Washington State Department of Transportation spokespeople claimed that they had to publicly release a fiery simulation of the viaduct collapsing in an earthquake because a private citizen requested it. "We're simply complying with a public disclosure request and by law we have to release it," WSDOT spokesman Ron Paananen told KING TV. But that's not exactly true. He tells The Stranger today that the state only had to provide the video to the citizen who requested it—in fact, the video that the state posted on YouTube is a different video than the one the citizen requested.

“Truth be told, I haven’t received the video,” says Elizabeth Campbell, the Magnolia neighborhood resident who filed the records request last month.

The alarming video—which has now circulated on all local media outlets—simulates the elevated freeway collapsing, the waterfront liquefying, fires consuming people and buildings, and cars tumbling into Elliott Bay. It gets to the heart of an incendiary issue in the mayor’s race: The longer we delay building a tunnel—or any viaduct replacement—the more likely this doomed scenario will befall the city.

Politically speaking, the video’s release seems to benefit mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan, who has pushed to build the tunnel as quickly as possible. Conversely, it seems to hurt challenger Mike McGinn, who has said he would allow the tunnel to proceed, but only with scrutinizing oversight. Mallahan has repeatedly said that McGinn would delay the project—and now, that delay implies widespread fatalities.

So why did this video come out eight days before the election?

WashDOT completed the video in June 2007, but kept it private because, “We felt it was a little too dramatic,” Paananen says. But WSDOT received Campbell’s request on September 23 for a “draft” of the video in addition to around 1,000 other documents. “We were looking through [the records request] and we decided what can we release when,” he says. He believes the agency applied to extend the 30-day limit on releasing documents because there were so many records. “Some of these requests get so big we have to get stuff lined up a little bit at a time to get it released,” he says.

“They have said that it would take six to eight months,” says Campbell. But she suspects WSDOT released the video now for political reasons. She says that the city council's bill supporting a tunnel, a high-profile ceremony with the mayor and governor, and the graphic portrayal of a viaduct disaster are all timed to make the tunnel seem like the "inevitable." She adds that the video's release is also geared to portray McGinn, who could delay the tunnel's construction, as a poor choice for mayor.

Cary Moon is a member of the viaduct stakeholder's group, which was a sounding board to state agencies regarding the best viaduct replacement. The group never recommended the tunnel, though some members gave the tunnel their blessing after the stakeholders finished their work. "I am really disturbed as a stakeholder that there was an increased risk of [the viaduct] failing and they never mentioned that this video existed," she says. "They picked the solution with the longest timeline to complete and the most risk."

Rather than simply release the draft video to Campbell—which, again, it still hasn’t done—WSDOT decided to post the video on YouTube and its website, with text and finishing touches that didn’t appear in the video requested. “We decided we should release the final video because it was completed,” Paananen says.

“I think they should have released it two years ago when they made it," says McGinn. "We all know the viaduct isn’t safe and needs to be taken down, and if they went through the expense of making a visual depiction of it, they should have shared it with the advisory group while they were deciding how to proceed."

So the state received a records request, told Campbell it could be up to eight months, decided to release the video in one month, and then—rather than simply release the video to the persons who requested it—decided to release a more detailed version publicly.

The decision behooves Governor Christine Gregoire—who has been a strong advocate for the tunnel and who has endorsed Mallahan. Her office also knew the video would be posted. "We were aware because of our close relationship to WSDOT as [once of the governor’s] cabinet agencies,” said Gregoire spokeswoman Diana Lahmann. “But as far as timing goes, we were not involved.”

“I know it looks like bad timing but it was bad timing to get a request on September 23,” says Paananen.