Democrats and special interests have a long history of partnership and mutual cooperation, a relationship built on shady politics and outright corruption. How do we expose this sordid relationship? The power of public information laws certainly help.
Shift WA uncovered a Democrat-special interest crooked relationship via a recent public records request for communications between King County Councilmember Larry Phillips and Move King County Now campaign manager April Putney.
On March 11, Putney received an email from Angela Marshall, union business representative for IBEW Local 46. Marshall wrote, “I’m pleased to report that the Local 46 PAC voted to endorse the Move King County Now Campaign. A letter and a contribution should be in the mail shortly!” Marshall then thanked Putney for the “opportunity to support” her campaign.
Standard, if not a little brown-nosed, endorsement email… right? Oh, if only the political games of Democrats were ever that simple.
A lesson in paying attention to detail: Cc’d on Putney’s email response to Marshall is Councilmember Larry Phillips, using his official email no less. Why is that important? Well, given the nature of Democrats’ long and sordid relationship with special unions, an ethical dilemma inevitably arises.
Why did Marshall and Putney copy Phillips on a campaign endorsement email exchange? Does Phillips expect Putney to notify him of the pro-Prop 1 campaign’s progress on his official email, or is Putney trying to show the labor group that Phillips is keeping track of who is in?
And the Democrat-special interest saga continues…
All this after Phillips’ responded to Putney’s public records request for the “contact list of people identified by Councilmember Phillips (or any other councilmember…) as transit advocates” with “a spreadsheet of over 4,500 records with names and e-mail addresses” within 1 day. By contrast, a simple request for emails between Phillips and Putney took 3 weeks and yielded 3 emails. Another simple request, for emails between Phillips’ staff and Putney, will not be fulfilled until after the April 22 special election on Proposition 1.
Concrete evidence points to a close relationship between Phillips and the Move King County Now campaign, lending further proof of the fact that Phillips is using public, taxpayer resources to assist the yes on Prop 1 campaign.
Todd Woosley says
It’s interesting to see Charles Knutson, Gov. Inslee’s Transportation Policy advisor, sharing the stage with Larry Phillips.
Todd Woosley says
It’s interesting to see Charles Knutson, Gov. Inslee’s Transportation Policy advisor, sharing the stage with Larry Phillips.