From Stark
Attorney General Rob McKenna has announced the settlement of a lawsuit against Moxie Media, accused of serious campaign finance law violations in an Edmonds state senate campaign.
Here’s the press release from McKenna, with a link to the original complaint and to the settlement:
OLYMPIA – The Attorney General’s Office today (AGO) settled a lawsuit against Moxie Media, its principals Lisa MacLean and Henry Underhill, and two political action committees (PAC) formed by MacLean and Underhill, Conservative PAC and Cut Taxes PAC.
The suit stemmed from a complaint filed with the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) as well as a citizen action letter filed on behalf of Sen. Jean Berkey (D-Edmonds).
The defendants were accused of multiple violations of the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws including an effort to conceal the source of the funding behind last-minute independent expenditures until after the primary election in the 2010 38th Legislative District State Senate race. The expenditures were for mailings and robo-calls in support of the Conservative Party candidate and were targeted against Sen. Berkey, who lost her re-election bid that year.
“This settlement holds Moxie Media, Lisa MacLean, Henry Underhill and their two political action committees accountable for their campaign finance disclosure violations and preserves the integrity of state law while avoiding the additional expense to taxpayers of taking this case to trial,” said Attorney General Rob McKenna.
Under the terms of the settlement filed in Thurston County Superior Court today, the defendants are required by pay $250,000 in fines and $40,000 in attorney’s fees and costs—one of the highest penalties levied against individuals. As is common in these types of cases, a portion of the penalty ($140,000 in this case) has been suspended based on the defendants’ future compliance with campaign reporting laws. If any one of the parties is found to have committed a new violation between now and December 31, 2015, the full suspended amount will be owed. The defendants also agreed to obtain training from the Public Disclosure Commission staff on proper disclosure reporting.
The AGO explored the feasibility of setting aside the election (one possible remedy for violations of campaign finance disclosure laws) and hired an expert to review the facts of the case. The expert could not conclude with any certainty the defendants’ campaign finance violations probably affected the outcome of the election. As such, the AGO did not pursue that remedy in this case because it could not meet the legal burden.
End press release
No surprise that McKenna didn’t set aside the election, which would have been the right thing to do. I wonder who his “expert” was, probably his campaign manager!
OK folks, move along, nothing to see here, just a bunch of right wing crooks trying to steal an election, sameold sameold ever since Tricky Dick Nixon and Watergate…please keep the line moving…
Oh dear. To Proud_Progressive and any other reader who does not know this story very well :
It was not really conservatives. Moxie media are Democrats who ingeniously carried out a crafty and sneaky plan to remove a Democrat incumbent who had an 85% labor voting record, to replace her with a 100% labor voting record newcomer.
They successfully gamed the system, by using the top two primary in a two thirds Democrat district, by pumping up the votes for the Republican in the race, just enough to squeeze out the Dem incumbent at the primary. The conservative sounding PAC names were to slow down the truth and appear like normal Republican support for the R in the race, when in fact it was pro-labor Democrats trying to cause a primary exclusion like what happened to Seattle’s mayor Nichols : all it takes is 34/34/33 in a top two primary.
The general election saw the Republican beaten in the largely Dem majority district. Exactly to plan.
“Labor and Lawyers Were Behind Sneak Attack on Berkey, PDC Says – Created Fake ‘Republican’ Campaign to Build Up Weak Opponent…
…A devastating report from the state Public Disclosure Commission confirms what many had suspected all along – that some of the biggest players in state Democratic politics were behind a phony “Republican” campaign that cost incumbent Democrat Jean Berkey her Senate seat…
http://www.washingtonstatewire.com/home/5818-labor_and_lawyers_were_behind_sneak_attack_on_berkey_pdc_says_%E2%80%93_created_fake_%E2%80%98republican%E2%80%99_campaign_to_build_up_weak_opponent.htm
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!