Realtors group accused of campaign violations

The Washington Association of Realtors is in trouble again with state campaign watchdogs — and this time Dino Rossi and state Attorney General Rob McKenna are implicated.

The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) staff filed a complaint last week alleging the Realtors group illegally coordinated campaign spending with unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate Rossi and McKenna, a Republican incumbent who won re-election last month.

The complaint also says the Realtors group did not properly report expenditures on brochures during the last three weeks of this year's race for governor.

Almost $1 million in campaign spending is at issue in the complaint.

In a previous complaint, the PDC fined the group $130,000 in September for improperly reporting nearly $1 million spent on state and local races from 2004 to 2007.

In response to the latest complaint, the Realtors group insisted it did nothing wrong. A spokesman for the Rossi campaign also denied any wrongdoing.

In the new complaint, state watchdogs say the Realtors group spent $414,000 on three mailings in late October that it reported to the PDC on Oct. 30. The pieces were about state leaders possibly raising taxes on real-estate sales.

The mailings urged readers to call the governor and legislators and tell them "we can't afford another tax increase."

In its Oct. 30 report, the Realtors group maintained the mailings were "issue" pieces about the real-estate-excise tax and did not support or oppose a candidate.

But the PDC says the mailings were "electioneering communications" against incumbent Gov. Christine Gregoire. Under state law, that means the Realtors needed to identify the candidate opposed by the mailings and the brochures should have been reported within 24-hours of when they were mailed. The group instead reported the mailings between five and 12 days after they were sent.

The new complaint also says the group ran so-called "independent expenditure" ads supporting Rossi and McKenna that were actually illegal contributions to the candidates. The ads for Rossi cost $498,000; the McKenna ads cost $29,000.

The PDC says it has evidence that Rossi and McKenna provided fundraising assistance to the Realtors' political-action committee before the ads were made. That makes the ads contributions to the campaigns of Rossi and McKenna — not independent expenditures which can't be coordinated with a candidate. Donations to statewide candidates are capped at $1,600.

Rossi's 2008 campaign manager said he doesn't understand the PDC's allegation and has asked the agency for clarification.

"We certainly did not coordinate with the Realtors," Afton Swift said.

The Realtors association issued a statement Monday saying "we acted fully within our constitutional rights to communicate information and education to the public as well as to our own members and we feel that we will be fully vindicated."

McKenna and his campaign manager did not return calls.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com