After months of resistance, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has relented and disclosed the donors behind more than $1.2 million in surplus campaign funds from past years that he shifted to his 2024 gubernatorial bid.
Ferguson pumped the cash into his campaign in April and May, getting ahead of a state Public Disclosure Commission vote that aimed to close the loophole allowing such anonymous transfers, which critics said violate the spirit of Washington's campaign finance laws.
Facing a PDC complaint, Ferguson had fought disclosure of the supporters whose past donations he'd saved up and, with their permission, moved to his long-anticipated gubernatorial run.
That left open the prospect that Ferguson, the three-term attorney general and leading Democratic candidate for Washington governor, could hit up the same people for additional money — essentially double dipping and busting the state's contribution limits.
Despite public pressure, Ferguson had for months refused to back down from his position that the transfers were legal at the time he made them.
But this week, he quietly reversed course, filing a series of amended reports to the PDC which specified the past donors whose money he'd moved to his gubernatorial campaign. Previously, those donations had only been reported as lump sums labeled "miscellaneous receipts."
The amended reports were first reported by The Washington Observer.
Ferguson's campaign treasurer Abbot Taylor wrote in an email to PDC staff on Thursday that the campaign had "voluntarily filed" the amended reports retroactively applying the PDC's "new interpretation" of the surplus transfer rules, "which required significant effort and expense."
Given the new filings, "we trust the [PDC] complaint will be dismissed and this matter concluded," Abbot added.
The PDC complaint remained open and under investigation as of Friday.
Wellesley Daniels, Ferguson's campaign manager, said in an emailed statement Friday that Ferguson had made every surplus transfer "consistent with the guidance on the PDC website at the time of the transfer."
"He is voluntarily taking this extra step in the spirit of transparency," Daniels wrote.
Hilary Franz, the state public lands commissioner and Democratic gubernatorial contender, had pushed for the PDC to crack down on the campaign surplus loophole, arguing in a statement in May it "was never something our laws were meant to allow and not the kind of integrity voters expect."
The list of hundreds of itemized donors disclosed by Ferguson isn't in itself very surprising. The roster includes attorneys, lobbyists, tech executives, union PACs and other Democratic Party constituencies.
Ferguson's change of heart won't put much of a dent in his fundraising juggernaut.
After itemizing the surplus donors, his campaign did transfer about $89,000 back to his surplus account, leaving it unavailable for the governor's race.
But he has raised more than $3.6 million in all for his 2024 campaign — far more than any of his rivals. Franz has raised about $406,000 and state Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, has raised $612,000.
On the Republican side, former Congressman Dave Reichert has raised $236,000 and Semi Bird, who was recently recalled by voters from his position as a Richland School Board member, has raised $141,000.
Ferguson's about-face came as somewhat of a surprise after his campaign's previous resistance to itemizing his surplus transfers.
In a formal response to the PDC complaint, Zachary Pekelis, an attorney for Ferguson's campaign, had argued it was unfair to apply the new guidance retroactively, pointing out the commission had advised campaigns for decades that such "bulk" transfers were legal.
"For the PDC to spend nearly three decades conveying to regulated parties that certain conduct is consistent with the law, and then punishing them for following its own guidance would constitute a textbook due process violation," Pekelis wrote.
But Tallman Trask, the Seattle attorney who filed the PDC complaint, argued the commission should not shy away from imposing the disclosure requirements on Ferguson's transfers.
The issue of donor disclosure, he wrote in his complaint, was not a "minor" or "technical" matter. Without it, he said, "it is impossible or nearly impossible to suss out current and ongoing contribution limit violations."
