When did Lisa Brown begin her campaign? And, who did the laundry?

POSTED 14 July 2023

Lisa Brown “officially” announced her campaign for Mayor on March 2, 2023 at an event in Spokane.  She resigned her position as Director of WA Commerce effective March 3, 2023.  She thought it appropriate to spend her next-to-last day as a state employee kicking off a political campaign?  RCW 42.52.180 states,

“No state officer or state employee may use or authorize the use of facilities of an agency, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of a person to an office … Facilities of an agency include, but are not limited to, use of stationery, postage, machines, and equipment, use of state employees of the agency during working hours …”

Alexander Scott, Special Assistant for Federal Policy, WA Dept of Commerce was at Lisa’s campaign kickoff event and doesn’t look so happy to be on camera.  Note: his wife is Camlynne Scott – see below.

But Brown began her campaign activities long before this past March.  Last summer, on August 9, 2022 the Lisa Brown for Congress Campaign (she lost this campaign in 2018) for some reason still had significant money in its coffers and donated $25,000 to the “509 Forward Sponsored by Lisa Brown for Congress” PAC.  Confusing? To be sure. The 509 Forward PAC is a small Spokane political effort headed up by now Spokane City Council candidates Kitty Klitzke and Paul Dillon as well as Camlynne Scott (wife of Alex, above).  The very next day, August 10, 2022 509 Forward Pac used the windfall to commission a political poll from a D.C. firm in the exact amount of $25,000.

Why didn’t Lisa just conduct her poll through her congress campaign? That would be illegal. Someone had to do the laundry.

According to the law firm that is defending (they have paid $4,000 in legal fees this year) the “509 Forward Sponsored by Lisa Brown for Congress” PAC for disclosure violations, the poll was used to,

“Just one out of the twenty-seven questions in the poll asked about Lisa Brown as a potential candidate for Mayor of Spokane. The poll reflects the best efforts of a local political committee to gain insights about where to focus its resources at the County and City levels. It was not focused on exploring a possible future run for Mayor by Lisa Brown.”

First, there were no City elections that year.  Second, any question that explored Lisa Brown as a candidate for Mayor would constitute a campaign activity as per the WA Public Disclosure Commission,

“According to the disclosure law, you become a candidate when you do one of these things: accept a contribution or spend money for your campaign; reserve space or purchase advertising to promote your candidacy; authorize someone else to do any of these activities for you; state publicly that you are seeking office; or file a declaration of candidacy.”

Lisa Brown clearly spent money on a poll in August of 2022 to see if and how she could run for Mayor.  Her lawyers admitted such.  Polling is a campaign activity, that in this case cost $25k.  Why hasn’t Lisa Brown listed any polling expenses on her reporting this year?  Because she secretly paid for a poll last year.

Lisa Brown has been running for Mayor of Spokane since last summer or earlier.  She has spent her own congressional dark money to do so.  All the while allowing her to keep collecting a paycheck (our taxes) as a state officer, moving federal money to her Spokane allies.

We forced Lisa Brown to follow the law and report her expenses yesterday.  Call Lisa Brown’s campaign again today at 509 903 6137 and demand that she discloses her 2022 $25,000 poll on her campaign expenses this year.  She only has $40,000 left in her 2023 primary election account and can barely cover the bill, but at least she would be honest.