Can regular citizens take back control of their local government, fix problems, keep taxes low and improve the services for their community? This story from the City of SeaTac should encourage many.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDER’S INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
We recently interviewed Brian Heywood about the successful Let's Go Washington initiative project, the 6 initiatives, the 3 that will be passed into law, and the 2024 election campaign for the final three.
On March 1st, I had the opportunity to interview Brian Heywood. We were able to discuss all six initiatives which were still in the legislature when we had this interview. Brian had just recently spent some time in Olympia testifying on one of the initiatives (Restore Police Pursuit I-2113) so this was fresh on his mind when we had this interview. Additionally, we had the opportunity to speak about his plans for the campaign in 2024 to help support the remaining three initiatives.
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I prefer to post these interviews without editing to provide people an opportunity to hear from Brian Heywood in his own words what he thinks, how he thinks about these issues, and his approach to the initiative process. The Let’s Go Washington PAC, sponsored by Brian Heywood effort has been the most successful signature gathering effort in American history for any state, let alone Washington State. The successful completion of signature gathering for six simultaneous initiatives to the legislature is a substantial record, and the recent passage of three of these initiatives into state law by the Washington State legislature is also a state record (although this happened three days after this interview was conducted).
I hope you enjoy. Leave your comments below.
Interview with Brian Heywood – Part 1 – Mainly discussing what got him started, and what the approved corporate media has not covered about this initiative project:
This was Part2 – mainly discussing the recent testimony before the legislature, and other related experiences with the initiatives:
This is Part 3, and the final part of this interview series where Brian Heywood discusses what comes next, the 2024 campaign to support these initiatives, etc:
Thanks for watching this interview. I hope it was helpful for those who know nothing about Brian Heywood, Let’s Go Washington, or anything else about these initiatives, three of which will be on the ballot this November.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
Despite total unhinged opposition the past six months, Democrats in both the Washington State Senate and House made a tactical decision to retreat and pass three citizen initiatives this week
In a historic day at the Washington State Legislature last Monday, the Democratic Party – who have a majority in both the Washington State Senate and the Washington State House of Representatives changed political course and joined with the Republicans to pass three initiatives to the Legislature on one day. We’ll discuss the historic implications of this event below.
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Here is a video we produced about this a few days ago:
Last week, this outcome was becoming more obvious due to the sudden shift in Democrat Party tactics, when they decided to hold public hearings on three of the proposed six initiatives which had been submitted to the Washington State legislature a few months ago by the historic successful signature gathering effort launched by Let’s Go Washington, Sponsored by Brian Heywood PAC :
In addition to these videos, we also produced earlier videos on this subject and you can view any of these videos here:
There are more videos if you want to watch some of the information we’ve been posting recently about these issues and others in Washington State, and I’d encourage you to go to our YouTube channel linked here.
Making History Today
However, let’s discuss the historic nature of this recent successful signature effort by the Let’s Go Washington folk and all the people who helped them get over the finish line (and there is still more to do as three of them will be on the ballot this coming November). Here are some points worth reviewing and helping to place this in some historic context in our state:
First, this was the largest successful signature gathering effort in American history. I’ve been unable to find anything else even close to this success anywhere in America. They collected 2.7 million signatures with over 100,000 extra signatures for each of the 6 initiatives submitted to the Washington Secretary of State’s office in November and December of last year. All six initiatives were officially certified by the secretary of state and submitted to the legislature in January of this year. There were some examples of three initiatives being successfully submitted by the same organization in Oregon about 15 years ago, but this recent success by the Let’s Go Washington crew stands out. No effort has ever submitted this many initiatives to the legislature in Washington State history.
Secondly, the Washington State legislature this week officially approved more initiatives to the legislature than they ever have in the past 110 years since Washingtonians added the initiative process to the state constitution back in 1912. The three approved initiatives last Monday were all formally opposed by every single Democratic Party affiliated organization in the State of Washington last year – and including their union and Leftist allies – they were all opposed by every organization affiliated with the Leftie side of the political spectrum in Washington. Despite this opposition, they changed their resistance and decided to tactically retreat and many of them voted with the Republicans to pass them into law this last Monday.
Finally, the remaining three initiatives which will be on the ballot in November will be generating the largest and most expensive opposition campaign the Left has funded in many years in an effort to keep taxes high and keep the tax grifting operations these initiatives would shut down as a result of letting the people of Washington State keep more of their income for themselves.
This story is just beginning, but it is worth reflecting on just how historic these events really are.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
In the City of SeaTac, many rightly question who really runs the city. Mayor Jake Simpson, John Wyble - WinPower Strategies, or Representative Mia Gregerson?
“There are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effect. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor that shall at the same time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it.” – Benajmin Franklin (1787 Constitutional Convention)
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I’ve been following politics in the City of SeaTac for many years and Franklin’s words keep coming back to me. SeaTac is an unusual little community, with out-sized influence over control of the Sea-Tac Airport. It is “low-hanging-fruit” for political power, because with a small investment of time and money–manipulating only a few thousand voters in this small community–the power-brokers can hold sway over a huge financial power-house. Particularly, it tends to attract politicians and political operatives who want to wield these levers of power for their own selfish benefit, precisely because of their love of power, and their love of money.
Since at least 2013 one such power-broker has operated with near impunity in SeaTac. It’s a for-profit political campaign consultancy named Win Power Strategies. The head of this company is John Wyble, and I’ve filed numerous Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) complaints because of financial irregularities and shady actions of the campaigns that his company has supported (See here, here, here, here, and here). Literally millions of dollars have flowed through this little company to get their people elected to power–not just in SeaTac, but all over Washington State. Their campaigns tend to often lack the transparency that the people of Washington State truly intended under the current campaign finance laws.
