Women who accused Tacoma Democrat of improper behavior now using party cash to unseat him

A group of women who have accused Tacoma Rep. David Sawyer of inappropriate behavior has waded directly into the 2018 campaign fray in an effort to defeat the Democrat.

Bankrolled in part by the campaign arms of legislative Democrats and liberal-aligned groups such as Planned Parenthood, the South Sound Women’s Leadership Political Action Committee launched a new website last week to highlight the allegations. The site features video testimonials and links to news stories about Sawyer and to a House investigative report into his conduct.

The South Sound group has spent more than $20,000 in opposition to Sawyer’s re-election bid, including to produce the website, videos and Facebook advertisements. Fliers also were sent to voters in Sawyer’s 29th Legislative District last week, according to Jessica Gavre, who chairs the PAC and has made allegations of inappropriate behavior against Sawyer.

Campaign ads ahead of the August primary aren’t unexpected, but the involvement of women making accusations and Democrats spending significant cash to unseat someone from their own party are unusual.

“I truly believe this is a groundbreaking place for what the ‘Me Too’ movement is going to be in Washington,” Gavre said in an interview Monday. “We have a chance really for people to say this isn’t OK.”

Gavre’s accusations were first highlighted in a February story by The News Tribune, The Olympian and public radio’s Northwest News Network.

Sawyer’s attorney Beth Terrell objected to the website’s use of the phrase “sexual harassment,” saying in a prepared statement the conduct Sawyer is accused of doesn’t meet the legal definition for it. Terrell added she empathized with the women in the video testimonials “who clearly feel strongly that they were wronged.”

Sawyer also took aim at the money flowing into the South Sound Women’s Leadership PAC, saying it was coming from labor groups and others who opposed him for separate reasons when he originally ran for office in 2012.

“This has been a coordinated effort before, during and after the investigation funded by many of the same people who opposed me in my first race,” he said.

Gavre’s PAC has been funded by many small donations, but its top donors are the New Direction PAC and the Planned Parenthood Votes Washington PAC.

The New Direction PAC is largely funded by campaign PACs for House and Senate Democrats, which are in turn backed by labor and other pro-Democrat groups.

In addition to a video by Gavre, the website features Hannah Weaver, who has made allegations that Sawyer followed her back to her hotel room without consent at a 2011 political event for young Democrats, and Kacie Masten, Sawyer’s former legislative assistant, who divulged new details of her complaint that led an independent attorney to conclude Sawyer created an “offensive work environment” based on her sexual orientation.

Weaver’s story was detailed in the February article although she asked to remain anonymous at the time.

Sawyer resigned as chairman of the House Commerce and Gaming Committee after the investigation, which also concluded he broke the chamber’s harassment policy with his behavior toward a different House employee by sending her “multiple inappropriate and offensive text messages” and showing attention that was “sexual in nature,” despite her stated disinterest.

The House investigator said allegations from before Sawyer joined the House, which would include Gavre and Weaver’s accusations, were outside the scope of the inquiry. Sawyer said he didn’t remember Weaver. He has previously insisted he didn’t follow anyone back to their room at the event but may have been going room-to-room looking for “the next place to drink” that night.

In her video, Masten, who still works for the House, added some details to a short summary of the investigation released by the House in June. She described herself as gay in the video and said Sawyer joked about her sexual orientation and would remark that it was helpful for him because as a young single man in the Legislature he faced rumors about his romantic life.

Sawyer responded Monday by saying he was first made aware of allegations that he made jokes or offensive comments about Masten’s sexuality when reading the House summary, which did not name Masten.

“I don’t remember making those jokes,” he said. “If I did, I apologize if it made her uncomfortable.”

The campaign ads from the South Sound group are classified as independent expenditures, meaning they are not coordinated with Melanie Morgan, Sawyer’s Democratic challenger.

They still represent a boost for Morgan in a tough intra-party contest. Sawyer has raised more than $90,000 on his own, much of it coming before the allegations against him. Republicans Janis Clark and Terry Harder also are vying for Sawyer’s seat in the district, which includes parts of Tacoma, Lakewood, Parkland, Spanaway and Frederickson.

Gavre said her campaign can send a message to the Legislature that “if you behave inappropriately with women, if you harass your staff, if you step over boundaries with folks in your community, you are going to be held accountable.”

“Our goal is to inform the voters of what’s been happening and really rely on the fact that people will see that’s a problem,” she said.

This story was originally published July 16, 2018 at 4:19 PM.