David Carrier, Democrat challenger to Republican Don Benton for Washington State Senate, 17th District, has maintained on his web page, “I am the only candidate for State Senate who did not accept contributions from lobbyists and PACs. My only interest is to represent the voters of this District.”
Clicking the link provided by David brings us to his page attempting to show his contributions received versus Don Benton’s expenditures, along with the following,
David also provides a link to Washington’s Public Disclosure Commissions search page for us to see how he is not accepting special interest money. It is somewhat complicated to get through, but I found by going to directly to the PDC page, searching the database is much easier. No matter, whichever way I access the page brings back the same results of those who are contributing to Carriers campaign.
For all the noise he makes about not accepting any money from special interests, I was somewhat taken back to see two contributors listed, Bergman & Frockt, PLLC of Vashon, Washington and the Roosevelt Fund of Seattle.
Bergman & Frockt seems to be a Law Firm located in Vashon that specializes on asbestos litigation. In fact, their site lists them as “The Northwest’s Leading Firm In Asbestos Litigation.”
The Roosevelt Fund P.O. Box 9100 Seattle is a Liberal Political Action Committee with a long history of collecting and distributing funds to Liberal Democrats in opposition to Republicans.
It must be said here that receiving these funds from these two special interest groups are neither illegal nor politically improper. However, they do indicate that Carrier either has decided to accept special interest money or isn’t paying attention to donations he receives.
It is David Carrier who complains about similar funds being accepted by Senator Don Benton while posting prominently on his own web page, “I am not accepting contributions from special interest groups.”
Even in articles by the near bankrupt Columbian, Carrier maintains he “has taken no money from special interest groups.”
I have previously addressed Carriers numbers and claims not adding up, here and here. Likewise, these two contributions don’t add up with this prominent claim “I am not accepting contributions from special interest groups.”
Little wonder that the financially troubled Columbian endorses Carrier over Don Benton, even to the point of misrepresenting Benton’s position of the I-5 bridge replacement proposals.
They claim, “[Benton] is even opposed to the proposal for replacing the decrepit and dangerous Interstate 5 Bridge.” Truth is, Senator Benton’s views were published by the Columbian March 2, 2008 with his article, “Third river crossing is best solution”
Little wonder the Columbian is in deep financial straits. As much as they point at Senator Benton’s ability to raise funds, you would think they would have seen Carriers ability to receive funds from special interests as well.
With their inability to properly manage and profit from local news, are they sending us another mis-manager?
Either you accept from special interests or you don’t, David. You can’t have it both ways.
