Washington State Public Disclosure Commission

And that merely working for an organization that later received state money was itself a violation.

Second, the Public Disclosure Commission.

Separate from the Ethics Board 23rd District's chair, Val Torrens complained that Simmons sent $30,000 in surplus campaign funds to $15,000 gifts in July and August to a Nevada nonprofit called Better Minds, Better Communities.

That group is tied to Nevada Assemblymember Jovan Jackson, another formerly incarcerated lawmaker.

Oh, it didn't matter.

The discovery of their donation, readily available in Public Disclosure Commission data, landed via local political organizer Zev Cook, who is a former Tacoma City Council candidate and co-chair of the Tacoma chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

So I've seen this video.

It's like a Zay Zem Zur kind of person, but their name is Zev Cook.

Now, why would Sarah Merner, Craig McKibben, the Seattle Foundation, who are all and were opposed to repealing the Climate Commitment Act, also want to fund the climate lab? in the Seattle Times reporting on climate? Is it because they thought that the Seattle Times climate lab would take a neutral position on all these issues and just do some really good dogged work on covering the climate? No, it's because they wanted, in my opinion, and knew that the Seattle Times would have coverage that would be lockstep with their opinions on the climate.

And again, I mean, the evidence in this complaint from Ari Hoffman to the Public Disclosure Commission is pretty startling.

And keep in mind, the Seattle Times never disclosed, although they disclosed a list of the sponsors.

It would have been up to individual readers to take a look at that list, look at the names, cross-reference the names with the Public Disclosure Commission and campaign contributions.

to the effort to keep the Climate Commitment Act, the No on 2117 campaign.

Do you think any Seattle Times readers are going to do that? Do you think the Seattle Times had an obligation to say some of the funders of the Climate Lab and are reporting on the climate are some of the biggest contributors to No on I-2117? Something to think about.

Something very interesting happened this morning.

The Public Disclosure Commission received a 16-page complaint against The Seattle Times alleging that The Seattle Times violated state campaign finance laws by failing to disclose political advertising and in-kind support connected to the 2024 campaign against the initiative to repeal the Climate Commitment Act.

The complaint filed by one Ari Hoffman [laughs]

[laughs]

It explains how The Seattle Times gets funding for its Climate Lab reporting from outside influences that also opposed the repeal of the Climate Commitment Act, that The Seattle Times editorial board also weighed in on this, and that because they are commercial advertisers who are also offering their opinion on public policy, then according to the rationale being used by the left to drag my name through the mud for the last three months, The Seattle Times name should also be dragged through the mud, [laughs] not that I had anything to do with this at all, of course.

But I will say that this is one of many, many, many, many PDC complaints to follow that, again, if the one against me is valid enough to continue on for three months and head to a formal investigation where they can subpoena my records and dig into my life where there's nothing to find, then certainly this information is enough to do the same thing to The Seattle Times, the Tacoma News Tribune, KIRO News Radio, every other opinion outlet in the state of Washington, The Stranger, Converge Media, you name it.

All of them are gonna get PDC complaints for every single time one of their hosts, one of their, um, editorial boards, one of their columnists has taken a public position on any sort of policy issue or political action committee that is regulated by the Public Disclosure Commission because sometimes the only way to get to the correct conclusion is to fight fire with fire, and I will dive down into the dirty depths with them and roll in the mud.

And with that, let's get to our closing sanity check.