Attorney General Bob Ferguson has shifted more than $1.2 million in surplus campaign money to his 2024 gubernatorial bid — getting ahead of a ruling placing new limits on such transfers.
The transfers, disclosed in new filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission, represent the bulk of the nearly $2 million already raised by Ferguson as he seeks to establish himself as the clear Democratic front-runner in the race to succeed Gov. Jay Inslee.
On Thursday morning, the PDC voted to close the loophole that allowed such transfers without counting them toward individual contribution limits — agreeing with critics that the loophole violated the spirit of Washington's campaign-finance laws.
The PDC's previous guidance had allowed candidates who amassed unspent money from past campaigns to move the money, with donor permission, to a race for a different office.
But candidates didn't have to disclose which donors gave permission — Ferguson's transfers, for example, were only labeled "miscellaneous receipts" — and were allowed to hit up the same people for new donations, a situation that critics said undermined the state's contribution limits.
The new guidance approved Thursday says candidates transferring surplus money should attribute the cash to specific donors. That money would then count against the state's individual contribution limits, now set at $2,400 per person for each election.
Ferguson, the three-term attorney general who has long eyed the governor's office, had built up a $2.8 million surplus during his reelection campaigns — cash that he rapidly used to give himself a big early advantage in the 2024 governor's race.
The transfers began April 24, more than a week before Ferguson announced his gubernatorial campaign on May 2. Inslee announced he wouldn't seek a fourth term on May 1.
Ferguson said in a text message he was aware of the "approximate timing" of Inslee's decision, but that the governor didn't tell him what he'd decided until "a few minutes before he announced it."
In a statement immediately after the PDC decision, Ferguson said he'll abide by the new surplus restrictions.
"We have been carefully following the PDC's clear and unequivocal guidance. We respect the PDC's decision today to change that guidance, and look forward to following the new rules going forward," he said.
The PDC guidance doesn't have the force of law, but the campaign watchdog's vote on Thursday overturned its longstanding advice on how surplus funds could be used.
Tallman Trask, a Seattle attorney who petitioned the PDC to crack down on the loophole, argued in written testimony that the longstanding practice of allowing lump sum transfers of surplus funds to new campaigns ran directly counter to the state's robust campaign-finance disclosure law.
Ferguson wasn't alone in transferring surplus money ahead of the PDC's ruling.
State Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, who is running to succeed Ferguson as attorney general, transferred $74,000 on Wednesday from her surplus account to her new campaign.
It's not clear whether the PDC ruling could be applied retroactively to such transfers.
"The application of the commission's interpretation to activity that occurred prior to today is ultimately for the commission to determine based on the facts of the situation," wrote Kim Bradford, the PDC's deputy director, in an email.
Ferguson's chief Democratic rival, state lands Commissioner Hilary Franz, had backed the changes in the surplus rules to limit such transfers and require more donor disclosures.
"Our laws are meant to ensure clean, fair elections. Being able to run for a new office and then transfer money around without counting it toward contribution limits — effectively double- and triple-dipping with donors — was never something our laws were meant to allow and not the kind of integrity voters expect," Franz said in a statement Thursday.
Franz, who announced her own gubernatorial bid Wednesday, has a comparably small surplus fund of about $27,000.
She has not yet reported any contributions to her campaign for governor, but has about $157,000 in her lands commissioner reelection campaign account — money that could potentially be transferred to her bid for governor with donor permission.
While most of the public testimony to the PDC was in favor of the surplus fund changes, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn opposed the proposal as too quick a change in a longstanding policy. He urged the commission to delay any changes until after the 2024 election cycle.
"I think the PDC is putting their finger on the scale a little too heavily," Dunn said.
