
	Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly.

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Friday, Apr. 04, 2008

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UPDATE: Republicans ask PDC for Gregoire investigation

The Washington State Republican Party has filed a complaint with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission alleging Gov. Chris Gregoire used state funds for campaign purposes.

The complaint, signed by party Chairman Luke Esser, asks the PDC to investigate three occasions in which public funds were used. Taken from the complaint, they are as follows.

* A poll paid for by the governor’s Washington Learns Commission conducted a survey whose wording was identical to the questions asked by nearly every political campaign survey. Specifically, the survey asked about “legislative approval” and message/issue questions. These questions are explicitly political and campaign-oriented, and serve no purpose in determining the best education policy for Washington.

* Gov. Gregoire embarked on a six-city “listening tour,” costing taxpayers $120,000. She was assisted by political pollster Stuart Elway, who conducted focus groups to “get a scientific sampling of voter concerns,” according to a Sept. 26, 2007 article by Dave Ammons of the Associated Press. According to the same article, Elway had a $100,000 contract to do focus groups with “50 randomly selected voters.” Focus groups of individuals who are characterized as “voters” are almost exclusively a tool for campaigns and those campaigning for office.

* According to David Postman of the Seattle Times, “Gov. Christine Gregoire is paying a PR firm nearly $20,000 to ‘evaluate the past communications structure in the Governor's Office ... to find out what is working well and what could be strengthened.’ It's the second time in two years that the governor has issued a contract to review her office's PR strategy.” This contract was granted to a firm that is a political donor of the governor’s, Cocker Fennessy. Thus the governor is paying a public affairs firm that does extensive political work (and is also a political donor to her campaign) to improve the governor’s political communications in anticipation of the upcoming election campaign.

I’m expecting a comment from the governor’s office and will post it as soon as I get it.

UPDATE: I just got this note from Gregoire press secretary Aaron Toso.

"This is old news. Gov. Gregoire is interested in listening to the people of Washington state, it is unfortunate that Mr. Esser would rather have his governor ignoring citizens."

UPDATE: This just in. The complaint was sent to the wrong agency. That's according to Niki Sullivan at the News Tribune. You can find her blog post here.