BIAW puts $4.1 million in fund

Money transferred just prior to $5,000 cap taking effect

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published October 15, 2008

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The Building Industry Association of Washington poured $4.1 million into its ChangePAC political committee just before a limit took effect Tuesday that caps such contributions at $5,000.

The move gave Republican Dino Rossi's biggest backer as much as $5.2 million to spend down the stretch as Rossi tries to unseat Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire in the Nov. 4 general election.

ChangePAC has raised $7.25 million and spent a little more than $2 million, according to data on file with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

In a related move, the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C., gave its local PAC $3.5 million in the past week, boosting its war chest to $7.5 million.

The RGA already has spent almost $3 million on ads criticizing Gregoire, leaving it $4.5 million to spend just as the state's mail-in ballots go out this weekend to voters.

Gregoire's backer

One other major PAC in the governor's race, Evergreen Progress, is backing Gregoire and has about $3 million available for the stretch run. Evergreen's total of $5.1 million has come from the Democratic Governors Association, labor groups and others.

"Thank goodness BIAW is spending this money. Otherwise there would be a vacuum," BIAW spokeswoman Erin Shannon said Tuesday. "We're just trying to level the playing field."

Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele replied, "It is clearly a breathtaking amount of money."

Steele said there still are serious allegations that BIAW broke state campaign-finance laws, which raises questions about the legitimacy of the fund transfers.

The money moves are the latest salvos in what is shaping up as a potential $35 million slugfest in the gubernatorial race, a rematch of the 133-vote outcome between Gregoire and Rossi in 2004 — easily the most expensive race in state history.

The new funds erase any chance of a let-up in a campaign that has featured hard-hitting and false or misleading ads on both sides.

"The money is coming in because they know there is an opportunity to maybe knock off an incumbent. A year ago, looking at polls, I wouldn't have expected things to trend that way," Todd Donovan, a professor of political science at Western Washington University in Bellingham, said of the infusion of BIAW and RGA money.