Last week, Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) issued $20,000 in fines against Let’s Go Washington (LGW), the political action committee supporting all four state initiatives on November’s ballot. The PDC says Let’s Go Washington violated two separate campaign finance laws: it “failed to report subvendors used by signature gathering firms and failed to produce campaign records when requested by the PDC.”

The $20,000 fine is the heaviest punishment the PDC could impose on the campaign ($10,000 per violation) without referring the case to the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution.

Not a lot of buck for quite a bit of bang: The Public Disclosure Commission received its first complaint against LGW for these violations way back in July 2023. It took 15 months to investigate these claims and fine the campaign. Service members and overseas voters already received their ballots by the time these fines were levied.

There were certainly extenuating circumstances. The PDC requested access to LGW’s records in May and July 2024, and only received the records in August after issuing a subpoena against the campaign. That set things back. The main investigator for the PDC on this case retired earlier this year. The Commission also deals with hundreds of complaints a year—most of them filed by a single attorney trying to make a political point.

The PDC’s spokesperson told Seattle Met these cases “naturally take time.” But I’m not sure that’d be the case if the PDC were adequately staffed, fanged, and structured. Can a $20,000 fine (half of which will be suspended) really put a dent in hedge fund CEO Brian Heywood’s $6 million campaign, or, by extension, persuade it to obey campaign finance laws?

Allegedly not. The PDC is also investigating Let’s Go Washington’s takeovers of gas stations and offers of discounted gas to rally voters in favor of Initiative 2117, which would overturn Washington’s Climate Commitment Act. State progressive groups say these takeovers violate anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws.

Hallie Balch, LGW’s Director of Communications, says the campaign has continued to hold gas station events and will continue to do so, "As we are not in violation of any law by offering reduced gas to all customers.”

Legal or not, it seems LGW will keep offering discounted gas until Election Day—in part because the PDC hasn’t set a hearing date for this part of its investigation. Worst case, LGW might view a past-due $10,000 fine from the PDC as a justifiable campaign expense.

All of this is taking place in the context of a bigger battle being fought over the nature of our ballot initiatives—which, according to Aaron Ostrom, who leads the progressive (and anti-LGW) group Fuse Washington, are one of very few ways Republicans can legislate, since Democrats control all branches of Washington’s state government.

Two years ago, progressive campaigns worked with state lawmakers to mandate public investment impact disclosures (PIIDs) in state initiatives, aiming to prevent Tim Eyman-esque campaigns against state laws and taxes. Few voters pay attention to proxy skirmishes at the PDC, but they will pay attention to the wording on their ballots.

“Those guardrails are going to ensure that when voters are voting, they are not in the dark about what could get cut,” says Andrew Villeneuve, Executive Director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, who worked on passing PIID legislation.

Earlier this year, the chairs of the Washington state Republican Party and the Mainstream Republicans of Washington sued to remove these 15-word PIIDs from three ballot initiatives; a Thurston County judge dismissed the case in June.

According to Cascade PBS, including the initiatives’ financial impacts has turned many voters against the measures. Their recent polling suggests that most Washingtonians will vote against the capital gains and carbon tax initiatives. But many voters remain undecided on I-2066 and I-2124.

In the meantime, the PDC remains swamped by complaints.