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Some additional King County GOP Expenditure Reporting Issues in 2005-2006

Bellevue attorney Richard Pope has filed a complaint concerning serious apparent campaign finance violations by the King County Republican Central Committee -- the governing organization of the King County Republican Party. The complaint was filed on Monday, November 27, 2006 with the Public Disclosure Commission, State Attorney General, and King County Prosecuting Attorney.

The most serious apparent violation is that $30,286.86 in King County GOP funds mysteriously disappeared between the year end 2005 PDC reports (cash on hand on 12/31/2005) and the starting 2006 PDC reports (cash on hand 01/01/2006). [page 8 of PDF]

In addition, the King County GOP was chronically late in filing its campaign finance reports with the PDC during the entirety of the 2006 calendar year. The vast majority of contributions and expenditures during 2006 were reported late to the PDC -- some of which were even reported as much as 268 days late.

Pope noticed many of these problems back in August of this year. On August 23, 2006, Pope sent e-mails to KCRCC Chair Michael Young and KCRCC Treasurer Geoffrey Tamman, expressing my concerns. Young and Tamman promptly contacted Pope, and assured him these were merely temporary problems, and that everything would be corrected by August 29, 2006, when the 21-day pre-primary reports were due to be filed with the PDC. Pope took Young and Tamman at their word, and took no further action at that time.

Pope revisited this issue after the general election. Pope discovered that late reports were still being filed up to two days before the general election (i.e. on 11/05/2006) and that some of these reports were nearly nine months past due. Not only that, but that the late reporting problem was vastly more severe than what Pope had noticed back in August. And to top matters off, Pope discovered that more than $30,000 of King County GOP funds mysteriously disappeared between 12/31/2005 and 01/01/2006 without any accounting or explanation.

Pope feels the only alternative left is to report this problem to the PDC and other proper authorities. The current King County GOP leadership has done an extremely atrocious job of PDC reporting all throughout 2006, pretends that no significant problem ever really existed, and has kept the party faithful -- all the way from PCO's to district chairs -- completely in the dark for this entire time. And there is really no way to determine how much money the King County GOP really has right now or what has happened to a large portion of this money.

The entire complaint filed by Pope consists of 130 pages -- a 12 page narrative letter describing the apparent campaign finance violations and 118 pages of exhibits. The entire complaint is attached hereto as a PDF file. In addition, the text of the 12 page letter appears in the forwarded e-mail message below, which was e-mailed to Attorney General Rob McKenna, the PDC, and other authorities this afternoon.

Here is a brief summary of the facts regarding the most serious apparent campaign finance violations by the King County GOP, including the missing $30,286.86 and the chronic late PDC filings during 2006:

The C4 report for the KCRCC “Exempt” Fund for December 2005 (filed on 01/10/2006) shows an ending Cash On Hand balance of $9,608.88 as of 12/31/2005.

The C4 report for the KCRCC “Exempt” Fund for January 2006 (filed on 03/10/2006) shows a starting Cash On Hand balance of $0.00 as of 01/01/2006.

Basically, the entire 2005 year-end balance of $9,608.88 for the KCRCC “Exempt” Fund appears to have disappeared without any explanation.

The C4 report for the KCRCC “Non-Exempt” Fund for December 2005 (filed on 01/10/2006) shows an ending Cash On Hand balance of $39,862.15 as of 12/31/2005.

The C4 report for the KCRCC “Non-Exempt” Fund for January 2006 (filed on 03/10/2006) shows a starting Cash On Hand balance of $19,202.77 as of 01/01/2006.

Basically, $20,659.98 of the 2005 year-end balance of $39,862.15 for the KCRCC “Non-Exempt” Fund appears to have disappeared without any explanation.

Altogether, this represents a total of $30,268.86 in Cash On Hand (adding the “Exempt” and “Non-Exempt” Funds together) that the KCRCC reported having as of 12/31/2005, but mysteriously disappeared as of 01/01/2006, without any explanation.

The KCRCC also filed the vast majority of its PDC reports during 2006 late, with some PDC reports being filed as much as 268 days late.

Between January 1, 2006 and October 30, 2006, the KCRCC “Exempt” Fund deposited a total of $193,000.38 in contributions. $99,672.24 of these contributions were reported late (or in the case of $7,500.00, not reported at all) to the PDC on C3 reports and/or C4 reports, or 51.64% of the amount raised. Reports were up to 70 days late.

Between January 1, 2006 and October 30, 2006, the KCRCC “Exempt” Fund spent a total of $160,584.20. $75,087.56 of these expenditures were reported late (or in the case of $4,045.83, not reported at all) to the PDC on C4 reports, or 46.76% of the amount spent. Reports were up to 70 days late.

Between January 1, 2006 and October 30, 2006, the KCRCC “Non-Exempt” Fund deposited a total of $142,970.06 in contributions. $108,242.63 of these contributions were reported late to the PDC on C3 reports and/or C4 reports, or 76.60% of the amount raised. Reports were up to 268 days late.

Between January 1, 2006 and October 30, 2006, the KCRCC “Exempt” Fund spent a total of $144,643.19. $115,972.25 of these expenditures were reported late to the PDC on C4 reports, or 80.18% of the amount spent. Reports were up to 268 days late.

END