OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Attorney General Bob Ferguson is asking a court to penalize the Grocery Manufacturers Association for violating the state's campaign finance laws during a 2013 campaign to defeat a measure that would have required labeling genetically engineered foods.
Ferguson's office announced Monday that the state filed a motion for summary judgment with Thurston County Superior Court on Friday. The attorney general's office says that the grocery association also filed a motion Friday seeking to have the case against it dismissed. A message left with GMA Monday was not immediately returned.
Ferguson sued the group in October 2013, alleging it collected more than $11 million from its members, placed those funds in a special "Defense of Brands" account and used them to oppose Initiative 522, without disclosing the true source of the contributions.
I-522 was defeated with 51 percent of the vote.
