Last week staffers at the Public Disclosure Commission recommended that a complaint be dismissed against AFP’s Washington chapter, finding its fliers had complied with state law.
“They said they’d like to spend a little more time thinking about whether or not these activities by Americans for Prosperity were political advertising,” PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson said this afternoon after the PDC took up the report. “They asked specifically for the staff and the Americans for Prosperity to submit briefs by Jan. 19, no more than 30 pages.’’
And state Democratic Party chairman Dwight Pelz responded to last week's recommendation with a letter to PDC chairman Barry Sehlin that called the report a “frightfully narrow reading” of the law that left voters in the dark about the source of what it called “misleading” fliers attacking its candidates.
At issue was Americans for Prosperity’s failure to report its independent expenditures until after the election, or in identifying its top five donors. But the report found AFP-W’s ads targeting Democrats were “issue advocacy” and not campaign ads or “electioneering” that told voters how to mark ballots.
As a result, PDC staffers said no reporting was needed and that the laws of the time did not require AFP-Washington to file or register as a political committee. AFP is a hard-right political group based in Virginia and Kirby Wilbur, its state chapter leader at the time, is now state chairman of the Republican Party.
Dave Seabrook, a Democratic commissioner, raised the strongest questions about the recommendation... according to Anderson. [UPDATE removes Anderson's reference to commissioner Jim Clements.]
As we reported last week, the case is one of two that prompted reform to spending reports by third-party groups; the other case dealt with Moxie Media and its alleged concealment of money from labor groups to counter Republican candidates.
UPDATE to original 6:28 p.m. post from Dec. 8: News partner Peter Callaghan of The News Tribune was at yesterday’s PDC meeting. Republican commissioner Jim Clements expressed concerns about the AFP’s conduct in this case.
As Callaghan recounted it:
"You can smell it but you can't see it," he said.
Clements also said that AFP seemed to have found a loophole but that the mailings seemed political and campaign oriented.
"Had they come after the election and before the session I could buy that it was non-political," he said.
Stay tuned.
