsuit Abuse was. That is the Washington State Liability Reform Coalition

Now guess who they recommended in the Alexander/Groen race. Yep, Groen. Now guess who are members of the Liability Reform Coalition. None other than high spending Groen backers like the BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington).

Also as members, the Washington State Restaurant Association which gave $25,000 to the BIAW’s PAC Walking for Washington, SAFECO (U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick’s old company), Washington Roundtable, Association of Washington Business, Boeing, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and Weyerhauser. You can see a complete list here.

So who really gave the money to support Groen? The American Tort Reform Coalition only has a sample list of members which includes Boeing. All we have is Cari O’Malley’s name and her direct association with the American Tort Reform Coalition. But ATRA also has another list of members associated with the Lawsuit Abuse Reform Coalition which is also run out of the offices of the American Tort Reform Coalition, using the same address and phone number.

The American Tort Reform Association serves as the Executive Secretariat for LARC. 1101 Connecticut Avenue, #400, NW Washington, DC 20036 202-682-1163. The Lawsuit Abuse Coaltion also has Washington State connections listed. Their list of members include the Washington Restaurant Association and the Washington State Liability Reform Coalition.

It also includes another big money player from 2 years ago – the US Chamber of Commerce which contributed over $1.5 million dollars to help defeat Deborah Senn and elect Rob McKenna Washington State Attorney General. And they also tried to hide that the money was coming from them. Are they involved again?

Once again a mysterious out of state special interest group is trying to influence the outcome of Washington State elections in a major way. They are deliberately making an effort to conceal the true source of the money which violates Washington State law.

It is obvious that Cari O’Malley is only acting as an agent to transfer money, probably her employer’s, the American Tort Reform Coalition. And she is trying to mask this. But maybe it’s somebody elses money. That is not clear. The fact that the true source of the contributions is being hidden is in violation of Washington State’s Public Disclosure Law, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found out when it tried to hide its’ $1.5 million effort to defeat Debra Senn.

Record $1.3 Million Spent so far to Elect Groen to Washington State Supreme Court.

Breaking all records, reported campaign contributions and spending to elect John Groen to the Washington State Supreme Court now exceeds $1,294,608. Over half a million dollars ($557,980) alone has been spent by by the BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington) and PAC’s it controls.

The BIAW and other special interest groups are trying to defeat current Supreme Court Justice Gerry Alexander. Groen is running on a program of defending developer interests over those of individual property owners and comunities. The BIAW is trying to elect their third Supreme Court Justice that represents their special interests. Previously they were the main spenders to elect James Johnson and Richard Saunders to the Court.

The latest large contribution to join the Groen effort is a reported out of state $320,000 from a so called independent PAC based in Alerxander , VA called Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse. They are spending it on TV ads. Joel Connelly in an article in the Seattle PI today said the address given for the PAC is that of the American Tort Reform Association. See also the Seattle Times and Justice at Stake

A phone call to their local phone number listed at an address in Redmond said that the local contact number was for the Liability Reform Coalition. They are listed with the PDC as having spent $244,277 in 2005 doing grassroots lobbying. They referred me back to ATLA when I asked who they represented, saying they were only a local contact.

The following figures are taken from the latest Public Disclosure Commission records in Olympia WA and analysis reported by a new website called VotingforJudges.org . They have done a much better job of compiling independent expenditures and contributions for the judicial races than has the PDC website, which has been slow on getting information and reports updated.

In fact I think that the PDC should be embarrassed in their half hearted effort to provide the public with updated and current information on contributions and expenditures done by so called independent PAC’s. They have done some excellent groupings of data to help the public understand who is getting and spending money by candidate committees but their reporting on independent contributions and expenditures is woefully incomplete and not timely at all. Many independent committees are not even listed in their summary reports of contributions and expenditures..

The primary election on Sept 19th will decide the Alexander/Groen race as well as the race between Supreme Court Justice Tom Chambers and his challenger Jeanette Burrage. People across the state have already received their absentee ballots and are voting. A up to date and timely analysis of contributions and independent expenditures is most helpful to voters before the election, not after it is over.

The fact that the Washington State Legislature did not extend their contribution limits legislation to include PAC’s is a giant loophole that needs to be corrected. It allows special interests to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence a race. Current spending for Groen sets a new record for spending in Washington State Supreme Court races. So called independent PAC’s are far outspending Groen’s official campaign committee.

Below is a listing of money raised and spent to try to put Groen on the Supreme Court. I am using expenditure figures for Groen based on www.votingforjudges.org since the posted PDC data is not current. I have updated the Groen campaign committee information based on more current C-3 reports on the PDC website.

