I'll have a more detailed story in Tuesday's paper, but in the meantime, read this news release and visit Web sites for supporters and opponents of Initiative 1000.

Basically, Human Life of Washington filed this lawsuit a month ago, but the I-1000 Death with Dignity camp just got wind of it and issued a press release today.

Human Life Washington Files Lawsuit to Keep anti- Death With Dignity Campaign Donations Secret

Effort to keep likely Catholic funding sources a secret would undermine spirit and purpose of Washington campaign finance disclosure laws;
implications could affect all campaign spending

SEATTLE—In a startling move that seeks to overturn established public disclosure laws in Washington State, a conservative Indiana-based law firm has filed suit in the Seattle U.S. District Court on behalf of Human Life Washington (HLW), a ideological organization with a track record of engaging in direct electoral politics for conservative issues and candidates.

[More:]

The suit seeks to give HLW the right to hide the identity of campaign donations against Initiative 1000, the Death With Dignity initiative likely to be on the November 2008 ballot, alleging that to require HLW to comply with the law would violate free speech rights of donors. I-1000 organizers believe the suit is simply an attempt to bypass the law and keep voters in the dark about the true source of opposition funds.

“Washington voters should be appalled that opponents of Death With Dignity want to hide their massive out of state contributions,” said Alex Morgan, campaign manager for I-1000. “But we know why opponents want to hide the truth: in other state millions of national Catholic funds have poured into these campaigns. Voters here in Washington State do not want a single church telling them how to make their personal, legal decisions.”

In fact the HLW lawsuit is quite open about their intent to spend money in opposition to I-1000, stating “HLW intends to solicit funds for issue-advocacy radio advertisements that it intends to broadcast concerning the physician-assisted suicide issue.”

The complaint goes on to state their concerns that becoming “a ‘required filer’ would expose HLW to random ‘audits and field investigations’…and various costs, fees, and penalties, including, but not limited to: a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation…”

“After years of making the appropriate filings with the PDC and obeying our campaign disclosure laws, suddenly they are afraid of playing by those same rules,” said Morgan. “Something is fishy here! This isn’t about their political free speech—this is about deliberately skirting the public’s right to know who is paying for their political speech. It looks to us as if they are trying to set themselves up as a Trojan Horse –hiding the identity of their donors and using that money to lie to Washington voters about I-1000. If they weren’t planning deceptive advertising, why would they be going to court in an effort to hide their donors? ”

“We’ve already seen deliberate lies about the track record of the Oregon Death With Dignity law, completely ignoring ten years of data that shows the law has worked to give people compassionate end of life choices,” said Morgan. “They know that the only way they can win is to lie about the law, and hiding the truth about their contributions is one more step in the wrong direction.”

If successful, the suit could have far reaching implications—allowing for “stealth” political committees to spend heavily in future campaigns without any disclosure of amounts raised, spent, or who fund their efforts. The effect would be to effectively gut Washington’s history of strong public disclosure law.

The suit is scheduled for a hearing on June 6.
BACKGROUND:

In 1991 the Catholic Church donated at least $130,000 to Human Life PAC against a related measure in Washington State. There is no reason to believe they will not do so again, given their lead legal role in the early ballot title challenge.

Generally speaking, in past legislative and ballot measure campaigns around the country, the Catholic Church has provided the bulk of opposition financing for anti- Death With Dignity efforts.

• $745,951 (64.5 percent of the opponents' budget) in Washington state in 1991 (1)

• $2,199,986 (60.6 percent) in California in 1992 (2)

• $968,806 (59.3 percent) in the first Oregon campaign in 1994 (3)

• $1,677,699 (73.6 percent) in Oregon in 1997 (4)

• $2,173,330 (38.0 percent) in Michigan in 1998, (5)

• $1,288,894 (fully 73.9 percent) in Maine in 2000 (6)

Even during the 2002 Hawaii legislative campaign, where expenditures for political advertising played a far smaller role than in a statewide ballot measure campaign, the Catholic Church nonetheless emerged as the primary opponent. (7)

Similarly in the 2006 California legislation, where disclosure is less apparent, but the church was the primary opposing voice and lobby via media and other strategies.

1. Contribution data collected from public records held by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, 1991Washington State Initiative 119 (election date November 5, 1991).

2. Contribution data collected from public records held by the State of California Fair Political Practices Commission, 1992 California Proposition 161 (election date November 3, 1992).

3. Contribution data collected from public records held by the Oregon Secretary of State's Office, 1994 Oregon Measure 16 (election date November 8, 1994).

4. Contribution data collected from public records held by the Oregon Secretary of State's Office, 1997 Oregon Measure 54 (election date November 4,1997).

5. Contribution data collected from records held by the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, 1998 Michigan Proposal B (election date November 3, 1998).

6. Contribution data collected from public records held by the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, 2000 Maine Question 1 (election date November 7, 2000).

7. Rosati, "Physician Assisted Suicide-Victory for Now"; Benoit, "State Senate Rejects Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill on Final Day of Session"; Christian, "Legislative Report"; Hawaii State Legislature, 2002 sess., HB 2487 HDl, May 2,2002