Early on Wyble connected with the then City of SeaTac Mayor, Mia Gregerson (She was voted out of office in 2015). In fact, their relationship became an interesting story in itself, which I explored in my complaints to the PDC regarding campaign disclosures of Gregerson, who is still a sitting member of the Washington State House of Representatives. Eventually Gregerson became openly involved with Wyble around the time when she and her husband divorced. In fact, she even placed Wyble on the title of her 3 homes in SeaTac, for “love and affection” according to the King County property records. (See here) Elected officials are required to disclose the incomes of their spouses and registered domestic partners, but because Gregerson and Wyble keep an official distance between themselves (on paper) they do not have to disclose his income on her annual Financial Affairs Disclosure form (F1). In response to one complaint which I filed with the PDC, Gregerson herself described her relationship with Wyble as her “significant other.” (See here). The properties are listed by King County in both their names (see here). So the people of Washington State, who have demanded campaign disclosure laws specifically for the purpose of greater transparency, now find an opaque wall of secrecy instead, which is interesting.
Rep Mia Gregerson – Employee and Co-Property Owner with John Wyble
Gregerson has also been involved with Wyble in his campaign business as “Operations Director” and/or “Account Assistant” of Win Power Strategies. On her F1 to the PDC for 2022 she reported somewhere between $0 and $29,999 in income as “Account Assistant” (see F1 here), presumably with some oversight of campaign accounts. Ironically, this “Account Assistant” also admitted guilt to the PDC of having “improperly used surplus funds” from her own campaign account, requiring reimbursement of $10,000 to correct. (See here.) This violation of campaign finance law was a very convoluted trail for me to “follow the money” which most members of the public would find impossible to sort-out. Would reimbursement of $10,000 have ever occurred without someone checking up on this money laundering operation?
Now please allow me to continue with Benjamin Franklin’s warning that I began with, because this next part is also relevant:
“And of what kind [of character] are the men that will strive for this profitable pre-eminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your government and be your rulers.” – Benjamin Franklin
A “power and money” cabal has been steadily taking over control of SeaTac. They literally have the current SeaTac Mayor on their payroll–Jake Simpson is a “Principal” at Win Power Strategies (see here) while also the sitting Mayor of SeaTac. Sadly, the SeaTac voters have been asleep at the switch. These campaign “professionals” have thrust themselves into SeaTac government and are now ruling the city, motivated by power and lots of money.
Jake Simpson – official photo
I understand that some people in SeaTac are claiming that Jake Simpson, as SeaTac Mayor, has a “conflict of interest” and should recuse himself from voting on certain items. Unfortunately, a conflict of interest is a different type of problem. A conflict of interest is said to exist when an elected official stands to benefit financially (at public expense) from a particular decision or vote. In such a case, the “cure” to that problem is for the official to publicly declare the conflict and withdraw from taking any part in the deliberations or voting on that issue. For example, if an issue of re-zoning a particular area of the city is coming before the City Council, and a Councilmember stands to benefit financially from that change, then he/she should not take part in those discussions or the eventual vote. That’s what “recuse” means. However, I contend the situation with Jake Simpson is different. I believe his employment with Win Power Strategies is “incompatible” with his position on the SeaTac City Council.
The “Doctrine of Incompatible Offices” is seldom discussed and much more rare than a simple Conflict of Interest. Every state in the United States has some limitations about holding Incompatible offices. In Washington State this doctrine prohibits a person from simultaneously holding two public offices where performance of duties in one office is hampered or inconsistent because of also holding the other office. When offices are incompatible an officer can’t make impartial decisions. The “cure” for this problem is for the official to be removed from one position or the other. In fact, I believe Washington State law itself is currently inadequate to fully address this topic. It’s one of those laws that has never been fully explored and resolved by legislation; nor by case law. Some states focus primarily on the incompatibility between two public offices, whereas in other states they also identify incompatibility between public office and employment. In Washington State the Attorney General plays a central role in determining incompatibility. This is another deep “rabbit hole” to explore, because our current Attorney General is wholly incapable himself of forming a non-partisan and impartial opinion about incompatibility. I’m not an expert on the legal aspects of Incompatible Offices, so I suggest that this issue should be explored at greater depth by someone who is, then attempt to make necessary changes in RCW. Because in my opinion, the case of Jake Simpson, Mayor of SeaTac, and also Principal of Win Power Strategies, is perhaps the best example of incompatibility that I’ve ever seen. It’s impossible for him to function impartially in nearly any aspect of his job as Mayor, nor in his job as a campaign consultant. Both fellow Councilmembers and the citizens of SeaTac can never fully know if he is being motivated by a duty to the citizens, or by the many thousands of dollars being paid to him by Win Power Strategies. Or even whether other SeaTac Councilmembers are rewarding Simpson with the position of Mayor because of his prowess with managing their own City Council campaigns.
Jake Simpson – Beard Phase
The City of SeaTac has what is referred to as the “Weak Mayor” as opposed to the “Strong Mayor” form of government. In the Strong Mayor form the Mayor is elected by the voters themselves. Such is the case in neighboring Tukwila, which in fact is holding Mayoral elections this year. On the other hand, with the “Weak Mayor” form, the Mayor is chosen by the other City Council members. In the case of SeaTac, one has to ask if Jake Simpson’s position as Mayor–selected by the other Councilmembers–is a result of “payback” for his work on their campaigns, allowing Simpson to essentially profit twice, since the mayor is paid more by the city than the other City Council members. But the question of impartiality with Win Power goes much deeper, and more broadly, than simply incompatibility for Simpson. It also extends to Mia Gregerson, who is not only employed by Win Power Strategies, while also a sitting Washington State Representative, and also the “significant other” of the main player at Win Power Strategies: John Wyble. (See here)
Some states (see Illinois linked here, for just one example) have a different term called an “Appearance of Impropriety.” An Appearance of impropriety is not a legal standard–it refers to conduct that appears questionable, despite being officially legal. In such a case community members might assume that a councilmember has violated some rule of law, because their actions appear improper, even if there is no legal conflict of interest. Our laws are indeed murky on this topic. Until our laws can be revised to prevent abuse by office-holders with incompatibility, we need to rely upon the voters to “throw the bums out” who are conflicted in their loyalties. Both Jake Simpson and Mia Gregerson are heavily influenced, compensated, and controlled by Win Power Strategies. Whether the term “conflict of interest” is appropriate, or Appearance of Impropriety, or quid-pro-quo, or pay to play, something smells very rotten. It’s corruption at the very core. Campaign money has bought a sitting mayor of SeaTac, and a sitting Washington State Representative–they’re both literally on the payroll of a company with an agenda.
I’m currently looking into whether or not Simpson has used his position as Mayor of SeaTac to influence the positions taken by SeaTac’s paid lobbyist. (Gordon Thomas Honeywell Gov Affairs) It appears he has successfully reversed the city’s own lobbying positions, which were previously identified as being in the best interests of the people of SeaTac, and moved those positions to represent the best interests of Mia Gregerson–the “significant other” of his boss at Winpower Strategies. I’ve filed Public Disclosure Requests (PDRs) with the City of SeaTac and found evidence to suggest that Simpson coordinated outside of the public eye, violating the Open Public Meetings Act, to sway the opinions of a majority of SeaTac City Council members. Stay tuned for more information as I research this topic even further.
The bottom line is this. Any time Wyble and Win Power Strategies engage in campaign activities, it should be a red-flag, especially to the voters in SeaTac. Wyble and company are attempting to eliminate anyone remaining on the City Council who they can’t control. So far this year Jake Simpson has donated $750 to Elizabeth Greninger to run against Peter Kwon (See here and here). I know Kwon, and while he and I don’t agree on everything, at least I know he is honest and completely independent from Win Power Strategies. The people of SeaTac are fortunate to have him–he truly works for the best interests of the people.
Oh, but the influence of Winpower Strategies in SeaTac gets worse. Elizabeth Greninger is not the only candidate supported by Winpower Strategies in SeaTac this year. They are also campaigning for a paid lobbyist to now have a seat on the SeaTac City Council—James Lovell. (See here). I respect people who are unpaid grassroots lobbyists, lobbying for things they truly believe in. More people should do this, in my opinion. To be fair, paid lobbyists will always be different, and while there is a place for them in the political world of Olympia, they are obviously beholden to those who write their checks. A paid lobbyist is not paid to be loyal to principle, but loyal to their client who pays them. A paid lobbyist will argue in favor of any position he is paid to support. He is metaphorically like a hired gun. Likewise, a paid lobbyist will argue in favor of something he doesn’t even believe in if he is paid to do so. How could Lovell possibly be impartial, on anything important to the city, when he is accepting money as a lobbyist–paid through his “real” job–to take particular political positions? How would the citizens of SeaTac ever know if he is voting in favor of them, or a “client” who is paying him?
This incestuous weird rabbit hole just gets deeper. Winpower Strategies is also supporting Damiana Merryweather this year for SeaTac City Council. The connection with Jake Simpson as Mayor gets even more interesting. The important position of Planning Commissioner is oftentimes seen as a stepping stone to running for City Council. Damiana Merryweather was recently placed on the Planning Commission by Jake Simpson, and she is paying Winpower Strategies for campaign services. The attached C4 (here is one – there are another 7) shows that Merryweather is paying Winpower Strategies for campaign services and her Treasurer is Jessica Pisane–Jake Simpson’s wife. In other words, Simpson used his position as Mayor to improve the electability of a client of Winpower Strategies, who is paying him for campaign services. In case there is any doubt about whether this was an intentional act, notice that Merryweather is using her position on the Planning Commission in the “Occupation” field of her Voter Pamphlet statement in this campaign, and the nearby image of her campaign flyer linked in this article.
I’m not as familiar with the other candidates who are running this year in SeaTac, but anyone who is not controlled by Simpson, Pisane, Gregerson, Wyble, and Win Power Strategies are likely to be safer choices, unless you are part of the cash gravy train they control. Personally, if I were a voter in SeaTac, I’d ask Peter Kwon who to vote for.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
A lot of lawbreakers in Washington State are surprised they have to comply with the law
As frequent visitors to this site and viewers on our YouTube channel are aware, I have devoted a bit of free time over the past few years catching and exposing our political class and the special interests that support them for their lawbreaking. For those who want to know how I started down this road, I’ve written about it before (see here, here, and here). However, if you’ve been tracking the Public Disclosure Commission’s Enforcement page (linked here), you will notice that they’ve been posting a lot more of the complaints I’ve filed in the past few weeks than has been my typical volume lately.
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The reason for this increase in complaints is the recent fact that I realized despite my best efforts a few years ago, many of these PACs and politicians just can’t help themselves, and lawbreaking is just a way of life for them. Many of them are addicted to lawbreaking. The Public Disclosure Commission enforcement process is a complaint driven process, so I’m doing my civic duty and trying to help the PDC correct the wayward and lost souls in these organizations and perhaps encourage them to start following the law for a change. Or at least pretending to do so. Obviously, if these organizations and politicians are hiding the truth about their political funding, expenditures, and other activities, and nothing happens to them – then the whole point of campaign finance transparency is lost.
Too many Violators to list, but some examples are linked below.
I’ll probably discuss some of these in more detail on my video channel soon, but generally in the last 80 or so complaints I’ve filed over the past few weeks, I’m noticing a basic pattern of behavior that can be lumped into a variety of categories of violations:
Illegal late reporting of expenditures and contributions.
This is the most common violation I’ve found in my recent investigation. This is particularly problematic with larger, well-funded PACs who clearly have the resources to comply with Washington State’s campaign finance laws (RCW 42.17A) but simply decide to ignore the law. A few cases that have posted worth reviewing are as follows and you can link to their enforcement case directly by clicking on them (for those interested in a closer look): The Washington Education Association PAC, the Grays Harbor Democratic Party, the Thurston County Democratic Party, the Franklin County Democratic Party, and the Whatcom County Democratic Party, just to name a small sampling. As the PDC catches up to posting the complaints I have filed, the public will be able to see many more who I have caught breaking these specific laws (RCW 42.17A.235 & RCW 42.17A.240). There are too many to list here at this time.
Illegal overlimit anonymous contributions and illegal overlimit contributions.
These are two distinctly different violations according to the law (RCW 42.17A.220(4) and RCW42.17A.405, respectively). However, they essentially involve the same type of violation – taking more money than legally allowed from one source. Most of the illegal overlimit anonymous contributions are organizations few pay attention to most of the time, I suspect, but that doesn’t excuse their lawbreaking (See Whatcom County Democrats, Tacoma Port Commissioner Candidate Jeanette Twitty, and Yes to East King County PUD PAC, as just a few examples). Most of the illegal overlimit contributions were for candidates who collected maximum contributions for both the primary and general election, but they only had a general election. Examples of these were the two Lacey City Council candidates Nicolas Dunning and Spencer Zeman, Vancouver City Council candidates Ty Stober and Bart Hanson, Spokane Mayor candidate Lisa Brown, and failed Spokane Valley City Council candidate James Johnson, among others.