Groen campaign committee contributions to date 9/10 /2006 ……….$409,608

Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse 9/8/06 supporting Groen …………..$80,000
opposing Gerry Alexander………………………………………………. $240,000

Building Industry Association of Washington……………………………..$99,603

Central Washington Home Builders Association……………………………. $5931

Committee for Judicial Restraint………………………………………….. $1140

Walking for Washington (1/2 of doorbelling/canvassing effort) ……….$167,000
(canvass/doorbelling effort for John Groen & Steve Johnson)

It’s Time for a Change ………………………………………………………………………$291,377

Total reported so far……………………………………………. $1,294,659

Two of Three Washington State Supreme Court Races to be Decided in Primary!

Washington State primary voters on Sept 19, 2006 will decide at least two of the three Washington State Supreme Court races this year. Washington State has this odd law. For most judicial races, if someone wins a majority in the primary, they win the election. There is no general election vote.

According to the official state webpage of Washington Courts:

“In most instances, a judicial candidate who is unopposed or who receives more than half of the votes in a primary election is thereby elected to the position–he or she does not have to run in the November general election. But if there are three or more candidates, and no one wins more than half the votes cast, the two with the most votes must face each other in the November general election.” (The exception is some district court races.)

In two of the three Washington State’s Supreme Court races this year only two candidates filed. That means that who wins these two seats will be decided by primary voters on Sept 19, 2006. The third race has 5 candidates but if anyone receives a majority in the primary, this election is also over.

The two races that will be decided in the primary are for position #8 between incumbent Gerry L Alexander and John Groen; and for position #9 between incumbent Tom Chambers and Jeanette Burrage.
State Supreme Court Justice Position #8

Gerry L Alexander is currently the Washington State Supreme Court’s Chief Justice, having twice been elected to this position by his peers. Justice Alexander was first elected to the state’s Supreme Court in 1994 and was reelected by Washington voters in 2000. From 1973 to 1984 he was a Superior Court Judge. He served on the Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1994.

John Groen is the candidate recruited by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) to run against Alexander. It is part of their continued effort to stack the state Supreme Court with so called “property rights advocates” who oppose growth management. While Groen has argued cases before the Supreme Court, he has never been a judge in any of Washington’s lower courts.

Groen was the only judicial candidate to ignore the spirit of the campaign contribution law passed by the Washington State Legislature earlier this year.

While other candidates, including his opponent, chose to abide by the new limits before they went into effect, Groen collected some $128,000 that was over the contribution limit of $2800 for the primary and general election.

(Actually now with filing ended, because the primary will decide this election, candidates in this race will only be able to accept $1400 per contributor, as of the date the law went into effect. The same goes for position #9.)

State Supreme Court Justice Position #9

Tom Chambers is an incumbent Supreme Court Justice, first elected in 2000. He was past President of the Washington State Bar Association and the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association. He has written over 100 articles and has been active in community organizations.

Jeanette Burrage was the executive director for 5 years of the conservative NW Legal Foundation which pushed so called “property rights” issues. She was involved in drafting Referendum 48 to limit growth management and zoning . Voters decisively defeated R-48. Initiative 933 this year is another incarnation of this same attempt to gut growth management by pushing a “pay or waive” proposal on growth management.

Burrage ran previously for the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. She served one term as a King County Superior Court Judge but lost the next election. The King County Bar Association in the past has rated her as “unqualified”. You can read more about her in a recent comment thread on Postman on Politics.

State Supreme Court Justice Position #8

Five candidates are running for this position.

Justice Susan Owens is the incumbent. She ran and won her seat in 2000. Prior to that, she was a District Court Judge in Western Clallam County for 17 years. For 5 years she as the Quileute Tribe’s Chief Judge and for 7 years the Chief Judge of the Lower Elwa S’Klallan Tribe.

Until filing week, Steve Johnson, the candidate recruited by the BIAW, was her chief opponent. By the end of filing last week, three other candidates filed for this seat; Michael Johnson, Richard Smith and Norm Erickson.

If any one of these candidates receives a majority in the primary vote, they will win the election on Sept 19th, otherwise the top two vote getters will appear on the November General Election ballot.

The wild card in these races will be the BIAW’s free spending politics to win more seats on the Supreme Court at any cost. Unfortunately the new campaign contribution limitations law to limit contributions in judicial races has a significant loophole. It does not limit contributions to so called independent PAC’s.

This loophole was exploited in 2004 when the BIAW spent lavishly “independently” to help elect Rob McKenna as Washington State’s Attorney General.

Also previously the BIAW spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help elect two other members to the State Supreme Court, Richard Saunders and Jim Johnson. When there were no contribution limits on judicial races, a lot of this was given directly to the campaigns.

As noted in the PI:

In 2004, the BIAW and its affiliates helped elect Jim Johnson to the Supreme Court by pouring more than $225,000 into his campaign. Johnson outspent his opponent more than 3 to 1 and on the court has been a reliable defender of property rights — a key issue for the home builders.

