Commentary: Political dirty tricks
Sunday, October 21, 2018
By Diane Hettrick
Many voters in the 32nd District received a flyer claiming that Maralyn Chase had an ethics scandal in 2002. It features a couple of very unflattering photos of her and large headlines.
It refers to a situation when Chase first ran for office. A donor wanted to give her more than the legally allowed amount. She knew it was over the limit and asked the local district organization if they could run it through their books. Told that it would be an ethics violation, she dropped the matter.
The flyer purports to come from the REALTORS PAC.
There are a few problems with that. The name of the organizations aren't quite right. "Washington REALTORS PAC" instead of "RPAC."
The address is a building still under construction. The committees aren't listed in the Public Disclosure Commission.
The realtors' PAC does make endorsements - in this race the "Seattle King County REALTORS" have endorsed Jesse Salomon and contributed $1000 to his campaign. They listed him, along with all their other endorsed candidates, in a brochure that they sent out only to their members.
Lennox Scott is the biggest contributor to the RPAC (realtors PAC) which advocates for members:
They don't send out flyers. And they certainly don't send out hit pieces.
The only correct statement in the flyer is that "No candidate authorized this ad."
How long until this election is over???
The address is a building still under construction. The committees aren't listed in the Public Disclosure Commission.
The realtors' PAC does make endorsements - in this race the "Seattle King County REALTORS" have endorsed Jesse Salomon and contributed $1000 to his campaign. They listed him, along with all their other endorsed candidates, in a brochure that they sent out only to their members.
Lennox Scott is the biggest contributor to the RPAC (realtors PAC) which advocates for members:
"The Washington REALTORS® advocates for REALTORS® and their clients and provides services to help members prosper."
They don't send out flyers. And they certainly don't send out hit pieces.
The only correct statement in the flyer is that "No candidate authorized this ad."
How long until this election is over???
Posts
5 comments:
The address listed on the mailing has internet listings for real estate related groups, including the Washington Association of Realtors.
The address is a building under construction. It belongs to the Realtors and they will be moving back in when it is completed. In the meantime, they are at a different street address and using a PO Box for their official address.
Outstanding editorial! Thanks for investigating!
The hit piece was a preposterous allegation about nothing. Just like a Seinfeld episode!
To whomever sent me that preposterous flyer: your plan has backfired. When I see big money coming out against a candidate, the candidate scores big points and makes me investigate them to find out why. All you've done is increased Chase's visibility.
We hadn't quite decided which candidate to support. But if realtors are out to get Maralyn Chase, we are more likely than ever to vote for her. There was NO scandal, ever. How dim-witted to dredge up a non-story from 16 years ago! Was this some kind of thuggish vendetta?
Post a Comment