Thread by @MelissaWPTaylor

Seattle's City Attorney's race keeps getting wilder and wilder. First, Tucker Carlson and his local right-wing media types decided to stoke fear and division against Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. Now her opponent’s supporters put up an illegal, heavily slanted and distorted smear site.

Washington State has some of the best campaign finance transparency laws in the country. I love the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC). Every dollar spent to influence an election must be reported through the PDC and available to Washington voters.

Every person who pays to influence an election is required to stand by their expenditures and their words. A site like this is usually considered an independent expenditure and must be registered with the PDC. pdc.wa.gov/learn/publicat…

All of the donors to any campaign or independent expenditure must be reported and available for review by Washington voters, the media and anyone else interested. The top 5 donors must also listed on the website (or mailer, ad, etc.)

Instead of respecting and following the laws designed to protect our elections and ensure fairness for all candidates, Ann Davison’ supporters tried to evade the law by saying: “This site is not associated with any candidate or political action committee.” Nice try, but no.

In states that allow wealthy donors & corporations to manipulate elections without accountability or transparency, this might fly. But not in Washington. Definitely not in Seattle, where the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission tries to ensure we have free & fair elections.

If you are sent an ad (digital or paper), if you’re directed to a website, if you receive a phone call, they must identify which organization is paying for them. If they don’t, that activity is illegal, designed to circumvent the laws we put in place to protect our elections.

Why would Ann Davison’s supporters want to evade elections law? Perhaps they fall into the bucket of people who think they are not subject to the law? Perhaps they don’t think Seattle voters deserve to know who is trying to manipulate our elections?

I decided to take a look at who *is* on record supporting Ann Davison via direct donations – another place where the PDC is helpful. The first name that jumped out was Carl Haglund, one of the most notorious Seattle slumlords. What does he have to gain by electing Ann?

Well, the City Attorney defends the renters protections Seattle has put in place. If you believe in fair housing access, decent living conditions & treatment of renters, you are at odds w/ Carl Haglund. We had to put a law in place to prevent his predatory & extortive practices.

You can read more about Ann Davison supporter Carl Haglund and the Carl Haglund Law here (thanks @KING5Seattle):
king5.com/article/news/l…

And more about Ann Davison supporter Carl Haglund’s treatment of renters here (thanks @heidigroover & @TheStranger): thestranger.com/blogs/slog/201…

Is Carl Haglund paying for the website smearing Ann Davison’s opponent? Possibly but we can’t know. Because the website and people behind it are illegally failing to disclose that information.

Or maybe Ann is paying for the website? Or one of Ann’s family members? All of which would also be illegal, even if it were reported, because coordination between the candidate campaign and independent expenditure committees is prohibited.

Looking through Ann Davison’s donor list, it is clear that a substantial portion of her support is coming from wealthy business owners and real estate investors. There are also additional oddities and failures to report required donor information.

Brian Heywood, CEO of Taiyo Pacific Partners, variously lists himself as a CEO, business owner, investor, horse boarder, artist and retired – all in the last two years. Ann Davison’s PDC filing however, lists his company as “Requested” – again since July.

Brian Heywood will get 2 Tweets because he gave $100K to WA GOP, $4K to Josh Freed for Governor + $2K for Lt. Governor, $2K to Loren Culp for Governor, $10K to Ted Cruz for President, $10K to defeat the sex ed/consent bill and the list keeps going.

Suzanne Burke, real estate mogul @ Fremont Dock Co, major Republican contributor, $14.5K to defeat the sex ed/consent bill, $4K to Phil Fortunato for Governor. Ann Davison’s PDC filing says Suzanne is “Retired” but she’s still on the company website as the President.

Steve Murch, reportedly retired former tech entrepreneur, also supported Ari Hoffman and Defeat 1098 (income tax), creator of the highly biased website Alignvote where he tries to steer you to his supported candidates. Also questionable PDC practice.

Bob Sander, Founder and Principal at Sander Capital Advisors, although Ann Davison’s PDC filing lists his occupation and employer as “Requested” – since July. A quick PDC or Google search by Ann and her team could have uncovered it but apparently following the law was too hard.

Those are just a few features from Ann's top 10 donors. I’m sure further investigation would uncover more wealthy Republicans who hope they can finally elect a Republican to office in Seattle, setting her up to run for future higher office.

Ann Davison has already tried to run for Seattle City Council as a Democrat and then Lt. Governor as a Republican. Why should we believe that she actually wants to be City Attorney after that job shopping?

Further adding to the confusion over whether she actually wants to be City Attorney, Ann Davison has no experience on the criminal side of the legal system & reportedly hasn’t set foot in a courtroom in over a decade (thanks @ericacbarnett @PubliColaNews). publicola.com/2021/09/14/cit…

Also, now that Ann Davison is on her 3rd run for office in Washington State, I’m surprised that she and her campaign are not on top of the campaign finance data that is required to be reported to the PDC. Or perhaps she just finds being accurate and complete tiresome?

I do want to apologize to Ann though. In a previous Tweet, I mistakenly said that she supported the Jan 6 insurrection. I apparently misunderstood what I had heard and she has publicly denounced it. Still hard to understand her switching to be a Republican in 2020 though.

And really, there are so many other reasons to be concerned about Ann becoming City Attorney that that one is unneeded. How about advocating to warehouse people? Cramming 5,500 people into 3 large buildings is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard. thestranger.com/slog/2019/09/2…

The Seattle Chamber of Commerce, many of whose members are supporting Ann Davison, is currently appealing to stop implementation of the JumpStart Tax, which is expected to bring in $200 million for affordable housing. knkx.org/news/2021-07-0…

The Rental Housing Association of WA (RHAWA), many of whose members are supporting Ann Davison, has a legislative advocacy wish list to undo many of Seattle’s newly passed renter protections. rhawa.org/issues-and-lob…

Having failed at the ballot box and in the courts, it would appear that Ann Davison’s supporters are hoping that electing a conservative City Attorney will keep them from having to pay their fair share in taxes or treat their tenants fairly.

While the City Attorney is obliged to advise, defend and enforce our laws, there is discretion and who holds the seat matters. I want JumpStart and renter protections and will be voting for Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. I encourage you to read her platform: ntk4justice.com/platform