The campaign for King County Council member Larry Phillips, who’s running for King County Executive, has accused Phillips’s rival Dow Constantine, also a county council member, of initially failing to report some $9,000 in campaign expenditures made in February. Constantine initially reported $47,000 in contributions and just $875 in expenditures; last night, the campaign added about $9,000 in bills to its reports. The late filing, Phillips’s campaign contends, allowed Constantine to claim he had more money than he actually did. Phillips reported around $14,000 in February expenditures.

Constantine’s campaign says the Phillips camp’s claims are much ado about nothing—Constantine just filed to run a little over three weeks before initial reports were due, and consultants, fundraisers, and other campaign staff hadn’t had time to invoice their work for the first two weeks of the campaign. I’m inclined to think this explanation is reasonable—and even with $9,000 less on hand, Constantine still outraised Phillips in February, with $47,000 to Phillips’s $25,000. Of a total of around $138,000 in Phillips’s account, slightly more than $100,000 came from surplus funds in Phillips’s existing county council campaign account.

8 replies on “Fastest-Flying Campaign Accusations Ever?”

  2. If I was running a local campaign around here, you can bet I’d violate a few campaign laws just for the hell of it, since it’s a proven fact that nobody but nobody gives a shit, and there are never any penalties even if you get caught.

  4. King County Executive staff aren’t allowed to show an inkling of support to one candidate or another because Larry’s camp is worried that KCEO staff will shove their support to Dow.

  5. Failing to report expenditures is like jaywalking or shoplifting a bottle of wine – he’ll be lucky to get a slap on the wrist at worst.

  7. Re: 5 – KC Executive staff can’t show an inkling of support… at work. They can and do volunteer, contribute, and endorse the candidates.

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