Outside PACs pouring money into Puyallup’s 25th District senate race to oppose Democrat
Two Lacey political committees have sent several mailers and paid for at least one TV ad in the Puyallup area accusing the Democratic candidate in a state senate seat of supporting higher taxes.
Some of the ads include false information about Julie Door, the mayor of Puyallup who is seeking to become a senator for the 25th Legislative District.
“I am concerned about the lengths that they will go to take this seat,” said Door, a Democrat.
Political committee People For Jobs Enterprise Washington has paid at least $158,000 to distribute at least five mailers and one TV ad claiming that Door raises taxes, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.
Committee representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The PDC filings show that the group has spent $228,000 as of Aug. 5. Of that, $158,545 has been reported as expenses to oppose Door.
The mailers say Door “likes to raise taxes” and “loves taxing us to death.” One states “Julie Door: Making death and taxes more expensive.”
South Sound Future Enterprise Washington, a second political action committee with the same address and officers listed as People For Jobs Enterprise Washington, also sent five mailers and created an anti-Door website.
Representatives of that committee also did not respond to requests for comment.
In PDC expense reports, South Sound Future Enterprise Washington had spent $45,650 as of Aug. 5 to oppose Door.
Door will face off against 25th District state Rep. Chris Gildon, a Republican, in the November general election.
Which claims are true?
Both groups claim Door has voted for higher sales, property, water and sewer taxes and conservation fees, among other things.
Some of those claims are true, but others are not.
One mailer claims, “Julie Door loves dipping into your pocket, even after you’re gone,” referencing added fees for new services like a new niche wall, vaults and urns at the city cemetery.
Door was not present at the March 2019 meeting and therefore did not cast a vote on that fee.
The claim that she and Puyallup raised local sales tax is also untrue.
Washington passed a law last year that set aside sales-and-use tax dollars and allowed counties and cities to keep up to .0146 percent of the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax for affordable housing programs.
“This sales tax option is a credit against the state sales tax rate of 6.5 percent, so it does not increase the tax rate for consumers,” Puyallup’s finance director Barbara Lopez said in an email.
There are claims that she has increased costs of copying city records.
City of Puyallup spokesperson Brenda Fritsvold said the resolution the PACs reference allows the city to provide electronic copies on a flash drive for $2.50.
“This is not a compulsory fee as anyone may choose to review any public record free of charge,” Fritsvold said in an email.
The political ads said Door voted for higher conservation fees.
In 2015, Door voted along with five other council members to write a letter of support for state bills to increase parcel assessment caps for the Pierce Conservation District from $5 to $10 annually. The state passed the increased fees.
Door has voted to increase some taxes and fees.
While on the City Council in 2014, she voted for an additional 4 percent annual increase in water utility rates.
As a council member for nearly seven years, Door voted six times to increase property taxes by 1 percent. The “levy lid,” also known as the “1 percent increase limit,” permits cities to annually increase its property tax collection by 1 percent.
The increase does not keep pace with the average annual 3-4 percent increase in city expenses. In the last 13 years, Puyallup has approved this 1 percent increase seven times, Lopez said.
“It was not approved 2009-2014 in the aftermath of the Great Recession,” she said.
Gildon’s response
Gildon said he was disheartened by the negative ads.
“It’s certainly not something I would have done personally,” he told The Puyallup Herald. “One of my goals in the Legislature was trying to heal this partisan division. I don’t think messaging like that goes toward that goal.”
“It’s an oddity of the political system that we have these independent expenditures that provide messaging as we the candidates are trying to put forth our own messages,” he added.
Gildon, a Republican, said he isn’t sure what effect the ads will have on the race. Asked why he thinks political committees are supporting him, Gildon said businesses are realizing that all the taxes Democrats are passing have an impact on their business.
“Seeing that is maybe why they are paying attention to these races,” he said. “They’ve been beaten up over the last biennium and are fearful of the future.”
State law on false statements
Door said she is not sure if she will file a complaint with the PDC.
State law prohibits political advertising that ““contains a false statement of material fact about a candidate for public office,” but the state must prove actual malice, which requires that the violator be aware that the statement was false.
The Legislature amended the law in 2009, adding that in order to be a violation, a statement must be one that would “expose a living person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, or to deprive him or her of the benefit of public confidence or social intercourse, or to injure him or her in his or her business or occupation.”
“If the PDC received a complaint, the question we would ask is whether an allegation that the candidate supported a tax increase would rise to the level of exposing them to ‘hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy’ or would ‘deprive him or her of the benefit of public confidence or social intercourse,’” PDC spokesperson Kim Bradford said.
Since the law has changed, Bradford said the PDC has not taken up a case on false statements.
Big money in Puyallup
Door said the spending reminds her of last year’s City Council races when thousands were spent to unseat incumbents.
More than $60,000 was spent by a political action committee, Friends of Puyallup. More than half the money was given by Knutson Farms Inc. and Running Bear Development Partners LLC, two entities who fought alongside Pierce County to allow a warehouse proposal.
Door is hopeful the negative ads against her fail.
“It concerns me on so many levels. We are better than this negative campaign. We are applying for a job, evaluate us on our merits,” she said.
