Senate approves gubernatorial campaign contributions bill

The Senate passed a measure on party lines which would prevent unions that collectively bargain with the governor for state salaries from making gubernatorial campaign contributions.

Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Sammamish, who sponsored the bill, said it was designed to increase transparency in campaign contributions and collective bargaining.

While speaking on the floor, Rossi brought up that until 2002, the legislature was responsible for bargaining with state employee unions as a part of their budgeting authority. A bill was passed to move the state salary negotiations to the executive branch.

Rossi said he was not accusing Governor Inslee or his predecessor of corruption, but the current model gave the appearance of it.

“All I’m saying is that if you’re collectively bargaining with the governor, you shouldn’t be putting money in that campaign at the very same time,” Rossi said. “It just has the appearance of corruption, it just isn’t right.”

The bill had eight amendments proposed by Democrats during debate on the floor. Democrats who criticized the bill said it was too narrow and should include legislators who work with organizations and ban other groups such as corporations from campaign contributions.

One Democrat who proposed an amendment, Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, called the bill unconstitutional. She referenced the United States Supreme Court decision, Citizens United precedent that union and corporate dollars donated to campaigns are now considered free speech, and this bill could be an unconstitutional limit.

“For those of my friends across the aisle who do believe that campaign contributions amount to free speech,” Keiser said. “Free speech is a constitutionally protected activity, than obviously a bill that limits campaign contributions of any kind by any source is unconstitutional.”

The bill was referred to the Labor and Workplace Standards committee in the House on Thursday. Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, the ranking Republican on the committee and sponsor of the companion bill in the House, said he doesn’t see the bill making it through the House unless there were bicameral, bipartisan negotiations.

He said he did not support any of the amendments that were proposed in the Senate to broaden the number of officials it covered or number of organizations it banned from donating. He said he would only support adding those types of restrictions on the legislature if they participated in the negotiation of contracts instead of the governor.

Manweller said the legislature did have an opportunity to vote on the labor contract, but only as a part of the general budget and they did not have the ability to amend it. He said he didn’t feel voting it down was a real option because that would delay the budget and put state employees’ jobs at risk.

“What I think we should do is go back to the way it was,” Manweller said. “If that was the case, then yeah, I would support a firewall between those donations and the legislature. But as long as that power doesn’t exist, than I won’t support the other legislation.”

During a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee said the legislature had the opportunity to vote on the labor contracts his office negotiated as a part of the general budget.

“They do get a choice, they’ve got a green button and a red button,” Inslee said. “When you go into the legislature, sometimes you have got to make decisions. If you don’t like this deal, push the red button.”

The governor’s office negotiated a 2 percent raise for most state employees, according to an Office of Financial Management report. Inslee said without that raise, many government agencies would not be able to attract qualified employees to fill shortages, such as nurses at Western State Hospital and in the State Patrol.

When asked if he would veto the bill if it came across his desk, Inslee declined to comment.

According to the Public Disclosure Commission, Gov. Inslee received two contributions in July and August last year amounting to $3,750 from one of the unions at the table, the Washington Federation of State Employees.