Lawyer: Rossi violated campaign laws

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published October 01, 2008

• Comments (0)

A Seattle attorney who has sued two Washington builder groups over campaign-finance violations says he has evidence that Republican candidate for governor Dino Rossi solicited funds in 2007 that now are deemed illegal.

Knoll Lowney announced his findings Tuesday, and the liberal group Fuse immediately dubbed it "Builder-gate."

Lowney and others suggested Rossi knew about the fundraising and kept it quiet for a year, even after state attorneys began looking into it this year.

Rossi's campaign flatly rejected the allegations as "more flailing from a desperate campaign and its allies," referring to supporters of Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The state Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit last month, alleging the Building Industry Association of Washington and Master Builders Association of King & Snohomish Counties failed to make timely or complete reports of money raised from members' industrial-insurance rebates in 2007 as required by law. The BIAW did not report $585,000 it collected in July 2007 until August this year.

"What we know now is that Mr. Rossi was not just a beneficiary of these illegal activities, but was a participant," Lowney said, adding he wants Rossi and two builder groups to tell the public what was going on.

Rossi's campaign countered the attack.

"Last week it was the silly lawsuit over the use of 'GOP,' and this week it is this frivolous allegation — all in an attempt to distract voters from issues like the $3.2 billion deficit the incumbent has created. I can't wait to see what they will accuse us of next week," Rossi spokeswoman Jill Strait said in an e-mail.

"While it is nice of Knoll Lowney to offer his own summation of the evidence, all the meeting minutes show is that Dino Rossi spoke to members of the Master Builders Association in May 2007 before he was a candidate."

Strait said there is no evidence Rossi "had decided to run for governor" before Oct. 11 last year.

"Prior to that date, Dino made clear to the Master Builders, and anyone else who asked, that he had not decided whether or not to run for office," Strait said.