Random lawbreaking
Some PACs failed to identify their prime sponsor in their campaign statement of organization. This is significant because they have received over 80% of their cash from one source, which makes them a sponsored political entity of that one source, and some attempted to conceal this fact (Violation of RCW 42.17A.205, WAC 390-16-011A). Examples of this include the Grays Harbor Democratic Party, Eastern Washington Voters PAC, Question PAC, among others.
Sometimes large Dark Money PACs try to influence local city races with massive dumps of secret advertising and then they attempt to conceal the details. This was the case with the SEIU 775 PAC (see case here).
Wide variety of other random lawbreaking. Misuse of campaign funds for illegal personal use. Missing campaign funds (did someone steal them?), Attempt to conceal in-kind earmarked contributions, Illegal misuse of public resources to promote political campaigns, etc. The list is endless and varied, but with a little work every day over time, I can spend a few months to get on top of these violators.
There are plenty of other violators I have caught over the past few weeks, and I’ll be updating the Public Disclosure Commission with the results of my investigations. Their caseload will increase over the next few months, but to be fair, I feel like I was slacking off over the past few months, and I’m making up for that lost time now. Again, if you want to track what the PDC is investigating go to their Enforcement Page linked here. If you want to review some of the 227 PACs, judges and politicians I have caught breaking the law over the past few years (and who have been fined, sued, or sanctioned by state agencies) go here. Obviously, that list will increase substantially over the next few months. I try to keep this updated as the cases are resolved.
If you want to learn how you can be involved in exposing the truth about not just these types of violations, but also Washington State Ethics Laws, and generally engage in shining the light on government corruption, please feel free to attend some of my training sessions, which I plan to be organizing around the state over the next year. I realize not everyone wants to be involved in exposing the truth like this, but for those who really do, I’m here to help you.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
There are two candidates for Thurston County Commission, Position 4 - I endorse Vivian Eason because she is our best option
Two Thurston County Commissioner seats are up for election this cycle (2023), the results of which will have a significant impact on the residents of Thurston County (where I live). In this article I will address the Thurston County Commissioner race in district 4 (my district), and the differences between the two candidates who have filed for that office.
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Essentially, this election for Thurston County Commission District 4 is a battle between two candidates, Vivian Eason and Wayne Fournier. I believe the balance of power in Thurston County tends to oscillate between those friendly to the residents/taxpayers of Thurston County and those who want to bloat the county government grift with no end in sight. I have publicly endorsed Vivian Eason, both in speaking at her kick-off event earlier in the year, and also with donations to her campaign. However, when making endorsements, I believe it is important to explain why I have made this endorsement and provide the background and evidence I have used to get here.
Background:
Later in this article, I provide background on the history of why we are having a special election for the newly created District 4 seat in south Thurston County in the first place, and I also explain some of the issues that the elected officials of Thurston County will need to address over the next few years and the obvious reasons why we want good people representing us in these elected positions, but for now, let me explain my endorsement.
Rural residents want the City of Olympia to leave them alone
First, my caveat paragraph, as always, when discussing political endorsements. I fully understand and know full well that politicians are human and fallible just like everyone. Perfection is impossible. In fact, I’d argue, due to the special-interest pressures, and the critical decisions they inevitably must make in their elected positions, they often will be placed in situations where choices are only between bad and worse. This is more frequent than most people realize. Even local politicians often occupy their elected positions inheriting both the good and bad decisions of those who have gone before. The decisions they will make while filling that elected seat must be made to benefit everyone in our community and not just reward select insiders and special interests. Due to the dilemma of distributed costs and concentrated benefits associated with the decisions they will make – we seek to elect people of good character who are capable of resisting the inevitable pressure of special interests while retaining the humility to understand they must seek to govern in a way beneficial to the people who live outside city boundaries in the county.
Secondly, the Thurston County Commissioners are making decisions that most significantly impact the residents of Thurston County, like me, who do not live in the cities. Our County has a concentration of people who live in urban environments in Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater (and to a less dramatic extent in Yelm, Tenino, and Bucoda). We have chosen to not live in the cities for a reason. We don’t want to live in the city. We want to be left alone by those who, for example, enjoy driving the City of Olympia into the ground with self-immolating crazy policies. Thurston County voters elect and expect to have county commissioners who are capable of distinguishing and understanding this fact. However, roughly half the votes for the Thurston County Commissioner positions will, during the general election in November come from city residents largely unaffected by the policies, corruption, and whims of county governance.
Previous Thurston County Commissioners certainly deserve to be recognized for all they have achieved. Unfortunately, we still have to clean up their mess.
Tye Menser – a creature of Olympia
Finally, Thurston County has experienced some pathetic and terrible people occupying the office of County Commissioner in recent years. The miserable occupation of these offices by the trio – Romero, Valenzuela, and Wolfe for many years led to deserved distrust of the county governance (as I’ve written about many times over the years – see here, here, here, here, and here). In the end, this led to election changes in 2014, and 2016 (see here, here, and here).
Thurston County Commissioner Tye Menser (District 3) known as “Tye the High Tax Guy,” who was recently re-elected last year is a regressive throwback to an earlier era of incompetence, corruption, and pandering to the special interests of Olympia without a clue or concern for the damage his choices make to the rural residents of Thurston County. He just doesn’t care. Thurston County Commissioner (District 2) Gary Edwards, also recently re-elected, is retiring after his current term is up – with 20 years as Sheriff under his belt and another as 8 years as Commissioner, there is no doubt his concerns for the rural residents of the county were needed and welcome after the misery of the Wolfe/Romero/Valenzuela debacle. Thurston County Commissioner (District 1) Carolina Mejia has become the recent swing vote at times and a pleasant surprise on the commission considering the special interests who supported her original election – it isn’t clear they’d support her again. The current 2023 election for the two open seats remain critical for sanity and protecting the rural residents of the county.
Why I support Vivian Eason
Screen Grab from Vivian Eason’s Campaign website. Linked here for reference
I supported Vivian Eason when she ran against Tye Menser last year for county commissioner (see here). She lost that election, but I continue to support her this cycle for several reasons. First, I’ve known her for over a decade, and I believe she understands the office of county commissioner very well from her years working in Emergency Management and before that in the Sheriff’s office. This inside knowledge is critical and helpful when making decisions which impact the bureaucracy and how it functions. This is particularly true because she understands how senior bureaucrats in Thurston County frequently manipulate the elected officials. She has no illusions about how this works. Secondly, she lives rurally and both her and her neighbors are directly impacted by the decisions she will make once she gets into office. She has personally experienced the results of poor policy choices and bad decisions by previous elected officials.
My endorsement video for Vivian Eason from 2022 – you can see it linked above
Why I don’t support Wayne Fournier
Source: King5 News
I don’t support Wayne Fournier for Thurston County Commission seat for a variety of reasons, but this doesn’t mean I hate the guy. I supported his original election as Mayor of the City of Tenino, which is near where I live, and which has long suffered under a series of strange mayors and scandals. One thing I appreciated about Wayne Fournier was the fact he followed through with supporting the Tenino Food Bank where I served on the board. However, like anyone who begins to create a legacy once they hold political office, this legacy and history tells a story, and I don’t believe that story would support him as the optimal choice for the next Thurston County Commissioner.
First, unfortunately, Mr. Fournier has a temper that really causes him avoidable problems. In the small city of Tenino the drama can be very personal, but it is also minor league compared to what the Thurston County Commission will demand. Repeatedly, when I spoke to people who work with Fournier, the statements about him being a hothead are common even to the point of physical violence (see here, and here). This becomes a real problem when you get into a bigger pressure cooker of corruption and influence like Thurston County government. The assault charges he was able to expunge by a diversion program in court, which makes those records harder to review today. However, this type of behavior almost inevitably leads to future avoidable scandals, or it becomes grist for insiders to hold over his head to blackmail him into making bad decisions. Neither scenario bodes well for the rural residents of Thurston County.
Jim Cooper has always pushed terrible plans for Thurston County, and now he supports Wayne Fournier
Secondly, Fournier has apparently joined forces with some of the least savory elements of the Olympia political crowd. Several of his donors – Olympia City Councilman Jim Cooper (see here), Joe Hyer (see here, here, and here), and others represent the worst grifters the City of Olympia has to offer and would indicate that they believe they can clearly manipulate Mr. Fournier into doing their bidding. This would be harmful and disastrous for the rural residents of Thurston County, although select insiders could probably profit from this. Background and source documents on campaign contributions can be found here and here.
Thirdly, it appears that under Fournier’s leadership in Tenino, the disappearance of $300,000 from a small city’s coffers (apparently by a con of some type) does not indicate a level of sophistication needed when reviewing the much larger (and more complicated) budgets of Thurston County with far more capable cons and grifts in constant operation. Fournier will not be cleaning up the problems he inherits. Unfortunately, his past behavior indicates he will be unaware of them at best, or enable them at worst considering some of the early donors and supporters indicated above.
Fourthly, Fournier has recently taken credit for opposing the Violent Sex Offender release program for South Thurston County, and it was great he finally jumped on the bandwagon once it became so popular, but his initial response was to ignore this issue and claim it was “outside his jurisdiction” which also was shocking to many of the people engaged at the time. This also concerns me because frequently the aloof and distant commissioners like Tye Menser choose to ignore the harm (or even actively celebrate it) they do to rural residents of Thurston County while only surrounding themselves with the corrupt insiders who plan to profit from their largess. This makes Fournier very likely to be part of the corrupt crew that flocks to these political scenes in Thurston County. We really need Thurston County Commissioners who are not willing to be corrupt and who are willing to oppose staff schemes.
One large town meetings like this one, from earlier this year, started to happen In the City of Tenino, it was far easier to jump on the bandwagon opposing the Inslee/Ferguson secretive Violent Sex Predator release program
I have a lot of source documents, as I usually collect when doing this type of article. Some of these are from the nasty divorce Fournier had a few years back. There is nothing like a nasty divorce to produce ugly source documents, and I don’t tend to place a lot of stock in the threats or motion practice filed by the attorneys at the time. The mutual restraining orders, and the fights over money tend to get tedious and mind-numbing to outsiders who read them. The emotion and anger often generated by the experience are typically ugly as well. The divorce was acrimonious, but many divorces are. However, the tax lien judgement for $7k is probably more significant since this debt wasn’t accurately reflected in his Financial Affairs document which he was required to file a few months ago. I’ve filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission about that deficiency and failure to follow the law. I don’t blame Fournier for fighting the State of Washington over taxes, but he does have to be transparent about the debt.
I’ve linked some helpful source documents below including background articles if people want to come to their own conclusions. We need the best people we can find to be in the county commissioner seats, and for me it wasn’t hard to choose Vivian Eason over Wayne Fournier.
Why do we have to elect two more County Commissioners in Thurston County?
Let’s explain some of the recent history that has put us in this place where we have Thurston County Commissioner races in an off year like this in the first place.
Thurston County Commission expands from three to five Commissioners
Traditionally, most of the 39 Washington State counties are represented at the executive and legislative level by three elected county commissioners (See WA State Constitution Art.11, section5). However, the Washington State Constitution also allows a “Home Rule Charter” option of local governance at the county level (See WA State Constitution Art.11, section 4). This home rule charter option was created by an amendment to the State Constitution In 1948. To date, 7 counties have chosen to organize under this “Home Rule Charter” structure. I’ve written about this in the past (see here, here, and here). In general I am opposed to a Home Rule Charter form of government for counties because two things always happen when this local governance road is chosen. First, taxes ALWAYS go up, and secondly, related to that, the debt and bloated size of the bureaucracy ALWAYS goes up. However, the groups who push for home rule governance always promote this structural change promising something very different, yet that is where they always end up. I will point out that the only exception to this rule has been the tiny county of Clallam, which originally went down the home rule charter road believing they could escape the worst of the abuses of Olympia, but discovered they were not able to opt out as much as they thought.
In 2022, Thurston County voters approved expanding the Commission from 3 to 5 elected positions.
