By circumventing public disclosure rules, these folks have been able to maintain the ruse that they aren't behind a supposedly separate and distinct "grassroots" group, Monorail Recall, which has launched an initiative campaign using paid signature gatherers to halt the monorail. Likewise, Monorail Recall (which includes Hummer-driving leader Fred Kettlewell) has been able to maintain the ruse that they aren't doing the bidding of Second Avenue property owners. This nod-and-wink farce has also allowed OnTrack to pretend they aren't flatly anti-monorail, which brings them unwarranted legitimacy to lobby the city under the guise of "making the monorail better" rather than being discredited with their real aim: killing the voter-approved monorail. Well, follow the money. The ruse is up.
Word is, a few OnTrack guys reportedly helped pay for a $50,000 poll conducted in late June by local pollster Don McDonough to help Monorail Recall fine-tune and broadcast its anti-monorail message. Indeed, over several days of phoning, the "push" poll successfully disseminated anti-monorail sound bites to voters. (McDonough says his poll wasn't technically a "push" poll because it wasn't intended to badmouth the monorail--it was only intended to get a read on voters to help Monorail Recall craft a message. However, McDonough, who would not say who paid for the poll, acknowledges, "[anti-monorail] messages were disseminated during the polling.")
The idea that a Monorail Recall poll may have been paid for by key members of OnTrack is eye opening for Seattle Ethics & Elections staffer Polly Grow. First of all, she says, if key OnTrack members helped pay for the poll, OnTrack would have to start filing papers with the Ethics Commission--disclosing its finances and political activity. This is something OnTrack has been able to avoid up until now [Five to Four, June 10]. Disclosing its finances would likely reveal that OnTrack has been bankrolling other anti-monorail activity, like hiring political consultants at Gogerty Stark Marriott Inc. to help the anti-monorail campaign.
The public has a right to follow the money and learn exactly who OnTrack is and why the group is spending so much money to kill the monorail. Given that OnTrack is funding anti-monorail polling, I challenge the group to begin filing with the Ethics Commission immediately. I want to know what else these guys are doing.
