Both parties spend big on SW Washington House race

Longtime incumbent Democrats faces tough, expensive challenge in the blue-collar 19th District

For a view of the convoluted ways that money moves around in Washington politics, look no further than the $500,000-plus that has flowed into the fight for one of the last rural seats held by Democrats in the Washington Legislature. 

Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, has represented the 19th District, which stretches from Longview west to the Long Beach peninsula and north to Grays Harbor, since 2002. Long a stronghold of blue-collar union Democrats, the district has been trending Republican in recent years. Donald Trump was the first GOP presidential candidate to carry it since 1928. 

Here’s why this matters: Representatives from the 19th and a handful of other districts have long been the voice of rural Washington within the Democratic caucuses  in the Legislature, which are dominated by delegations from Puget Sound and a handful of urban Democratic enclaves elsewhere. They’ve also frequently blocked progressive priorities such as gun control and carbon taxation, given that their constituents lean toward big pickup trucks with functional gun racks. Blake, who is typical of this class of lawmakers, has endorsements from a broad range of labor unions, Planned Parenthood, and the National Rifle Association. If Blake loses, the majority Democratic caucus in the House may be both smaller and more progressive. The same dynamic is playing out in the Senate race, where Democrat Dean Takko looks vulnerable.

Blake’s opponent, Joel McEntire, came essentially from nowhere to finish first in the August primary by more than 3,000 votes. His campaign website features generic messaging and virtually no policy positions.

“I am running to give the people of Southwest Washington a voice that more closely aligns with their pro family, pro jobs, pro gun, low taxes, limited government beliefs,” he told The Wahkiakum County Eagle in September.

The House Republican Organizing Committee (HROC) — the political arm of House Republicans — had given him $5,000 early this year, according to filings with the Public Disclosure Commission. Think of that as a small, speculative investment. The Washington State Republican Party chipped in with $4,500 of help just before the primary. 

But his showing in the primary prompted GOP leaders to reach for their checkbooks in a bigger way.

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HROC has now given McEntire a total of $84,500, or the overwhelming majority of the $103,000 he has raised. HROC’s money is “hard money” raised by Republican incumbents in the House, overwhelmingly from lobbyists and special interests. The money can go directly to candidates’ campaigns.

But McEntire is also the beneficiary of $97,000 in independent spending by the Quality Communities Committee, money that paid for cable TV and digital advertising against Blake. By law, independent expenditures cannot be coordinated with a candidate’s campaign. 

Bear with me here while we do a little folllow-the-money exercise: Quality Communities got all of the $300,000 it has received this year from the Washington State Republican Party. The party’s biggest benefactor this year is the Reagan Fund, a political action committee controlled by — wait for it — House Republicans. And the Reagan Fund’s biggest benefactor this year, as the Observer reported last week, is a shadowy DC-based PAC called the Republican State Leadership Committee. That money is so-called “soft money,” which cannot go directly to candidates but can be spent on independent expenditures. Here are the Reagan Fund’s top donors:

Democrats — and D-leaning independent spenders— are riding to Blake’s rescue. The chairman of the Rural Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee has raised more than $370,000, for his campaign, including $72,500 from the House Democratic Campaign Committee, and $80,000 from the Washington State Democratic Party. More follow-the-money: The Democratic Party’s biggest hard-money benefactor this year was the HDCC, at $775,000. That’s exactly like HROC’s money, but raised by Democratic incumbents from a different but overlapping set of lobbyists and special interests. 

The political parties’ and caucus committees’ hard-money funds can give far more than individual donors to candidates, $1 per registered voter eligible to vote in the election, about 87,000 people in the 19th District. So the HDCC gave Blake close to the maximum, and then the party gave him roughly the same amount, which had been given to the party by the HDCC. Think of it as legal money laundering.

Meanwhile, more Democratic-leaning  money has been pouring into independent spending on Blake’s behalf in the past few days. The Washington Education Association — union teachers — have spent $50,000 supporting him. Even more following the money: A new PAC called Southwest WA Priorities has so far spent $61,000 supporting Blake, out of the $300,000 it recently received from its parent committee, New Direction PAC. New Direction PAC’s biggest supporter, at $1.3 million so far: the Harry Truman Fund, the soft-money PAC controlled by Democrats in the House. Here are the Truman fund’s top donors: 

In other states, all this independent spending is frequently called “dark money,” because it’s difficult or even impossible to track. But Washington’s disclosure laws make it easier, thanks to the good people at the Public Disclosure Commission. The Observer found this story by reading the latest C6 reports, which are required of independent expenditure committees.

Whether Blake survives, or McEntire unseats him, you can be sure that all the money flying around this fall won’t go unnoticed when the Legislature convenes in January.

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