Many counties have considered, and rejected the Home Rule Charter pipedream over the years, and the frustration of these repeated failures is, I believe, what led to changes in the statute over the years to allow an expansion of the Executive/Legislative Commission structure of County Governance for larger counties. So, over the past ten years or so, these changes require commission counties with populations of over 400,00 to expand the commission from three to five members (RCW 36.32.052), to allow the voters in a county to approve an expansion of the county commission to five members (RCW 36.32.055), or even to allow the voters to petition to expand their commission to five members (RCW 36.23.055–.058). Thurston County voted in 2022 to expand the commission to five members in 2022 (see election results here). At the time, I advocated against this, but I also recognized that expanding the commission was a better choice than going down the overhyped, always underdelivering “Home Rule Charter” path.
So, because of this vote in 2022, Thurston County has a special election in 2023 for the two new seats on the Thurston County Commission. Position 4 mostly encompasses the southern portion of the rural parts of Thurston County. Normally, Commissioners serve four-year terms. To maintain staggered elections, the 2023 election for this position is for a one-year term only, so voters will again be voting for this position in 2024. The other new position 5 race is for a five-year term, which will become a four-year term after the next election for that same position.
We remain haunted by the ghosts of Commissioners past. Their poor decisions plague us to this day. Yet, new elected officials, if they want, can repair the damage.
Haunted by the Ghosts of Commissioners Past
Originally, when I began this article I was going to elaborate on the challenges facing the current Thurston County Commission. I believe this article has become long enough. I think it best to address these current and future challenges with the attention and detail it deserves in a future article. Some of the details might surprise you, but the general themes will be consistent as we have covered Thurston County trials and tribulations for many years now. They deserve another, closer look.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
The Washington State Supreme Court recently accepted my Amicus Brief filed in the Ferguson vs. Eyman persecution lawsuit. Ferguson was not happy
A few weeks ago I filed an Amicus Brief to the Washington State Supreme Court in the State of Washington (Bob Ferguson) v. Tim Eyman persecution case which has been in process for about a decade now. I’ve written about Eyman’s legal woes on occasion over the years (see here), but this Amicus Brief is really the first opportunity I’ve had to make any type of impact on the case itself.
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I posted a video about this a few weeks ago, linked below. This video was posted on our YouTube Channel on June 3, 2023. If I get a chance, I will probably post an update I just filmed about this Amicus Brief saga to this article in a few days, but if you want to watch the video here it is:
There have been a lot of strange aspects to this Ferguson v. Eyman case over the years. Clearly, from the beginning, it has been a personal vendetta on a scale rarely witnessed outside the cesspool of Washington DC. This is more than just an abusive, ego-driven politician willing to abuse the powers of the state to attack his political enemies. This case really has the potential to define more than just Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and his effort to become the next Washington State Governor. It is also more than about Tim Eyman, the Initiative King of Washington State.
The Sins of Tim Eyman
Tim Eyman’s greatest sin is obvious. Eyman committed the unpardonable sin of attempting to reduce the size, scope, and bloat of the administrative state by constraining the uncontrolled and exponential growth of taxes in Washington State. He used the only power left to the people of Washington State, and this was the initiative process. He was surprisingly successful in this effort over 20 years, essentially saving the taxpayers over $60 billion of taxes that would have been otherwise squandered by the state and vanished with nothing to show for it. For this sin alone, Eyman was going to pay.
Eyman has offended the political class – and for this reason alone, there is no forgiveness.
Ferguson decided to be the one topunish Eyman for his sins. Ferguson, accurately I believe, presumed he would be rewarded by the tax-grifter political insider class in Washington State for his efforts.
Because of the personal vendetta against Eyman, with no comparison to any other lawsuit ever filed by Washington State against any other individual, this case truly stands alone. The trial court circus was weird and unusual, the motion practice was exceptional and disproportionate to any underlying fact pattern – even the imaginary one invented and promoted by Ferguson’s minions at the Attorney General’s office.
The $5.2 million judgement against Eyman for, at worst, guessing wrong or screwing up on some random interpretations of the campaign finance statute (RCW 42.17A), and unique among the last few hundred people accused of breaking Washington State’s campaign finance laws, Bob Ferguson decided to go scorched earth against him.
However, the unlikeable Bob Ferguson was able to garner both campaign cash in his fundraising efforts – usually quoting from his own official press releases, and Ferguson was finally able to collect some positive social media kudos by attacking the guy hated most by political insiders – initiative activist Tim Eyman.
My Amicus Brief just addresses one of the more absurd aspects of this case which the Appeals Court allowed to stand. It speaks for itself (linked here). The Supreme Court accepted my brief (see here). AG Ferguson responded weakly to my Amicus Brief (linked here), and Tim Eyman’s attorney – former State Supreme Court Justice Sanders filed a favorable supportive statement (linked here).
Will the Supreme Court hear this case? We will see. If they do, I’d like to believe that my Amicus helped influence that decision.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee declares "Mission Accomplished" and he is not running for a 4th term. He has done all the damage he can do.
Governor Inslee announced earlier this week that he is not running for a 4th term as Washington State Governor. Most people are relieved he has finally decided to vacate the Governor’s mansion. However, the biggest question that most people have is obviously related to the crew who will be jockeying to be Washington State Governor next.
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This video was launched on our YouTube channel on May 4, 2023:
Obviously, there are several obvious front runners for the Washington State Governor’s race in 2024. If you want to figure out who has “officially filed” so far, it is best to go the Public Disclosure Commission website and see who is raising money or filed with the PDC. That site is here, and this is a direct link (please note, in the election year, type “2024” and in office type in “Governor”).
A lot of work is needed to replace the outgoing Governor with someone sane, reasonable, and not corrupt.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
Our Government Censors and their allies in the legacy media and in Big Tech are here to protect their chosen narrative - they don't censor to protect the truth
We are in perilous times when the political elite feels perfectly entitled to use the full power of the state and all the vast resources at their disposal to silence all who dissent from the preferred narrative. This has been done before in the past, but today’s coordination not just with the legacy media like the New York Times, CNN, ABC, etc, but also with Big Tech makes this a particularly dangerous time for free speech in our nation. Everyone should be concerned. People who want to live in a free nation don’t want the current censorship industrial complex.
