Election cycles are often marked by distinct phases: Candidates announce, fundraising events are scheduled, and mailers are sent out.
If you live in the 17th Legislative District, welcome to the mud-slinging phase.
A Facebook page titled “Monica Stonier Misses Votes” claims the Democratic state representative from Vancouver represents “Seattle liberals, not Vancouver values.”
Stonier, the incumbent, is locked in a competitive race with Republican Lynda Wilson.
The Facebook page was created in 2013 by the Reagan Fund, the state House Republican leadership political action committee. But Stonier sent out a press release late Thursday night noting campaigning in the district has “turned dirty as a smear Facebook page” continued to “spend money while breaking the legal requirement to disclose their spending and funding to Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission.”
Stonier said she’s been checking the public disclosure commission’s website to find out who is behind the Facebook page and sponsored advertisements slamming her. When no expenditures were filed, she questioned why there wasn’t more transparency.
Kevin Carns, with the Reagan Fund, said there’s a simple explanation: The first sponsored advertisements were bought for $200 on Aug. 15 and will be reported in September. There were also advertisements bought 120 days before the election that were not considered electioneering and therefore did not need to be disclosed, he said.
Stonier also accused the page of being full of misleading information. First, the name has a hint of irony since she missed two votes out of 1,211 from Jan. 2013 to Aug. 2014, which is corroborated by WashingtonVotes.org.
Stonier accused the opposing party of playing politics.
“If they care about the issues, they would report the truth,” Stonier said, adding that the site claims she supports an income tax, “which I’ve been openly against since 2010.”
The page actually states: “Monica Stonier’s friends support a state income tax” and has a picture of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.
Carns said Stonier’s party protects her from having to cast unpopular votes.
“But her friends and colleagues vote against the district; there’s a bit of hypocrisy there, and we’re more than happy to point it out,” Carns said.
Although social media has long been crucial in congressional and statewide races, Carns said it’s being relied upon more in this campaign cycle for legislative races than it has previously.
“I think you’ll see it is starting to become a more important way to reach out to people,” he said.
Lori Anderson, a spokeswoman with the Public Disclosure Commission, said eventually that could present some gray areas.
She noted the “laws we’re operating under today didn’t entertain the idea” of tracing advertising through Facebook and other digital sites.
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