SPOKANE — After a three-hour hearing Thursday, state officials held off on announcing a ruling over whether a conservative political action group behind several initiatives on the November ballot broke the law in its signature-gathering campaigns.
The state Public Disclosure Commission heard the allegations brought against Let’s Go Washington, which is sponsored by billionaire hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. Heywood’s group is the driving force behind three initiatives set to appear on November ballots that, if passed, would overturn a large portion of the state’s Climate Commitment Act, abolish the state’s long-term care tax and end the capital gains tax.
Essentially, Thursday’s hearing was based on allegations that Let’s Go Washington failed to keep accurate and timely reports of the money spent on its signature-gathering campaigns to get initiatives onto the ballot.
The complaint against Let’s Go Washington accused the organization of muddling the amount of campaign money spent on signature-gathering efforts for each individual initiative it backed.
“A voter reviewing the committee’s C-4 reports had no way of knowing what initiative a particular expenditure supported,” said Chad Standifer, a senior assistant attorney general who served as legal counsel for the Public Disclosure Commission in Thursday’s hearing.
In response to the allegations, Let’s Go Washington asked the Public Disclosure Commission to dismiss all charges against it.
“With respect to the reporting of the signature gathering expenditures, there is no question that Let’s Go Washington disclosed to the public every penny that was spent in signature gathering,” said Callie Castillo, the attorney who represented Let’s Go Washington in Thursday’s hearing.
Castillo added that its contracts with paid signature gatherers were to gather signatures for all of the initiatives that the organization supported.
Immediately after the hearing that lasted three hours and 17 minutes, the Public Disclosure Commission went into an executive session, behind closed doors and off-camera to deliberate. Commission Vice Chair Robert Leach said the state agency’s deliberation Thursday did not mean they were promising to release a decision that day.
“I want to tell the parties that does not necessarily mean that we will be announcing a decision today,” Leach said. “We may decide that we need to work some on a decision, or to review some documents further and to consider the arguments further.”
If the Public Disclosure Commission finds Let’s Go Washington did break state law, the organization will likely be fined thousands of dollars.
Regardless of its ruling, the Public Disclosure Commission may take notes on the lead-up to Thursday’s hearing and discuss potential solutions or rule or law changes to avoid similar conflicts over initiative signature-gathering efforts in the future.
