Commission votes 3-2 to dismiss complaint against Rossi

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A divided state Public Disclosure Commission on Thursday dismissed potentially damaging campaign finance complaints against Republican gubernatorial challenger Dino Rossi.

The citizen panel voted 3-2 to accept a staff recommendation to toss the state Democrats' claim that Rossi illegally used his nonprofit group, the Forward Washington Foundation, to finance an undeclared shadow campaign and to evade the state's strict reporting and gift-limit requirements.

Rossi, who called the complaint a smear engineered by backers of Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, viewed the closely divided commission's ruling as an exoneration.

Rossi, who lost narrowly to Gregoire in 2004, denied any impropriety, but left the foundation before announcing his 2008 bid. The foundation, which promoted some of the themes and proposals he used in his last campaign, had paid him an annual salary of $75,000.

The Democrats had hoped that the state probe, coupled with a big fine or other punishment, would be an embarrassing setback for Rossi.

But the PDC enforcement staff concluded there was insufficient evidence to side with the Democrats' view of Rossi's conduct.

The investigators said Rossi became a true 2008 candidate only in October and that there is insufficient evidence to show he misused the foundation to promote an undeclared candidacy.

State law requires a declared candidate or one who is raising money and making campaign expenditures to register with the commission and to make regular detailed reports. The law also limits the size of contributions.

PDC Chairman Bill Brumsickle, a former Republican House member, said the majority relied on the investigators' report.

"If you take the emotion away and just look at the actual facts about whether Rossi was a candidate and whether his organization was a political committee, the facts show that there was insufficient evidence to say that it was," Brumsickle said.

"It was a very, very fine line and we were looking at whether it was crossed or not. The 3-2 decision says it was a rather cloudy issue. But this is the end of the matter as far as we are concerned."

Rossi said the decision means the agency agrees that he was telling the truth all along.

"The complaints were simply a political stunt by Christine Gregoire's agents to discredit me," he said in comments released by his campaign. "We have wasted enough time and money on these baseless charges. I hope we can now move forward and focus on issues important to Washington."

State GOP Chairman Luke Esser said the accusations were "a pathetic ploy by Gov. Gregoire's smear machine to discredit Dino Rossi and drag his name through the mud."

State Democrats said the commission's action shouldn't detract from the central point that Rossi should disclose those who bankrolled his nonprofit, which they continue to believe was a covert campaign.

"Now that the PDC has acknowledged this loophole in the law, ... Rossi needs to come out of the shadows and tell Washingtonians who's been bankrolling his political activities all year," said state Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz. "A prospective governor should not engage in covert fundraising and political activity in the shadows."

Kelly Evans, Gregoire's campaign manager, was disappointed in the ruling.

"We believe in disclosure and every month we comply with the law," she said in an interview. "It's really important that people understand where money is coming from and how it is spent. Misuse of non-profits for campaign purposes is a growing problem nationally."

— — —

On the Net:

Democrats: www.wa-democrats.org

Rossi: www.dinorossi.com

PDC: www.pdc.wa.gov