A Vancouver man filed a formal complaint this week with the state Public Disclosure Commission, alleging campaign finance law violations by David Madore and his political action committee, NoTolls.com.
The complaint, filed Tuesday by Alexander Stone, contains two allegations against NoTolls.com and Madore, who also owns Vancouver firm U.S. Digital.
In a letter to the PDC, Stone writes that because Madore is both treasurer and main contributor to NoTolls.com, he and his PAC are the “same entity,” meaning Madore has exceeded his individual contribution limits in at least four local races.
In the primary campaign of Republican Clark County Commission candidate Alan Svehaug, the contributions may amount to “undue influence” that invalidates the election, Stone wrote, noting the combined contributions from Madore and NoTolls.com were more than half of the money Svehaug raised in that race.
Stone also writes that it does not appear that the NoTolls.com PAC has enough donors to legally donate to state legislative candidates under state law.
PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson said the commission received Stone’s complaint and accompanying 67 pages of evidence. The complaints director will next decide if any of Stone’s allegations should be investigated.
It’s unlikely whether any questions will be answered before the election, she said — the PDC gets its heaviest workload in the run-up to November contests. Though Stone is also collecting signatures to send to the PDC to ask for an expedited review, all complaints are examined in the order they are received, Anderson said.
Stone said he filed the complaint “because no one else was.”
“The NoTolls.com PAC has struck me as odd from the beginning,” he said. “The real underlying thing seemed like one guy was running the entire show.”
Madore said Wednesday that he’s worked closely with the PDC over the last few months, because he’s new to the political game.
“If there would be any guiding principle for me, it’s to be transparent, open, and above all, value truth,” Madore said. “If for some reason something’s not being met, it’s because I don’t know about it.”
Madore, 59, is a self-made millionaire who has spent nearly $200,000 of his own money thus far in this election, both by contributing to his PAC, but also directly to the campaigns of candidates that share his anti-tolling and light rail views on the Columbia River Crossing. NoTolls.com had raised $134,060 in cash as of Wednesday, and spent $95,405. It has sponsored radio ads, fliers and signs for several candidates.
Madore was relatively unheard of on the Clark County political scene before this summer, when he emerged as a champion of a no-tolls cause and helped to recruit Svehaug to run against Democratic Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart.
If the PDC finds NoTolls.com to be singly controlled by Madore, contributions to Svehaug, Vancouver City Council candidate John Jenkins, Prosecuting Attorney candidate Brent Boger and 17th Legislative District candidate Brian Peck have all gone over the maximum allowed by law, Stone said.
If a PAC is controlled by one person, that person gets one contribution limit of $800 per election, whether the money is coming out of the PAC or out of pocket, Anderson of the PDC said.
Madore confirmed that he was the treasurer of NoTolls.com, because he is very computer savvy and can operate the PDC filing software. Madore is also the co-chairman of NoTolls.com, along with Vancouver resident Josephine Wentzel.
“As far as bottom line, buck stops here control, yeah that would be me,” he said. “But certainly there’s an official co-chair, and that’s Josephine.”
Any over-limit contributions to a candidate must be returned to the individual or PAC that gave the money, Anderson said. The person or PAC could face a maximum fine of $4,200 if found to have violated the law.
Stone also pointed to NoTolls.com’s contribution records, which include Madore and just two other named donors, who gave a total of $60. He said that NoTolls.com may be violating a state law that says a PAC must have 10 registered voters give more than $10 to contribute to state races.
However, Anderson noted that donations $10 and less do not need to be individually listed.
Madore said that the PDC has information about his smaller donors and there are more than 10. Online records note that NoTolls.com has $109.57 in small contributions.
“We definitely have it covered, they’re all reported,” Madore said.
Stone is married to Temple Lentz, who served as campaign manager for Tim Leavitt’s successful run at Vancouver mayor last year. Leavitt has since become a frequent target of NoTolls.com criticism.
However, Stone said potential political allegiances have nothing to do with it.
“The only way to put that is just because one member of a family is a strong supporter of a politician … does not necessarily mean another family member is amped up about that candidate,” he said.
Stone said he doesn’t have an opinion on Madore or NoTolls.com, except that after reading the reports, “I no longer have confidence that the agenda NoTolls is pushing is a real agenda.”
After going over the PDC reports and studying state law, he felt that he should act.
“My hope on this is to ensure that everybody who is participating in our elections follows the same rules that every other citizen has to follow,” he said.
Madore questioned that motivation.
“Complaints are cheap; anybody can file a complaint,” he said. “You can either attack a message and we can have a good dialogue, or you can attack the messenger.
“Since he has not talked with me — I don’t even know who he is — it seems he’s trying to attack the messenger.”
Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.
