Over the past few months, Washington's campaign finance watchdog has been flooded with hundreds of complaints against political campaigns, mostly driven by one person.
Connor Edwards, a 31-year-old recent law school graduate, has filed more than 800 complaints with the Public Commission against candidates and political committees since late last year.
Edwards, who has worked primarily as a campaign finance officer for Republican candidates, says his campaign has a simple rationale. Because, he said, “PDC is not doing its job.”
Despite Washington's glowing image as a leader in transparency in political funding, PDC He says enforcement efforts are failing.
He says hundreds of candidates and committees have exceeded state-law-mandated deadlines for reporting such details, and the PDC took no action prior to his complaint.
“They're not enforcing one of the most important requirements within their purview. They're turning a blind eye,” Edwards said.
PDC staff defended their work, saying Edwards was tasking the department with a relatively mole-mounted caseload of crimes, mostly from small-money campaigns.
“We're reaching unprecedented case numbers. That's a problem for us,” PDC Deputy Director Kim Bradford said in an interview.
Bradford said that of the 580 campaigns the PDC currently litigates over campaign finance, about 515 stem from complaints filed by Edwards.
PDC Executive Director Peter Lavallee described the situation as a result of a complaint from a citizen that the Washington State Patrol said officers were clocking the car going 61 mph or 62 mph but did not stop the vehicle. He likened it to the fact that he was forced to investigate hundreds of drivers.
“Essentially that's where we are,” Lavallee said at a recent committee meeting. “The question is, who prioritizes our very limited resources? Is this a committee that people have set up, or is it because they have a different prioritization system that they take the time to Is it just a few individuals filing hundreds of complaints?”
At the same meeting, Bradford said some of the campaigns targeted by Edwards had raised little or no money and had minimal reporting requirements.
“It’s only half the story.”
Founded in 1972 as a citizen initiative, PDC has a staff of approximately 30 people and an annual budget of $6 million. The agency is overseen by a five-member citizen board, which must be selected by the governor and approved by the state Senate.
The commission enforces the state's campaign finance transparency law and releases financial information from lobbyists, elected officials and candidates. We receive more than 90,000 such reports each year.
Edwards disputes the PDC's characterization of his complaint and Lavallee's speeding ticket analogy.
While it's true that some of his complaints hit smaller, lower-funded candidates, staffers “only tell half the story,” he wrote in a recent email to PDC commissioners. There is.
“They did not say that many of the respondents I complained to only filed required disclosures after Election Day. They did not tell Lee what was not disclosed. Without the complaint I filed, the agency would do absolutely nothing to hold these candidates and committees accountable for their violations of state law. “They cleverly covered up the fact that they would not have taken any action,” he said.
Edwards noted that the Federal Election Commission and states, including Idaho and Oregon, are aggressively enforcing deadlines and imposing fines for late campaign reporting and other violations.
The complaint he filed last October lists 314 candidates for the 2023 Washington election who failed to file required reports on contributions and expenditures and are subject to PDC action. was not taught.
Many of the campaigns he complained about were small-scale operations with little funding, but others had much larger expenditures.
For example, Edwards said last year's candidate for Snohomish County Auditor, Cindy Goebel, failed to file a required report detailing nearly $23,000 in campaign spending on radio ads and mailers. Point out.
The filing deadline was seven days before the Nov. 7 general election, which was intended to give the public a chance to see such information before voting. Mr. Gobel filed the required report on December 4, after Mr. Edwards filed a complaint with the PDC.
Goebel, whose campaign raised about $100,000 in total, including $75,000 of his own money, admitted to the violation and agreed last month to pay a $150 fine to the PDC. She won about 40% of the vote, losing to incumbent auditor Garth Fell.
In another example, a PAC supporting Spokane-area school levies revealed details about about $42,000 in donations ahead of a February special election asking voters to approve more funding for schools. There wasn't.
After Edwards filed his complaint, the Central Valley Citizens for Education filed dozens of late reports detailing spending and donations, but only after the election.
Last week, the PDC fined PAC $1,000, including $500 in suspension.
apology and curse
In his complaint, Edwards includes a note apologizing to candidates and political committees “for the inconvenience caused.” He notes that his intention is to have the PDC introduce more automatic reminders and enforcement, rather than waiting for complaints before taking action.
Still, the targets of his complaints don't always appreciate his work.
One candidate was furious, calling Mr Edwards a “shithole” in a Facebook message.
“When the next full moon rises and becomes its most powerful, I will place a curse on you,” 2023 Tacoma City Council candidate Hunter Henderson wrote in a message.
After the initial rant, Mr. Edwards said he had a “very productive and friendly conversation” with Mr. Henderson. Mr. Henderson lost the primary and his campaign reported no contributions.
Edwards said he sees no ill will toward Henderson, Goebel or most of the candidates and organizations he covers. Reporting campaign finances can be difficult, especially for first-time or inexperienced candidates.
Still, he says the PDC should not allow candidates to ignore the law by doing nothing. And until more campaigns are investigated, he says, government agencies won't even fully understand how much information is being hidden from the public.
If the PDC does not intend to fully enforce the law, or if it believes that some reports are not important, it may need to consider reducing the number of reports that campaigns are required to file; says Edwards.
Steps to make your campaign compliant
Despite disagreeing with Edwards' tactics, PDC leaders acknowledged they could do a better job helping campaigns comply with the law.
This year, the agency is developing automated reminders to send to campaigns about certain important deadlines and alert them if they fall out of compliance. After assessing the situation, PDC may consider automatic notification of violations next year.
Nancy Isserlis, a Spokane attorney and PDC chairwoman, said the department's goal is to enforce political campaigns into compliance, not to accuse small campaigns, which often don't have paid staff, of minor violations. Stated.
“I cannot speak for all commissioners, but I believe that as a group we have the values that people should not be punished according to excessive penalties. We value reporting and compliance and will use our enforcement powers to achieve that objective,” Isserlis said in an email.
Meanwhile, authorities are fielding hundreds of complaints from Edwards, some of which target campaigns dating back to 2019.
At the PDC's executive hearing last week, 55 candidates for positions on the city council, school board, fire commission, and other positions addressed the reporting violations cited in Edwards' complaint.
Pacific County Commission member-elect David Tobin apologized for his oversight mistakes and told the commission it was his first time running for office. The only contribution he received was his $500 contribution from the local Democratic Party, and his $1,600 of his own money was spent on application fees and yard signs.
PDC fined him $150 and suspended him for all but $25.
“I think I was very inexperienced with all the processes involved in it. That's no excuse. I should have done better. I'll do better in the future,” Tobin said.
