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PDC staffers see no campaign violation in state schools race

• Published December 01, 2008

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Staffers at the Public Disclosure Commission are recommending dismissal of complaints filed during the election against state schools chief candidate Randy Dorn and a political action committee that aided his campaign.

Attorney Judith Lonnquist filed the original complaint in August on behalf of the campaign of Terry Bergeson, the three-term superintendent of public instruction who eventually lost her seat to Dorn in the Nov. 4 general election.

The complaint said Dorn’s campaign coordinated its ad purchases with Citizens for Washington. The PAC was financed by more than $400,000 from Service Employees International Union affiliates, including its national unit, and $25,000 from the Tulalip Tribes. In the end, the PAC spent $181,016 opposing Bergeson and another $181,016 promoting Dorn.

Independent groups are allowed to spend freely on campaigns, but complicating the picture was Dorn’s role as top officer of an SEIU affililate, the Public School Employees union. Lonnquist argued that as an affiliate, SEIU would be limited in its activities.

SEUI got into the campaign out of concern about “failing schools and increasing drop-out rates” that affected some of its members’ families, a spokesman said at the time.

The PDC’s five citizen members would have to dismiss any complaint, and they are scheduled to hear the staff’s report after 1 p.m. Thursday in Olympia. The commission is meeting all day at 711 Capitol Way, Room 206.

See the staff report here.

The report also recommends that the Attorney General’s Office not file suit as Lonnquist requested in a follow-up complaint, dubbed a 45-day letter, she filed in the fall.

Michael Moran, director of the PAC, circulated a copy of the dismissal recommendation he received today from the PDC.

“I’m personally happy that the staff thinks we didn’t violate the laws,” he said, adding that he still must wait for the commissioners to agree. “I think we did everything legally and above board.’’