Jolt
Afternoon Jolt-ish: Pro-Tunnel Camp Responds to Donation Flap
We'll call this one a minor Jolt, because it comes with a major asterisk.
The anti-tunnel campaign, as we noted in this morning's Fizz, pounced on the pro-tunnel campaign's latest funding report by belittling the tunnel camp for relying on major contributions from the tunnel contractors. The contractors, Dragados and Tutor Perini, contributed $50,000 combined. Protect Seattle Now, the anti-tunnel group, seized on the donations, calling it a blatant effort by the contractors to influence the election—an investment to reap a $1.35 billion tunnel contract, they say.
Here's today's mini-Jolt: This afternoon, the pro-tunnel camp, Let's Move Forward, struck back noting not only that "it makes perfect sense that we have support from labor and contractors"—but that the pro-tunnel camp has more (a lot more) small donors than the anti-tunnel campaign, making the pro-tunnel camp more grassroots. Let's Move Forward has more than 130 donors at $100 or less compared to a little more than 50 for Protect Seattle Now. Sorta.
Here's the big asterisk on that: The pro-tunnel camp is only counting since May 20, after King County Superior Court Judge Laura Gene Middaugh officially gave the green light to the initiative—and the rival campaigns actually started competing.
If you compare small donors overall—and both camps were raising money going back to March even though LMF only has 10 from that period (seven major ones, though)—Protect Seattle Now has more than 200 small donors while LMF is still in the 130 range.
Indeed, eight percent of the anti-tunnel campaign's money total comes from small donations while just four percent of the pro-tunnel total haul is made up of small checks.
But LMF spokesman Alex Fryer checked my asterisk with one of his own: Even the anti-tunnel folks downplay the pre-campaign campaign, he says. He points out that Protect Seattle Now campaign manager Esther Handy has downplayed a $5,000 contribution—the largest contribution to PSN from an individual— from Mayor Mike McGinn's political consultant Bill Broadhead. (PSN is desperately trying to disassociate their campaign from the controversial mayor). The Seattle Times recently paraphrased Handy saying Broadhead's involvement "was limited to an early financial contribution."
Fryer thinks the post-May 20th date is a legit place to start counting because "that's when you had the starting gun, a campaign, something is on the ballot, the race is clear. That's when you have solicitations from both campaigns to get on board for a measure that's going before the voters."
He adds: "This notion that [the anti-tunnel campaign] is a grassroots campaign has been turned on its head. When we were both shaking trees, you see a lot more small donors coming to our campaign saying we support what the city council wants to do." (The council is for the tunnel and a 'Yes' vote on the tunnel referendum would let the council move forward without having to vote on another ordinance authorizing the tunnel contracts.)
Anti-tunnel spokeswoman Handy tells PubliCola that LMF is, "trying to deflect attention from the fact that the contractor just gave $60,000 to their campaign just a week before ballots drop to try to influence this public vote." (The $60,000 includes a $10,000 contribution from HNTB Corp., a tunnel consultant from Kansas, which Erica reported on earlier today .)
Handy adds: "It they [the pro-tunnel camp] want to talk about the early campaign, we'd highlight that we [Protect Seattle Now] gathered 29,000 signatures in thirty days, which highlights a strong show of grassroots support."
As for Broadhead, Handy says PSN is not trying to hide the fact that they started raising money "as soon as we started collecting signatures, "and he [Broadhead] was an early contributor that helped get this campaign kicked off."
Handy says Broadhead's early contribution is "not equivalent to a $25,000 contribution from Microsoft or any of the tunnel contractors a week before ballots are mailed."
Fryer discounts the notion that his camp is trying to "deflect attention" away from the big contractor contributions.
"We put out a press release with their names on it," he says. "So we've been very open and proud about that." He also hypes the Microsoft donation. "It means that a growth employer in this region sees this [the tunnel] as being key to the economy and mobility and to long term growth. Twenty five thousand dollars is meaningful," he says.
The anti-tunnel campaign, as we noted in this morning's Fizz, pounced on the pro-tunnel campaign's latest funding report by belittling the tunnel camp for relying on major contributions from the tunnel contractors. The contractors, Dragados and Tutor Perini, contributed $50,000 combined. Protect Seattle Now, the anti-tunnel group, seized on the donations, calling it a blatant effort by the contractors to influence the election—an investment to reap a $1.35 billion tunnel contract, they say.
Here's today's mini-Jolt: This afternoon, the pro-tunnel camp, Let's Move Forward, struck back noting not only that "it makes perfect sense that we have support from labor and contractors"—but that the pro-tunnel camp has more (a lot more) small donors than the anti-tunnel campaign, making the pro-tunnel camp more grassroots. Let's Move Forward has more than 130 donors at $100 or less compared to a little more than 50 for Protect Seattle Now. Sorta.
Here's the big asterisk on that: The pro-tunnel camp is only counting since May 20, after King County Superior Court Judge Laura Gene Middaugh officially gave the green light to the initiative—and the rival campaigns actually started competing.
If you compare small donors overall—and both camps were raising money going back to March even though LMF only has 10 from that period (seven major ones, though)—Protect Seattle Now has more than 200 small donors while LMF is still in the 130 range.
Indeed, eight percent of the anti-tunnel campaign's money total comes from small donations while just four percent of the pro-tunnel total haul is made up of small checks.
But LMF spokesman Alex Fryer checked my asterisk with one of his own: Even the anti-tunnel folks downplay the pre-campaign campaign, he says. He points out that Protect Seattle Now campaign manager Esther Handy has downplayed a $5,000 contribution—the largest contribution to PSN from an individual— from Mayor Mike McGinn's political consultant Bill Broadhead. (PSN is desperately trying to disassociate their campaign from the controversial mayor). The Seattle Times recently paraphrased Handy saying Broadhead's involvement "was limited to an early financial contribution."
Fryer thinks the post-May 20th date is a legit place to start counting because "that's when you had the starting gun, a campaign, something is on the ballot, the race is clear. That's when you have solicitations from both campaigns to get on board for a measure that's going before the voters."
He adds: "This notion that [the anti-tunnel campaign] is a grassroots campaign has been turned on its head. When we were both shaking trees, you see a lot more small donors coming to our campaign saying we support what the city council wants to do." (The council is for the tunnel and a 'Yes' vote on the tunnel referendum would let the council move forward without having to vote on another ordinance authorizing the tunnel contracts.)
Anti-tunnel spokeswoman Handy tells PubliCola that LMF is, "trying to deflect attention from the fact that the contractor just gave $60,000 to their campaign just a week before ballots drop to try to influence this public vote." (The $60,000 includes a $10,000 contribution from HNTB Corp., a tunnel consultant from Kansas, which Erica reported on earlier today .)
Handy adds: "It they [the pro-tunnel camp] want to talk about the early campaign, we'd highlight that we [Protect Seattle Now] gathered 29,000 signatures in thirty days, which highlights a strong show of grassroots support."
As for Broadhead, Handy says PSN is not trying to hide the fact that they started raising money "as soon as we started collecting signatures, "and he [Broadhead] was an early contributor that helped get this campaign kicked off."
Handy says Broadhead's early contribution is "not equivalent to a $25,000 contribution from Microsoft or any of the tunnel contractors a week before ballots are mailed."
Fryer discounts the notion that his camp is trying to "deflect attention" away from the big contractor contributions.
"We put out a press release with their names on it," he says. "So we've been very open and proud about that." He also hypes the Microsoft donation. "It means that a growth employer in this region sees this [the tunnel] as being key to the economy and mobility and to long term growth. Twenty five thousand dollars is meaningful," he says.
