11/20/2017
For Immediate Release: Nov, 20, 2017
Contact: Kevin Carns, 360.870.5778
(Olympia, WA) Senator Mark Schoesler, Chairman of The Leadership Council and Representative Dan Kristiansen, Chairman of the Reagan Fund release the following statement regarding Tina Podlodowski and WA Democrats recent PDC political stunt.
The State Democrat Party and Attorney General Bob Ferguson are both compromised and conflicted in bringing campaign finance lawsuits for profit and partisan advantage.
Tina Podlodowski is herself the subject of a pending campaign finance action arising out of her failed campaign for Secretary of State. She brings the actions in an attempt to deflect from her own deficiencies in campaign finance and as a Statewide candidate.
Previous complaints against Republican members were drafted by an attorney who, only months ago, worked for Bob Ferguson at taxpayers’ expense. While working for the taxpayers, Smith conspired with Democrats to start a private law firm that sues only Republicans.
He deliberately withheld taking action as an assistant attorney general so he could personally profit by bringing lawsuits the moment he left the AG’s office. This attorney is now seeking to profit from his former position and benefit the political fortunes of his former boss. His dubious actions are currently the subject of a lawsuit in Thurston County
Bob Ferguson’s campaign finance unit has been further compromised by the appointment of Jeffrey Sprung, recent board president of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and a failed left-wing Democrat candidate for State Auditor just last year.
Unfortunately, this continues a pattern of politicization of campaign finance that led to the resignation of PDC Executive Director Evelyn Lopez earlier this year. Ms. Lopez promptly ran a hard left campaign for Mayor of Tacoma, losing in the primary.
Her replacement as Executive Director of the PDC (an agency so committed to non –partisanship its commissioners cannot contribute to candidates or be involved in any way in campaigns) is Peter Lavallee – who left his post as Bob Ferguson’s spokesman and top political aide to take the position. Lavallee commented in the PDC press release on his appointment, "Transparency and accountability are essential to our democracy,". Yet he omitted a key position on his resume in that press release, he was the administrator of the Clinton Legal Defense Fund in the 1990s. Lavallee is a partisan, and a Bob Ferguson loyalist, and now controls the State’s campaign finance enforcement agency.
Our laws should be enforced by professionals not partisans, and never for personal profit. We will take all appropriate legal action to reverse this corruption of our State’s campaign finance enforcement system.
Paid for by The Leadership Council, PO Box 12085, Olympia WA 98508
