Political group Let's Go Washington accused of illegal actions

After a years-long investigation, the state's campaign watchdog filed charges against Let's Go Washington (LGW). The allegation is that the organization violated campaign finance laws when collecting signatures for six initiatives last year, the Washington State Standard reported.

At the heart of the indictment is the way the political action committee founded by conservative businessman Brian Heywood reported spending on collecting signatures for legislative initiatives in 2023. Politico calls Heywood “a hedge fund manager who spends millions of dollars to circumvent Democrats' power in state government.”

The dispute stems from LGW's success in gathering signatures for six initiatives to the Washington State Legislature last year. Lawmakers passed three initiatives on police enforcement policies, parental rights and taxes. Voters will decide on three more that seek to eliminate the capital gains tax and the cap-and-trade system and make the state's new long-term care benefits program voluntary.

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Staff from Washington's Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) filed charges on September 9, alleging that LGW failed to “accurately and timely” report its spending on collecting signatures for each measure. They also allege that the committee failed to obtain and disclose information from vendors about their subcontractor spending and failed to produce requested campaign materials.

After receiving a subpoena in July, LGW submitted 9,000 pages of material. The five-member Public Disclosure Commission will review the allegations at a special meeting on October 3.

Heywood said the group had been “transparent in all of its campaign reports.” He added that commission staff “do not dispute that we reported every penny we received and spent” and that the matter was only about technical details of how the information was reported.

A coalition of progressive groups opposed to the ballot measures filed a complaint in July 2023 alleging that LGW failed to disclose details of the flow of money in and out of the committee for each initiative. They alleged that by using Heywood's “deep pockets” as its nearly exclusive source of money in 2023, the committee sidestepped the need for regular reports on contributions and failed to report pledges intended to cover non-cash expenses.

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Lawyers for SEIU 775, Washington Conservation Action, Planned Parenthood and Civic Ventures pushed for the allegations to be investigated before the fall election. At a commission meeting two months ago, they asked commissioners to refer the case to the Washington attorney general, but were rebuffed because staff had not yet completed their investigation.

Defend Washington, the coalition's name, said this week that the charges show that LGW “attempted to withhold relevant facts from voters as they considered voting on these measures … and then blocked the PDC from its investigation.”

Initially, the committee treated the initiative as a single effort, aggregating all funds raised and spent. Earlier this year, at the request of Commission staff, the committee submitted amended reports detailing the specific amounts for each initiative.

Another allegation involves Allstate Petition Management (APM), one of two firms hired by LGW to collect signatures. According to commission documents, the committee reported $1.9 million in payments to APM but did not collect information on the amounts paid to subcontractors, as required by state law. LGW asked Roy Ruffino, APM's top executive, for that information, who responded that the information was confidential and its disclosure would be unreasonable.

According to PDC officials, the case remains under investigation and the charges may be amended.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X Here and send him an email here.