OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The state Public Disclosure Commission says Gov. Jay Inslee’s re-election committee did not violate state lobbying laws when it sent emails to supporters on issues and bills in front of lawmakers.
The Daily Herald reports ( https://bit.ly/1MMDmln ) that commissioners on Thursday voted to recommend Attorney General Bob Ferguson take no further action on a complaint filed against the Democratic governor by Susan Hutchison, the chairwoman of the state Republican Party.
Hutchison said the emails amounted to personal grassroots lobbying. She argued any re-election funds spent to conduct such an effort constituted an illegal personal use of campaign dollars.
An investigation focused emails sent by the Inslee campaign between December 2014 and May 2015 that asked readers to support specific initiatives backed by Inslee and to add their names to petitions.
Representatives of Inslee’s campaign said names and emails of respondents were entered into campaign databases but no petitions were ever created or sent to lawmakers.
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