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This is why I produced this video recently, which was originally launched on our YouTube channel on April 26, 2023:
My favorite recent quote on this topic came from current Democrat Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who recently stated:
“There is no time in history when the people who were censoring speech were the good guys.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Democrat Presidential Candidate), April, 2023
– This is the message they really want you to get
Washington State’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Governor Jay Inslee are on the same page
Inslee understands what he is doing…
Google, Facebook and the other Big Tech platforms enjoy their power…
It is worth the cost to them to silence you…
And this is how they control the bureaucrats, grant grifters and their supporters….
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
In Washington State - Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson may be the biggest beneficiaries of the ActBlue Illegal Campaign Finance Money Laundering operations
This article has been written to support a video I recently launched describing the ActBlue Campaign Finance Money Laundering scheme. In that video I provided a brief reference to how interested activists can help document the part of this conspiracy or money laundering operation which may be occurring near where you live. If you want to better understand how this apparent campaign finance money laundering operation works, you can watch the video below.
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Please note, this video was launched on our YouTube Video Channel on April 5th, the same day this article went live:
While many people have been noticing irregular and strange reports coming out of ActBlue and the candidates/causes they support based on public filings with the FEC and local campaign finance reports filed at the state level (for example, in our state at the Public Disclosure Commission), it has only been in the past few weeks that the widescale aspect of what appears to be a major campaign finance money laundering operation has been exposed at ActBlue. For more background on this story – which has gained prominence lately due to work by James O’Keefe, formerly of Project Veritas. You can see more at stories linked here, here, and here.
If you want to see what people are discovering in their own states, you can go here. If you want to see what people are discovering in our home state of Washington, you can go here. These are just examples.
This is how most regulating agencies will approach this investigation.Sometimes they really don’t want to get to the bottom of it.
Without repeating too much what I covered in the above video, I want to emphasize that this appears to be a massive campaign finance money laundering operation which uses the identities of often retired or unemployed small dollar donors to Democratic Party or other Leftist causes using the ActBlue fundraising platform to facilitate hundreds and often thousands of improbable small dollar contributions to launder donations to targeted candidates and causes without publicly disclosing the true source of the original funds. In most cases the person whose identity has been hijacked to carry out the thousands of contributions probably has no idea this is being done in their name. However, it takes some serious work to prove this, and nobody is going to make it easy. I expect very little cooperation or incentive for the insiders to provide us.
For clarity, this campaign finance money laundering operation is illegal. It is illegal at the federal level (see here), and it is illegal at the state level in every state. In Washington State, the law broken by this effort can be found here: RCW 42.17A.
Who broke the law? Who gets in trouble here?
First, let’s be super clear here – unless the small dollar donor willingly colluded to allow themselves to be part of the money laundering operation – they are not at fault. They don’t have legal liability in this case – unless they knew about it and went along with the scam. So far, this isn’t what appears to be found by contacting the named money laundering donors in the field. I am unaware of even one of them who has admitted this yet.
This will be how most politicians will look into this story.
Secondly, in most cases, the campaigns who receive the illegal funds are probably not legally liable either, UNLESS they were aware of the money laundering efforts and the efforts of those who were the true source of these funds and decided to accept the funds anyway. I expect most of them to play dumb and claim they knew nothing. In some cases they might be honestly ignorant. Despite this, they are still going to be required to forfeit the illegal funds. Typically, if a campaign can’t accept the funds or it is an illegal overlimit contribution – they would return the funds to the donor, and they are under a legal obligation to do this in a timely manner. It happens, and this is not uncommon. However, that would probably imply they were part of the conspiracy to money launder cash if they knew the identity of the original source of funding. So, I would expect these funds to be treated as illegal anonymous contributions. In Washington State, it seems likely the enforcement agency (the PDC) would treat these funds this way and the money would be forfeit. This doesn’t mean the campaign gets to donate it to their favorite charity or friends running a non-profit. They must forfeit the funds to the state treasurer where the money would be deposited in the general fund and squandered along with the rest of our tax dollars.
I am unfamiliar with how these forfeit funds would be distributed in other states or at the Federal Level, but I will update this article with that information once I am certain.
FTX’s Sam Bankman Fried in trouble for fraud and campaign finance violations
If we can identify the source of the original funds – the people setting up and facilitating this scheme are absolutely liable. Sam Bankman Fried – the well-known crypto con artist for the late FTX scam is currently in Federal Court on this very issue (for all we know, some of his client’s money he stole might be part of this ActBlue money laundering operation). However, absent a serious insider whistleblower, we won’t know the true source of the funds unless the Feds get serious about an investigation and can follow the money using subpoena power. Keep in mind, much of the funding that appears to have been laundered ended up in the political campaigns of the most powerful people in this country and in our states. I am unsure how motivated they will be to uncover the truth.
Is ActBlue liable? Most likely. The improbable nature of the transactions, and the thin veneer of legitimacy used to mask these transactions appears so obvious that it is not credible that many of the employees working at ActBlue were not either aware and just looking the other way (the ends justify the means) or they were actively encouraging the behavior. However, there is a lot more digging to do on this front. Again, absent serious whistleblowers or a Federal Investigation, I am certain they are lawyering up and getting their stories straight and making sure they bleachbit (Clinton style) the files and make the harddrives break (IRS style) and simply make the evidence vanish. This is a scandal likely too big to uncover, but we can try.
The initial complaints I plan to file will be against the individual campaigns so that we can start this process of what I expect to be a rash of naughty, naughty letters and unserious investigations, but which might result in forfeiture of illegal funds at some point. I suspect there will be some variation campaign to campaign and in different states. This just helps us get the process going, and in the rare and unlikely case that we discover an honest investigating agency or individual, perhaps they will uncover more significant leads that can direct us to the next level of criminal activity.
How can you help us?
As I detailed in the video, we need help to document the truth in this case. We need evidence to support the complaints that I (and I presume others) will be filing with the appropriate state and federal agencies against the various entities involved in this apparent money laundering operation. At the state level, I’ve done hundreds of these complaints over the past few years (about 680 so far) and I’ve had some success with sanctions, fines, and settlements (see list here). At the Federal Level, the enforcement mechanisms are slower and probably less efficient, but it is best to start the process now.
