Brian Heywood, founder of Let’s Go Washington, the political committee behind initiatives on the ballot in Washington state in November 2024. (Jerry Cornfield / Washington State Standard)
Let’s Go Washington was fined $20,000 on Wednesday for failing to report spending by companies hired to gather signatures for its six statewide initiatives and for slow-walking delivery of documents to investigators.
The state Public Disclosure Commission assessed the civil penalty in a written ruling issued one week after a lengthy hearing and nearly 15 months after initiative opponents first filed their complaint against the political committee founded by hedge fund millionaire Brian Heywood. Three of the group’s initiatives will be before voters on the November ballot.
Commissioners concluded the political committee violated state campaign finance laws by not obtaining and disclosing information on payments to sub-vendors used by signature-gathering firms. They also found Let’s Go Washington did not hand over financial records in a timely fashion as it took a July subpoena before it produced 9,000 pages of materials.
The commission imposed a civil penalty of $10,000 for each violation. It suspended half the sum as long as $10,000 is paid in 30 days and Let’s Go Washington “uses due diligence to determine if subvendors were used by its contracted vendors.” The group must inform the Public Disclosure Commission in writing if no sub-vendors were used.
In last week’s hearing, leaders of Let’s Go Washington said they were unaware of any spending on sub-vendors and thus could not have violated any reporting laws.
Commissioners disagreed, citing emails and testimony from a senior compliance officer that at least two of the firms used sub-vendors and suggesting the political committee didn’t push hard enough to get this information.
“Failing to ask or failing to follow up on a contractor’s non-response or refusal to provide the information is insufficient,” commissioners wrote in their ruling. “If this were the standard, any committee could simply ignore the issue and argue it has no knowledge of its contractor’s actions and nothing to report.”
In a win for Let’s Go Washington, commissioners concluded the committee acted in line with disclosure laws when it treated signature-gathering for the slate of measures as a single undertaking and reported what was raised and spent in lump sums.
Subsequently, at the commission staff’s request, the committee filed nearly two dozen amended reports detailing specifics on amounts raised and spent for each individual initiative.
The three initiatives on the ballot seek to overturn the state’s cap-and-trade law, repeal its capital gains tax, and make participation in Washington’s long-term care program optional.