Print  email 

tool name

close

tool goes here

Builders refuse AG offer to settle illegal campaigning case for $900,000

• Published October 07, 2009

• Comments (0)

State lawyers offered to settle their lawsuit against the Building Industry Association of Washington over alleged campaign-finance violations from 2008, if builders would pay fines and state costs of $900,000.

The whopping offer, which expired last month, would have been one of the largest in state history, if not the largest. But BIAW flatly rejected it, calling the offer "nothing more than extortion." BIAW countered with an offer to pay $10,000 and is continuing to deny it broke state law.

At issue in the court case is $582,000 collected by the BIAW's Member Services Corporation in 2007 for use by builders' political committee to promote Dino Rossi’s campaign for governor in 2008. The money came from local builder groups that agreed to set aside a portion of their insurance premium refunds from the state "Retro" program that BIAW manages for members.

The existence of the money was not reported to the public until August 2008. It was part of the $7.1 million that BIAW’s ChangePAC spent in the governor's race promoting Republican Rossi and attacking Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"It's ludicrous. It's so far beyond what any other settlement has been. It's harassment. There's no need for it …" BIAW counsel Timothy Harris said today in an interview. "We're trying to work with the Attorney General's Office. They are going off half-cocked. I don't know if it’s politically motivated."

BIAW spokeswoman Erin Shannon went further, accusing Republican AG Rob McKenna of trying to win points politically by taking a hard stand against the builders, whom he has relied on in the past for support. In fact, Democratic AG candidate John Ladenburg had urged McKenna to refer the case last year to someone else because of McKenna's past support from BIAW.

"Clearly, clearly this is political persecution," Shannon said. "We think McKenna has higher political aspirations in Washington state and is pandering, showing he is not beholden to BIAW and is willing to take on BIAW."

"This at best could be called a ticky-tack violation of the law," Shannon added. "Let’s be serious here. Not to be flip — if BIAW was intentionally going to break campaign law, don't you think we'd do more than $582,000 of the $7.5 million we spent?"