U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave money for anti-Senn attack ads

By Donna Gordon BlankinshipAssociated Press Writer (AP) – Political ads attacking Democratic attorney general candidate Deborah Senn were funded by one donor: the United States Chamber of Commerce. The chamber gave $1.5 million Aug. 27 to the Voters Education Committee, the Seattle-based group that bought the ads, according to a posting Sunday on the state’s Public Disclosure Commission Web site. The committee reported the donation Sunday to the PDC, two days before the primary election, after backing away from a dispute over whether it needed to disclose its donors under state law. At issue are television ads that have been running since late last month. They harshly criticize Senn’s record as state insurance commissioner, a position she held from 1993-2001. Officials for the national chamber did not return telephone and e-mail messages left Sunday by The Associated Press. Monday morning, officials at the chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform said official Sean McBride would have to call back later. Washington’s primary election is Tuesday, and in recent years most state citizens vote by mail. Officials with the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce issued a statement, however. “We knew nothing about this and have had no involvement with it whatsoever,” said Steve Leahy, the local group’s president and CEO. Leahy said the institute is “a separately financed political affiliate of the U.S. Chamber focused on legal and liability reform at the federal level.” The news release stressed that while the local group is a $500-a-year dues-paying member of the U.S. Chamber, it is independent, separately funded and locally governed. Based in Washington, D.C., the United States Chamber of Commerce is a 90-year-old organization that was formed to be a central organization to represent the interests of U.S. businesses. The chamber represents more than 3 million businesses through nearly 3,000 state and local chambers, 830 associations and more than 90 American Chambers of Commerce in other countries, according to the organization’s Web site. The Voters Education Committee said Friday that it would register with the PDC and disclose its donor list by 5 p.m. Sunday, under an agreement with the state attorney general’s office. The committee also said it stopped running the ads Friday, although that was not part of the agreement with the attorney general’s office. Karen Besserman, a spokeswoman for the Senn campaign, said after the report was posted that the real question is who gave the $1.5 million to the chamber of commerce. “The shell game continues,” she said. Senn told The Associated Press on Sunday evening she objects to the way Washington, D.C., money is being used to interfere with an election in Washington state. “There are some very strong special interests that are trying to control our primary and not let the people of this state vote fairly for my candidacy,” she said. The candidate said she also objects to how long it took the committee to report the source of its money. The Public Disclosure Commission asked for disclosure Tuesday and one donor was revealed five days later. “This has been a game of delay, delay, delay, while these untruthful lies and distortions in these ads have been playing on the TV,” Senn said. The chamber of commerce could not be reached by telephone or e-mail Sunday. Bruce Boram, director of the Voters Education Committee, said Sunday evening that he did not have any details about where the chamber’s money came from, other than to say that the organization represents the interests of millions of businesses. He said his group and the chamber got together on this campaign after a number of conversations, but he was not sure who started the discussion. “I talk to them periodically. It just kind of evolved,” he said. He agreed with Besserman that the issue is not over, considering that his organization filed a free-speech lawsuit Friday in King County Superior Court. Senn’s opponent in Tuesday’s Democratic primary is Mark Sidran, a former Seattle city attorney. “Shame on them for not complying with the laws from the outset and disclosing that they were the source of the funding,” Sidran said Sunday afternoon after the document was posted. Sidran said he feels the distraction of this issue may have hurt his campaign, but has had a more directly negative impact on voters. “Instead of the voters coming to this election and saying who is best qualified, we’ve spent 10 days being completely focused on who is paying for these ads,” Sidran said. “This is a real disservice to voters who are entitled to hear the message of these candidates.” The Voters Education Committee has spent more than $500,000 on the ads, and argued it had no obligation to reveal the source of the money because the ads do not directly campaign for or against Senn, they merely tell viewers about her record. One of the ads criticized Senn’s 1997 settlement with Prudential Insurance, which was forced to pay $1 billion in restitution nationally for misleading sales practices. Senn required the company to pay $700,000, but suspended $600,000 in exchange for the company’s agreement to spend as much as $600,000 to hire four staffers in the insurance commissioner’s office who would help regulate the industry. Senn said Sunday that she objects to the characterization in the ads. “We required Prudential to pay to clean up their mess,” she said Sunday. Her office won an average settlement of $2,500 for 100,000 Prudential policyholders in Washington state, she said. The money was used to administer the settlement in cases involving complex paperwork, she said. Senn’s campaign came out with a new TV ad Tuesday focusing on the Voters Education Committee. “It’s clear. These corporate special interests want their attorney general,” the voiceover says. “Let’s stand together against corporate greed — vote Deborah Senn.” Sidran, who found out in 1989 during another campaign that he is related to Senn by marriage, said, “We both agree that the attorney general’s office should stay in the family.”