WA Dems team up with WA GOP to dismantle campaign accountability
Late last month, Democrats and Republicans in King County, Washington released a joint press statement about their desire to dismantle the state agency responsible for campaign transparency and accountability — the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC).
And prior to that, State Democrats, lead by DNC Superdelegate, millionaire, failed candidate, and fake Bernie supporter, Tina Podlodowski, released a nearly identical statement. In it, she directs blame for campaign finance violations not upon herself and party leadership or the individual campaigns, but the laws themselves, claiming they are not easy to follow.
Rather than own-up to the broken promise of providing state funding & resources for local Democratic organizations, Tina and her leadership are instead choosing to play the same game that has become all too familiar in state politics lately.
State Democrats have announced they too will begin abusing the Public Disclosure Commission and filing targeted complaints against political foes.
Most notably, the press release echoes a call for “legislative fixes” (read: de-regulation) to make it “easier to follow the law.”
The most violated law? Not filing basic paperwork on time.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough… Olgy Diaz, also of the WA State Democrats, sent out an email that confirms anonymous reports that Tina and the leadership at the State Democrats, using fears of the PDC enforcing existing state law, are making moves to centralize their power and influence.
While the above email cleverly avoids mentioning it in writing (opting instead to rely upon a favored tactic of grifters: off-the-record phone calls), other leaked emails are not so sneaky. Basically, the official advice from Tina and other Washington State Democratic Party leaders and lawyers, is to have local Democrats “de-register” their own parties. This is an effort to avoid facing fines for breaking the law, rather than provide them with training and resources to properly follow state campaign finance laws in the first place.
State party leaders want to trick local activists into transferring all of a local party’s funds to the state party, which is already known for not providing any funding to local races (even though Tina ran for State Party Chair on a platform of “Every Race in Every Place”). This would also make it impossible for these same local activists to have any decision-making power in their own districts, or in their own races, centralizing power with Tina and her circle of influence.
You’ll notice they mention Glen Morgan. Glen is a former staffer with the anti-union Freedom Foundation, and more recently, runs “We The Governed,” a pseudo-libertarian blog which happens to also share the same view about de-regulating campaign finance in Washington State. Glen is responsible for a large number of recent PDC complaints. While he claims to not be pursuing any partisan agenda, none of his complaints happen to target Republicans.
While some of Morgan’s complaints may be frivolous — such as complaining that paperwork was filed late — they are mostly legitimate and correct. What’s happening here is a case of shooting the (partisan) messenger. The solution offered by the Democrats and Republicans, to use another idiom, is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We shouldn’t be getting rid of regulations simply because we find it “too hard” to file paperwork — we should be showing people how to file the paperwork! This is an utterly transparent trick by the wealthy and connected in both parties to bypass campaign finance regulations while simultaneously seizing political power and influence.
Unfortunately, some local parties have already taken the bait. It has been reported that three Democratic orgs — the 11th Legislative District Democrats, Island County Democrats, and worst offenders of all, 43rd district Democrats— have taken the advice of Tina and “de-registered” as PACs with the State of Washington, transferring all funds and decision-making authority to a small group of connected individuals at the state party, (after transferring thousands of dollars to their friends).
As of this year, both Democratic and Republican state party central committees alone have each reportedly raised over $1.2 million — not counting local orgs and various PACs and committees, which raise even more than that when combined. The problem of money in politics is only getting worse, and this bi-partisan power play is only going to centralize the money (and power) in the hands of a few.
The WA Public Disclosure Commission, which was formed via a citizens’ initiative in the 1970s, is not the problem. The rich and powerful and their influence on our government is the problem. The PDC needs to be properly funded, and the “legislative fixes” required are to add more regulations to prevent partisan abuses perpetrated by the parties themselves. Hopefully, the public will see this is an effort to destroy public oversight and remove our view into how money is spent and how the rich buy elections and solidify their power bases in government.
Read the follow-up story, Washington State’s PDC isn’t broken,political parties are just a corrupt family of grifters.