I prefer to file complaints with evidence and documentation to better facilitate both the investigation by the official authorities, and to verify that the complaint isn’t frivolous. However, there are some challenges that make this a complicated process and why I am asking for crowdsourcing assistance to make these complaints happen.
Concealing the source of campaign contributions is nothing new
The biggest challenge involves geography and legal jurisdictions. The most obvious cases of campaign finance money laundering operation “victims” tend to use fake “donors” from outside the state of the candidate they are supporting (in the case of Federal Congressional or Senate campaigns or State races for Governor, etc). This means the local people who care about these races would have to doorbell or contact fake “donors” in other states. In my home state of Washington, most of these fake “donors” were used to funnel funds to campaigns in Texas or Georgia, or New York – for example.
So, in Washington State we can use our teams of volunteers to contact the fake “donors” to help prep the complaints against mostly out of state campaigns. This is fairly simple and we already have a number of people doing this now. We can always use more help, but this is pretty straightforward right now. For convenience, we are matching volunteer doorbellers with the fake “donors” who live closest to them (Spokane volunteers matched with Spokane fake “donors”, Clark County volunteers with Camas fake “donors”, etc). This just keeps it efficient and easy.
Here is a good local website which has detailed the process of finding the fake “donors” near you. Go there if you want to put together your own list from the source files –
For those volunteers outside Washington State who can visit the fake “donors” who made questionable contributions to recent candidates in our state, we will need some help. Again, we can provide the list of these people near you and we only ask you visit and verify that the victim (fake Donor) was unaware of how their identities were used to launder the cash.
Please note, it is likely that the investigating agency will follow up directly with those fake donors to verify the facts. They better do this, but our initial efforts will help point them in the right direction and we need to document it enough to facilitate that process.
For the LOVE of GOD and common sense, please read this below BEFORE you doorbell:
If you are doorbelling, for the love of God and all that is rational and good on this planet, please be professional, courteous and follow the basic steps I outline below. If it sounds like I am being condescending when I describe these steps to you – please understand that I have been involved in managing teams of hundreds of doorbellers and I’ve seen it all, and there is no excuse for you to make the same dumb mistakes made by others.
Wear neutral, professional clothing. Don’t wear camouflage, political t-shirts, or anything that makes some type of narcissistic political statement. Please. You are looking to discover the truth, not have some type of confrontation or make some type of statement. You are at someone else’s home. Be respectful of this fact. They are most likely a victim and they will probably be shocked someone did this to them (even if they did support the candidate to whom the cash flowed).
Please remember most people have Ring Cameras today – they can see and hear every word you say as you approach the house. Be quiet, professional and courteous. Say nothing that you don’t want to be recorded and played on YouTube in the future.
Do not videotape your encounter. Some people might want to do this anyway. I suggest you don’t because that can be offensive (remember you are at their house), and state laws vary on the legality of doing this. Please remember, these people are probably, in most cases, victims of the money laundering scheme. They are likely to be in shock. Just verify the facts, and courteously let them get on with their day.
Go with a partner. Not a crowd. Just go with one other person (think about it – would you open your door to some , also dressed appropriately and professionally. This will allow you to have a second witness to the statements made by the victimized fake “Donor.”
Once you are outside of Ring Camera distance and back into your car, please transcribe, to the best of your ability the interaction you had with the person. Their name, address, date, and time of contact. Identify yourself and your partner and outline what you witnessed. Please note: in most cases the victim (fake “donor”) probably only made one or a few contributions, possibly not even to the same campaign. Based on what we are seeing they are unaware of the other thousands of contributions. It is okay if you want to let them know they may be contacted by an official investigating agency (we can’t be certain whether it is the FEC, FBI, or a local law enforcement agency – so you can’t honestly tell them which one, but it helps if they know this).
When your data is compiled, please email a photo of the report, or scan of the report, or summary of the report to glen@wethegoverned.com and we will compile these reports into formal complaints to file with the appropriate agencies once we have enough data collected. This is what gets the process started.
I’m sure you have more questions and those questions would be similar to other questions that others might have – feel free to leave them in the comments section below so that I can respond publicly and others can see the answers as well.
Thank you in advance to all who are willing to help on this project. We have a lot of work to do and we should move forward with deliberation, efficiency and focus. No time to waste.
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Governor Jay Inslee are not going to look too closely at where their campaign cash comes from
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
A story about collecting bags of cash for a previous governor has inspired me to remind whistleblowers they can unburden themselves of this knowledge sooner and perhaps we can do something good with the truth.
I’ve worked with whistleblowers for years now. One benefit of living in Thurston County is that you are never more than two degrees of separation from people working in almost every area and agency of government. This can be a goldmine of exposing the truth, if you are willing to look and seek the truth. There are certainly a lot of secrets in this place, but if more than two people know – it usually gets out eventually.
This being said, it is frustrating when I hear stories so old that I really can’t do much about them today. Eyewitness accounts of people gathering bags of cash, off the books, “contributions” that disappear into the back of the Governor’s car are pretty serious. This is particularly true when you actually can talk to the guy who was holding that bag and collecting the cash. However, when the story is 20 years old, there isn’t a lot I can do about Washington State Governor Gary Locke doing something like this. The statute of limitations are long expired, the corroborating witnesses (and even two is probably not enough) are tough to find, some are long gone.
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However, this story still raises the need to remind those people out there who find themselves the unlikely person holding those bags of cash, or the person who might have done bad things to conceal these stories for our political elite, that you can unburden yourself. Help us expose the truth to the rest of the people who live here. Perhaps by exposing these guys and their petty or major corruption, we can discourage more people from getting stuck holding the bag.
Here is my video on this subject, originally posted on YouTube on February 28, 2023. Remember, share this video or article with others in Olympia, Seattle, or elsewhere who might be able to document more recent stories like this:
And, yes, you can see the full list of politicians, PACs, judges, and other political insiders who I have caught and exposed breaking the law here. There are 210 of them so far, and there are many more who may have escaped formal sanctions, but who I have also exposed the truth.
Unfortunately, this is a list far shorter than the true number who are doing equally as shady things today.
And punishing my political enemies of course – Everyone who disagrees with me is a Domestic Violent Extremist, of course…
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
