LobbyComply Blog

Seattle City Council recently passed an ordinance which requires political consultants to register with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission within 15 days of providing political consulting services. Political consultants will also be required to disclose information including which local candidates, campaigns, and city ballot measures they work with and when that work began. Initially the bill was intended to prohibit political consultants from simultaneously holding city contracts while doing outside campaign work and also provided for a one-year cooling-off period before consultants could return to work for the city after campaign activities. However, those prohibitions were removed, and the bill instead focuses on consultant registration and reporting. Council Bill 121130 will become effective 30 days after the mayor’s approval.

The Public Disclosure Commission approved a rule change to increase the penalties tied to various factors which are considered when the Commission sets fines. The Commission is still limited to fines of $10,000 per violation but can assess higher penalties by agreement of the parties or by referring cases to the state Attorney General’s Office for prosecution if warranted.

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Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson won his bid for Governor against his Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert.

Reichert had always faced an uphill battle as it has been 40 years since the state last had a Republican governor.

The final tally of votes saw Ferguson winning with 56% of the vote.

The Legislature quietly adjourned sine die on March 7 after passing a procurement and campaign finance bill.

House Bill 1471 modifies the state procurement procedures and revises definitions concerning competitive, sole source, convenience, and emergency goods and services contracts.

Senate Bill 5857 reorganizes the campaign disclosure and contributions statutes through technical amendments involving campaign disclosure and contributions at the state and local levels.

These bills will now be sent to the governor for his signature.

The Washington Legislature adjourned a one-day special session after passing a new drug possession law. The new bill makes it a gross misdemeanor to use drugs in public or possess small amounts of drugs and adds alternative sentencing for minor drug offenses. The original bill failed on the last day of the regular session, with both progressive Democrats and Republicans voting down the bill. The new law is a compromise between the parties, with both sides getting inclusions into the law.

Gov. Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1317 and Senate Bill 5152, updating campaign and lobbying rules in response to current technologies and practices involving online activity and social media. House Bill 1317 was designed to shed light on special interest “astroturfing” in grassroots lobbying. The new law expedites registration of sponsors of grassroots lobbying campaigns and increases the disclosures that must be made in the registration and any advertisements made by the lobbying campaign.

Senate Bill 5152 seeks to combat the advent of “synthetic media” political ads. These ads are created when, via artificial intelligence or other such programs, media is manipulated to cause a person (in this case a politician) to say or act in a way that did not happen. Senate Bill 5152 gives a target of synthetic media a course of action to force a sponsor or media platform to terminate the synthetic media campaign. The bill also gives the sponsor the ability to add a disclosure to the synthetic ad stating the ad or image is a synthetic media post. Both bills become effective July 23.

The Washington Legislature adjourned sin die on April 23.

Lawmakers passed over 450 bills during the session, including a $69 billion dollar budget bill that raises pay for state employees and public-school teachers.

Additionally, Senate Bill 5170 was signed into law, allowing the solicitation of gifts, grants, or donations to support conferences of national or regional legislative organizations held outside the state by certain legislators and staff.

The Public Disclosure Commission certified increases in reporting and contribution limits in response to inflation.

The inflationary adjustments touch almost every threshold and limit.

Contribution limits increase from $1,000 to $1,200 for state and county legislative candidates and from $2,000 to $2,400 for other state offices.

Limits for political parties increase from $5,500 to $6,000.

King County, Washington voters have approved Charter Amendment 1.

The amendment moves elections for county executive, county assessor, county director of elections, and county council members to even-numbered years.

For each position currently in an odd-year term, the current term is changed to a three year term to move to an even-numbered schedule.

The Spokane City Council voted Monday to raise the individual donor limit to $1,000 and to clear redundancies in the city’s Fair Elections Code.

The council decided, due to advances in Washington’s campaign finance statutes, that the city’s current campaign finance laws created uncertainty and were redundant.

The council moved to incorporate the State’s definitions and current individual donor limit.

The new limit will take effect October 26, 2022.

King County, WA has approved an amendment to the King County Charter to be sent to the voters during the November 8 election.

The amendment moves elections for county executive, county assessor, county director of elections, and county councilmembers from odd-number years to even-numbered years starting in 2026.

There will be an election held in 2023 for the county assessor, county director, and even-numbered district councilmembers.

The county executive and odd-numbered district councilmembers will be elected in 2025 before moving to even-numbered year elections in 2026.

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission has raised the limit for contributions given to a candidate for mayor, City Council, or city attorney to $600 per election cycle.

This limit only applies to candidates who are not participating in the Democracy Voucher Program.

Contribution limits are adjusted before each election cycle to account for inflation or deflation using the consumer price index.

The Washington Legislature adjourned sine die March 10 after passing a $64.1 billion state budget and a nearly $17 billion transportation package.

During the session, both houses passed Senate Bill 5196 and Senate Bill 5855.

Senate Bill 5196 allows the Legislature to call a special session through an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of both chambers.

Senate Bill 5855 allows the use of campaign funds to reimburse a candidate for expenses incurred for childcare, care for a person with a disability, or the care for a person with a medical condition that occurred directly because of the candidate’s campaign activities.

Both bills have been sent to Gov. Jay Inslee and await his signature.

Washington’s fast-approaching 2022 legislative session has hit a bit of a snag with the rampant Omicron variant.

The chief clerk of the House has announced that his chamber will hold its floor sessions remotely for the first two weeks of the session.

Only five lawmakers who are vaccinated, boosted, and masked, along with critical staff, will be allowed in the House chamber during the restrictions.

These policies will be reassessed every two weeks.

The Senate is looking into either a hybrid or fully remote sessions, though no final decision has been made.