Friday, February 16th was not a good day for the Island County Democrats. Thurston
County Superior Court Judge Christopher Lanese referred to the legal maneuver by the Island County Democrats to “dissolve” their political committee to avoid legal consequences for not following Washington State’s campaign finance laws “…an absurd result.” Judge Lanese ruled against the Island County Democrats as they attempted and failed to dismiss the lawsuit filed against them (State of Washington ex rel. Glen Morgan vs. Island County Democratic Central Committee – Thurston Court #17-2-04836-34). After violating the state’s campaign finance laws, and getting caught, they decided to transfer their cash to the Washington State Democrats and their law firm (see their final financial report filing here), and then claim they no longer existed in the middle of the lawsuit (see their letter here). You can watch full videos of the hearing (linked here, and second half linked here)
This legal tactic was discussed at length in a previous article (linked here). The legal and rational pitfalls to this “absurd” strategy to avoid liability should be obvious, but it became the preferred strategy recommended by Tina Podlodowski, current State Chair of the Washington State Democrats. Podlodowski recommended this legal approach to many of the state’s county and legislative district committees. Impressively, she hired a law firm who thought this was a good plan, and a variety of Democratic organizations were led down this same dubious path. For example, the 43rd Legislative District Democrats (Seattle) dissolved (see letter here), the 11th Legislative District Democrats (Renton) dissolved (see letter here), the 49th Legislative District Democrats (Vancouver) dissolved (see article here), the 46th Legislative District Democrats (Seattle) dissolved, and so have others. It should be noted that this
was a similar strategy attempted and rejected by the Public Disclosure Commission in this letter from last December sent by the Executive Director Peter Lavallee of the PDC to a firefighters union sponsored PAC in Spokane.
On February 16th, this legal strategy met its inevitable and predictable train wreck ending. Let’s review the common sense logic behind why this approach could never work.
- If you could violate the campaign finance laws with impunity until you had a complaint filed on you, and
- If you could just dissolve your assets or spend all your money then, when caught, claim you are no longer liable for the penalties for violating the law, then
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Theme for the Island County Democrats legal defense There would be no reason for anyone to follow the campaign finance laws in the first place. Who would bother? You could just run a million dollar campaign effort, get in trouble, then dissolve, say “you can’t catch me,” and then start a new political effort under a new name the next day. Bad actors would have a field day with this scheme.
Despite the self-evident and logical problems created by such an absurd legal strategy, this was the plan hatched by the Washington State Democrats and pushed on their various Legislative and local County organizations. Fortunately for the Democratic Party, a variety of local groups recognized both the legal and moral pitfalls in this approach, and many resisted. For example, the Thurston County Democrats, led by their chair Boudicca Walsh (a self-identified Trans Radical Witch of Olympia) rightly pushed back against Tina’s suggestions, even though the Thurston County Democrats have been in court with the Washington State Attorney General for over a year now due to their own campaign finance violations (initiated by a handful of complaints filed by this author in 2016 and 2017). Wisely, other county committees and Democratic Legislative District committees also resisted the siren call of Podlodowski’s poor legal advice.
Judge Lanese ruled against all the arguments offered by Dmitri Iglizten, the attorney for the Island County Democrats, to dismiss this case. There was an effort made by Iglizten to get the judge to “certify” the decision so it could be appealed. Lanese also rejected that effort after an oral argument was presented by both plaintiff (Washington State, ex rel, Glen Morgan) and Iglizten (the Island County Democrats). This was not the result the Democrats wanted because the decision, in effect, sends this case through full litigation in Thurston Superior Court before any appeal is possible.
The Island County Democrats were put in a bad legal situation by attempting dissolution as the solution to avoid compliance with the law. This was an ill-advised scheme unlikely to produce the desired result of willfully violating the state’s campaign finance laws without penalty. It has never held up under any legal scenario discovered to date. Unfortunately for the Island County Democrats, and for all the other political committees the State Democrats convinced to swallow this poison pill of poor choices, these legal woes are only likely to get worse moving forward.
(As a follow up to this hearing, Dmitri Iglitzen’s law firm has attempted to withdraw from legal representation in this case (see here) and to move other cases they have before Judge Lanese (see here).
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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…
Additional Background articles and documents:
Video – Feb 16, 2018 – Part 1 – argument by Island County Democrats to dismiss campaign finance case filed against them (State of Washington ex. rel Glen Morgan vs Island County Democrats)
Video – Feb 16, 2018 – Part 2 – argument by State (ex. rel Glen Morgan) and judge ruling and also rejection of certified ruling for appeal (State of Washington ex. rel Glen Morgan vs Island County Democrats)
Letter from the Island County Democrats claiming they have now dissolved
Dem PACs dissolve after campaign finance complaint
The Columbian – January 23, 2018 – “Local Democratic PAC plans to disband after complaints”
The Trials and Tribulations of Tina Podlodowski – Helping Democrats lose by less
Letter from 43rd Leg District Democrats claiming they have now dissolved
The Scorched wasteland of Washington State’s campaign finance laws
AG Attorney complains suing Democrat lawbreakers “unfair”, quits to sue Republicans
The Chaos of Campaign Finance Compliance and the Disarray of the Dems
Inlander – April 13, 2017 – “Dems in Disarray”
Seattle Times – August 6, 2017 – “State senator fined for violating campaign disclosure law”
The Olympian – August 4, 2017 – Hunt agrees to fine in campaign finance disclosure case
Jeff Sessions spoke about judge shopping on C-Spanning yesterday.
Thanks for all your work!
Mimi Gustavson
So Glen, you think the “You can’t see me, I no longer exist”, defense won’t work. Many years ago, like 90, so the family story goes, my mom had an uncle or cousin or some sort of relative and he would go out and get drunk, but he always kept a bottle of whiskey in his car so when he would get pulled over he would just jump out of the car a take a big swig of the booze before the cop could get to him. For a long time he was able to use that defense against drunk driving charges. Well this was in the 20′ so after being foiled over and over one of the town’c cops figured out how to stop this, he shot the bottle before this relative could take his swig. Sounds like this judge just shot the Democrat bottle.
That is true for now, but as you can see from the video of the hearing, they will try to judge shop and see if they can find a judge in Thurston County who is willing to pretend the law says something else. I don’t think it will be easy, but they will try…
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