Group relents; anti-Senn ad to be pulled

By Beth Kaiman
Seattle Times staff reporters

Deborah Senn is running for attorney general.

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The Seattle-based Voters Education Committee said it told television stations around the state to stop airing the ad. The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) ruled Thursday that the committee was violating campaign law by not registering with the state or disclosing the source of its money.

Senn, the former state insurance commissioner, is running for attorney general against former Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

Meanwhile, in a highly unusual move, another high-profile attack ad — this one directed at Attorney General Christine Gregoire — was taken off cable television systems by Comcast amid questions about its veracity.

Comcast said it wanted substantiation for the ad's assertions from the ad's sponsor, a political-action committee set up by the Building Industry Association of Washington. The association represents home builders and is a longtime foe of Gregoire.

Gregoire is running against King County Executive Ron Sims in Tuesday's Democratic gubernatorial primary. Her campaign has strenuously objected to the ad, which attempts to blame her for the state's unpopular new primary-election system.

Gregoire's office said yesterday the ad "falsely claimed that 'Christine Gregoire fought against our tradition of open primaries and signed the court order to end it.' In fact, Chris Gregoire fought hard to preserve the open primary. The 'court order' referenced in the ad was actually an order to preserve the open primary for the 2000 election."

Who's behind Voters Education Committee? Seattle-based Voters Education Committee, which financed an ad attacking Deborah Senn, agreed yesterday to disclose its contributors to the Public Disclosure Commission by 5 p.m. tomorrow. The commission expects to post the information online within hours of the filing. The PDC Web site is www.pdc.wa.gov/. An easy way to find the information, is to click on "View the Reports," then click "Search for and View Reports," then type "Voters Education Committee," under "Filer name." You can then click on the "C3" reports, which will list the names of contributors. By 9 a.m. Monday, the group has agreed to file forms detailing its expenditures. That information also will be available online. Source: Public Disclosure Commission

Comcast said it wanted to examine the ad and the factual basis for it.

"We reviewed the (Building Industry Association) spot," Comcast said in a statement. "We ... wish to see additional substantiation for certain statements in the ad or a different commercial. In the meantime, we have discontinued carriage."

Meanwhile, the anti-Senn ad, which gives viewers no indication of who or what the Voters Education Committee is, has been running since Aug. 30 and was scheduled to air hundreds of times in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's state primary election.

The PDC, represented by the Attorney General's Office, yesterday filed for an injunction in Thurston County Superior Court seeking quick disclosure of Voters Education Committee donors.

To halt that lawsuit, the committee agreed to disclose its contributors by 5 p.m. tomorrow and its expenditures by 9 a.m. Monday. The group also agreed to register with the state as a political-action committee.

Voter Education Committee director Bruce Boram had argued state campaign-finance rules did not apply to an independent political committee because its ad was an "issue ad," not intended to tell people how to vote in a race. The PDC disagreed, saying the ad was clearly designed to persuade people to vote against Senn.

The PDC's lawsuit remains in place, as does a lawsuit filed by the Voters Education Committee alleging that the PDC is violating its right to free speech.

Boram and others associated with the Voters Education Committee have ties to business interests and GOP causes. Boram, for instance, is head of United for Washington, a group that represents business interests in the state.

He resigned yesterday as spokesman for King County Sheriff Dave Reichert's campaign for the Republican nomination in the 8th Congressional District.

The attorney for the Voters Education Committee, John White, is the lawyer for the state GOP.

But where the money is coming from has remained a mystery that has angered and confounded Senn, other candidates and the PDC.

The Republican Party has said it is not tied to the ad, which criticize Senn's work as insurance commissioner, and Boram and others have said United for Washington also had nothing to do with the ad. Sidran and Republican attorney-general candidates Rob McKenna and Michael Vaska have said their campaigns were not involved.

The commercial stopped running about 3 p.m. yesterday. Some stations had already decided Thursday to cancel the ad on their own.

Beth Kaiman: 206-464-2441 or bkaiman@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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