"What's a Gael Tarleton?" you may ask. "And why should I care?"

Gael Tarleton is running for re-election as port commissioner, after beating Bob Edwards in 2007 by positioning herself as a reform progressive. (Her next race is in 2011 for re-election as port commissioner or—according to rumor—she may try to run for governor.)

The unseated Bob Edwards wasn't a progressive paladin. From a 2007 post by the Northwest Progressive Institute, when Tarleton and Edwards ran against each other:

Bob Edwards, for the record, is a Republican. In the last seven years he has donated to the campaigns of Steve Forbes (2000), Slade Gorton (2000), and Alaska's Don Young (2005). (Curiously, he gave $200 to Maria Cantwell's campaign just after she won election in 2001).

It's no wonder the Washington State Republican Party is providing him with needed cash late in his campaign. The WSRP donated $5,342.40 in a "last-minute" contribution on October 19th, which the PDC received and filed on October 22nd.

Tarleton has been polishing her progressive bona fides, sitting on the board of the Northwest Progressive Institute—which called out Bob Edwards's Republican background in the quote above—and raising money for NARAL.

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But a look at her campaign contributors—plus cheerleading from the conservatives over at Sound Politics, who lost their taste for her after she sent campaign emails from her UW address—is a little troubling. A quick and dirty tour:

* Bob Wallace of Wallace Properties, commercial real estate developer—the port's 4,000 acres of real estate, whose total worth is a mystery since the port hasn't appraised it all yet, is an especially dark corner for shady deals and conflicts of interest.

And Wallace has already been a font of Port controversy: the Meydenbauer Center blow-up (in which the Port, under Mic "Scandalpants" Dinsmore, was supposed to have thrown public funds at a very questionable investment on the Eastside), the third runway (opposed by the Highline School District, as well as the cities of Des Moines, Burien, Tukwila, Federal Way, and Normandy Park—Wallace "dismissed" the community concerns), and Wallace Properties was the employer and supporter of David "Dickish" Doud, who even put off conservatives like me on the SECB when he made a run for port last year.

Support from Wallace smells a little toxic.

* James Blackmore of the General Steamship and Cruise Terminals of America—contracts to run piers 66 and 91, a desire to flush tourist poop into the sound, energy suckers. Plus Blackmore was criticized for giving Mic "Scandalpants" Dinsmore perks and fishing trips that may have resulted in favorable deals.

* Several thousands from military contractors (EP Systems, Engility Corporation, TAIC, Battelle, SAIC), mostly out of state.

* Jordan Royer of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, which has fought low-sulfur fuels requirements and greenhouse gas and diesel emissions.

* Republican Ralph Monroe, Rossi supporter, caller for re-vote in 2004 gubernatorial elections.

* John McCullough of McCullough Hill—a corporate law firm—who contributed to the Republican campaigns of Rossi and McKenna in 2008.

* Eugene Wasserman, industry lobbyist.

Why are all these Republicans lining up behind a politician who sits on the board of the Northwest Progressive Institute and raises money for NARAL?

Must be something in it for them...