Harger: Washington PACs could take $7,500 per donor last week. Now the sky’s the limit with just days to go until the election

Fridays. Why is it always Fridays?

On Friday, 11 days before the election, the state Public Disclosure Commission announced it will stop enforcing Washington’s limit on big last-minute checks to political campaigns. Commissioners voted Thursday. The announcement went up Friday. Ballots were already sitting on kitchen counters across the state.

Until last week, in the final three weeks before a general election, one donor could give a political action committee (PAC) no more than $7,500. Now the PDC won’t enforce that cap.

That matters for five Washington Supreme Court seats, for the Democratic push toward a supermajority in the Legislature, and for anybody wondering who’s paying for the ads flooding their phone this week.

Washington PACs can now take checks of any size before Nov. 3

This one is about political action committees, or PACs. They’re outside groups that run their own ads for or against candidates. The catch is those ads can’t be coordinated with the candidate’s campaign.

You know the little blurb at the end of the ad. “Paid for by the Harley Charger Foundation. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.” That’s how you know it’s outside money, and not an ad the candidate paid for.

PACs could always spend whatever they had in the bank. The limits on giving directly to a candidate, $1,200 or $2,400 depending on the office, are still in place. What changed is how much fresh money one donor can hand a PAC in the final stretch.

Before Friday: $7,500 from one donor to a PAC in those final three weeks.

After Friday: Millions. Billions. Elon Musk could write a trillion-dollar check, I suppose.

That’s an absurd extension, of course. But the money doesn’t have to be absurd to change a race.

You still have to report it. Contributions of $1,500 or more in the final three weeks generally have to be reported within 48 hours. Whether voters find those reports before their ballots are counted is another question. Stephen Paolini, a consultant working on Supreme Court and Democratic congressional campaigns, told the Seattle Times that with the way timing and reporting work, we may not learn who gave what until after the election.

Five Washington Supreme Court races could get a lot more expensive

Five of the nine seats on the state Supreme Court are on the ballot, the first time in recent history a majority of the court has been up at once. Back in May, former Attorney General Rob McKenna predicted unprecedented spending in these races. One of them, Sean O’Donnell versus Ian Birk, had already topped $1 million raised between the two candidates before the cap came off.

Now the sky’s the limit. Write the check, let the PAC hit whoever it wants. Just don’t coordinate with the campaign.

Democrats’ supermajority push meets unlimited PAC money

Remember the push for a supermajority in Olympia? Democrats need three more seats in the state Senate and seven in the House. A PAC working those legislative races was capped at $7,500 per donor once the three-week window opened on Oct. 13.

Now it can take whatever one donor wants to give. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands.

Brian Heywood and a Democratic consultant both hate the timing

Brian Heywood, of the conservative group Let’s Go Washington, posted that there’s now no limit on what one donor can give a PAC, right up to Election Day, and argued it hands progressives an edge in the Supreme Court races. Paolini, who works the other side of the aisle, called it “horrible timing.”

When the guy behind the millionaires’ tax repeal and a consultant for Democratic campaigns agree on something, the PDC might want to take notes.

Commissioners had been discussing this since June, when a case involving a Court of Appeals candidate raised constitutional questions about the 21-day cap, citing rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts. PDC Deputy Director Kim Bradford told the Seattle Times the worry was fairness: some campaigns and their lawyers might already know the rule probably wouldn’t survive a challenge and act on it, while everyone else kept playing by the old rules.

The law is still on the books. The PDC can’t rule on whether it’s constitutional. It just won’t enforce it.

And it did come up at public meetings in September and October. Putting something on a public meeting agenda is a long way from making sure campaigns and voters know what’s coming.

My concern is the clock. It’s the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, and suddenly you can put 30 players on the field instead of 11.

If there were serious doubts about whether this rule was legal, that should’ve been communicated loudly, and early. Not quietly on a Friday, 11 days before the election.

How Washington can fix late campaign money before 2028

The Legislature can take this up in January. Big last-minute checks already have to be reported, generally within 48 hours. Make it 24, and post those reports where voters can find them before they vote. If enormous checks are going to land in the closing days, voters should see them first.

And if the PDC is weighing a change this big, campaigns should get a clear warning well before ballots go out. What might change, when, and why. Fix it in June, not in October.

In the meantime, if a PAC ad shows up on your screen this week, you can look up who’s funding it on the PDC’s website before you fill in that oval.

Seattle’s Morning News is open for PAC business

But it’s done. And PACs, what better place to spend it than Seattle’s Morning News, KIRO Newsradio, and MyNorthwest.com? Some of the smartest, best-looking, most open-minded people in the state are reading this right now. None of them have voted. Not a single one. Think of how your multi, multi-million dollars could influence the election with an ad buy right here this week. If you’re feeling good about it, make it a hundred million. Think of the influence. The prestige!

That kind of money sounds crazy. Last Wednesday, a PAC couldn’t have taken that check. Welcome to a new era of Washington state politics.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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