Again this year large amounts of money are being spent independently by PACs run by the BIAW. This year they are running an independent PAC called Walking for Washington.
As the Seattle PI noted:

The Building Industry Association of Washington, or BIAW, which promotes a conservative, pro-property-rights, anti-regulation political agenda, is by far the biggest donor — at least $121,048 so far this year — to Walking for Washington. The program is run out of BIAW headquarters in Olympia by the builders’ political director, Elliot Swaney.

Walking for Washington is going door to door, identifying voters and handing out literature supporting Groen and Steve Johnson.

Voters who want to support the current Supreme Court Justices can go to their websites to read more about their campaigns and make donations to help offset the money of the BIAW.

Gerry Alexander

Tom Chambers

Susan Owens

A Question of Character – Groen Kicks Justice Alexander and Washington Voters in Groin!

John Groen, the Building Industry Association of Washington’s (BIAW) candidate for Washington State Supreme Court Justice running against Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, is playing street politics, where anything goes. As noted in an article today by Neil Modie of the Seattle PI, despite the Washington State Legislature passing campaign contribution limits for Supreme Court races, Groen has collected over $300,000 in contributions with some eleven contributions over the new $2800 limit. A large chunk of this came before the new law went into effect, thereby ignoring the limits and the spirit of the new law.

The campaign contribution law (3SHB 1226) went into effect on June 7, 2006. Groen collected most of his contributions and spent them after the Legislature passed the law and but before it went into effect. The legislature 3SHB 1226 on March 8, 2006 and Governor Gregoire signed it on March 30, 2006.

Justice Alexander supported the contribution law and did not accept contributions over $2800 ($1400 for the primary and $1400 for the general election). He reported raising $76,645 compared to Groen’s $301,115.

Before the Legislature passed the new law, Washington State was one of only four states that elected judges, that did not have limits on campaign contributions. But in the last two elections the BIAW has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting 2 conservative right wing candidates who won, Jim Johnson and Richard Saunders. The BIAW is trying to add Groen as their third anointed Supreme Court Justice.

The Washington State Legislature responded to the out of control contributions of the BIAW by passing the new campaign contribution limitation law. The law is an attempt to try to limit the influence of special interest money.

As reported in the Seattle PI today, Groen’s campaign finance chairman and partner in Groen’s law firm, Charlie Klinge, said the contributions were legal and “complied with the law in all respects.” Technically he’s right because the Legislature should have added an emergency clause to have the law go into effect immediately.

Unfortunately the Legislature probably thought that no one running for State Supreme Court would go ahead and collect contributions hugely exceeding the limits once they passed the law. After all, these are people running for the Washington State Supreme Court, the final arbiter of the spirit and intent of state laws. One would expect that these people would have the highest respect for the law and would comply with the wishes of the voters of Washington as expressed through their elected representatives.

Unfortunately the Legislature was wrong. But the public has just learned a very valuable piece of information about the character of John Groen. He was more interested in what personally benefited him than in voluntarily complying with the spirit of the newly passed campaign contribution limitation law. It says he will do whatever it takes to get elected. One can expect that he will probably also do whatever it takes to represent the special interests of his contributors before he considers the interests of Washington State voters.

As the Seattle Times has previously reported, most of Groen’s big contributions before the June 7th deadline came from BIAW members and affiliated building interests. The Seattle Times quotes Lynnwood homebuiler Larry Sunquist, who with his wife gave $25,000, saying he “supports Groen because of his work as a property rights litigator” Translate that to mean opposition to growth management and zoning.

Contributions over $2800 to Groen before June 7th iinclude:

6/02 John Spadara SDS Lumber Co, Bingen, WA $25,000
6/02 Fremont Dock Company, Seattle, WA $5000
6/02 One Pacific Corporation , Camas, WA $25,000
6/02 Thomas Cam, Underwood Industries, Underwood, WA $25,000
6/05 Pacific Lifestyle Holdings, Inc, Vancouver, WA $5000
5/22 Amo Construction, Inc, Vancouver, WA $15,000
5/20 John Cheney, SDS Lumber Co, Bingen, WA $12,5000
5/20 Lana Cheney, SDS Lumber Co, Bingen, WA $12,500
5/17 G.G. One Inc., Vancouver, WA $5000
5/13 Larry Sunquist, Sunquist Homes, Lynnwood, WA $12,500
5/13 Diane Sunquist, conquistador Homes, Lynnwood, WA $12,500
5/9 Bill Connor, Bellevue, WA $5000

So some $160,000 in contributions were for amounts exceeding $2800 per contributor.
Subtracting a maximum of $2800 from each contributor or $31,600 would leave a total of $128,400 exceeding the limits under the new campaign finance laws. This exceeds the sum total of contributions received by Justice Alexander during this same period.

Notice that most of these and many other contributions of lesser amounts reported to the PDC come from building industry groups.

You can help equalize the playing field for Justice Gerry Alexander and show your opposition to the building industry trade groups trying to exert special influence in this election by going to his Justice Alexander’s website at www.justicealexander.com and making an on-line contribution today.