City Council Position 8 candidate Mike O'Brien is filing a formal complaint with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission against his opponent, Robert Rosencrantz, accusing Rosencrantz of coordinating with Forward Seattle, a political action committee that is spending tens of thousands on anti-O'Brien mailers.

O'Brien has sparred with Rosencrantz over their respective positions on tolls (Rosencrantz has accused O'Brien of supporting "tolls on all city streets," a claim O'Brien calls "absurd"; O'Brien, in response, has noted that Rosencrantz has changed his position from "tolls, great; systemwide, yes" to "no tolls anywhere.")

Now he contends that the "substance" of Forward Seattle's pieces, which hit mailboxes today, is "very similar" to Rosencrantz's, which went out earlier this week. He says Forward Seattle didn't have time to look at (and copy) Rosencrantz's piece before creating their own. Moreover, he says, "people who received Rosencrantz's piece did not receive the Forward Seattle piece," and vice versa, suggesting the two may have coordinated to avoid duplicating their anti-O'Brien efforts.

He has a point.

Both pieces include the exact same unflattering screen-grab of O'Brien; both include images of toll booths on city streets; and both claim O'Brien would toll roads "everywhere."

Wayne Barnett, head of the ethics and elections commission, hadn't seen the complaint yet and said he couldn't comment.

Images of both ads and text of the complaint after the jump.

Complaint text:

Wayne Barnett
Executive Director
Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission
Post Office Box 94729
Seattle, Washington 98124

October 23, 2009

Dear Mr. Barnett:

I am writing to formally complain about apparent coordination between the city council candidate Robert
Rosencrantz and the ForwardSeattle political action committee.
As you know, these expenditures are required by law to be independent. I request that the commission investigate
several areas of apparent coordination.

CONTENT:
Virtually identical in form and messaging.
The ForwardSeattle website consists entirely of a video clip created by YouTube user epravitz. This user has
also produced web videos that are identified as paid for by the Rosencrantz campaign.

TIMING:
Mail pieces appeared within a few days of each other — not enough time for ForwardSeattle to see the
Rosencrantz piece and then copy it.

ForwardSeattle registered the tollroadseverywhere.com domain on October 13th, which probably accurately
reflects the point when a decision was made to produce and design this mail piece. No expenditure was
reported until a week later, on October 20th.

TARGET:
Anecdotally, I have heard from over a dozen people that have received the Rosencrantz piece, but not
the ForwardSeattle piece, and several people who have received the ForwardSeattle piece, but not the
Rosencrantz mailer. I am not aware of anyone who has received both mailers.

ForwardSeattle reported that they sent approximately 50,000 mailers. The Rosencrantz campaign has reported
$31,000 on mail, but not the number of pieces. Neither mailing is enough to cover the whole city, but by
dividing the voter list, it would come close to hitting all likely voters.

Coordinated messaging, timing, and targeting are clear violations of state law.

I am also concerned about the content of these mail pieces, which blatantly lie about my position on tolling.

Unfortunately, there is no law against campaign misrepresentation. I do hope you can investigate these allegations
of illegal coordination between Robert Rosencrantz and Forward Seattle.

Sincerely,
Mike O’Brien

Rosencrantz campaign ad:



Forward Seattle ad: