A new political committee, Cut Taxes PAC, has gotten involved this year’s state legislative races. Given their name, it’s no surprise their first spend was $3,000 on mail against incumbent Democratic state Sen. Jean Berkey (D-38, Everett) and $3,000 supporting her GOP opponent, Rodney Geiger.
Here’s the surprise, though: The mail firm is Moxie Media, a Democratic firm—the same firm that’s done about $70,000 in mail against conservative state Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson and, in fact, is doing TV for Berkey’s Democratic opponent on the left, Nick Harper, on behalf of a progressive political committee called Stand Up for Citizens.
Moxie may not be the only ones playing both sides of the fence.
The Public Disclosure Commission has not reported the contributors behind Cut Taxes PAC yet, but sources close to the Berkey campaign believe it’s being funded by labor unions—specifically, the Washington State Labor Council’s Don’t Invest in More Excuses PAC, the main funder behind the Harper independent expenditures that Moxie has done.
DIME PAC has pledged to campaign against Democrats who did not vote labor’s way, and despite Berkey’s strong labor record, she did vote to furlough state workers, which really pissed off the unions this year.
Labor council spokeswoman Kathy Cummings said she was “not familiar with that one” when asked about Cut Taxes PAC and referred us to Moxie. (Moxie has not returned our call or email.)
Cummings did say, “We would like to see her [Berkey] not make it through the primary.”
With Reiger, a Tea Party-esque Republican whose campaign site blares “Cut Spending & Reduce Taxes,” (the opposite of labor’s agenda, by the way) attacking from the right and Harper attacking from the left, Cummings may just get her wish.
However, be careful what you wish for.
