WA Public Disclosure Commission investigating initiative sponsor

The Washington Public Disclosure Commission decided Thursday to continue an investigation into the initiative organization Let’s Go Washington — and not refer it to the state Attorney General’s Office.

The PDC, which tracks campaign fundraising, voted 4-0 without comment following a closed session to reserve time at its Aug. 22 regular meeting to decide whether to file charges against Let’s Go Washington, if the PDC staff’s investigation is done by then.

Attorneys Abby Lawlor and Dmitri Iglitzin — representing SEIU Local No 775, Civic Ventures, Washington Conservation Action, and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, plus others — sent a July 17 letter to the PDC requesting that complaints filed by their clients in July and October 2023 against the initiative sponsor be referred to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation.

Let’s Go Washington — bankrolled by Redmond hedge fund manager Brian Heywood — has gathered enough signatures to make seven initiatives eligible for this November’s ballot. The Democrat-controlled Legislature passed three of the proposals last spring in an apparent attempt to get the least controversial ones out of the way politically.

https://crosscut.com/briefs/2024/07/wa-public-disclosure-commission-investigating-initiative-sponsor