The San Juan County Democrats are pleased to have reached the settlement with the Washington State Attorney General over unintentional campaign finance reporting infractions described in a Journal article on May 16, 2018. However, the article contains a significant error in stating that the penalty resulted from our failure to report contributions, expenditures and debts in 2016.

In fact, all these transactions were reported to the state Public Disclosure Commission, with the only irregularity being that they were reported outside of the statutory reporting period.

This late reporting was due primarily to the failure of our new volunteer officers to master the intricacies of the PDC’s new online campaign finance reporting system. We were not alone in this, as over 400 other Democratic and progressive individuals and organizations in our state have been the targets of similar campaign finance complaints by supporters of the opposition party.

The entire cost of this settlement, including legal fees, has already been paid by two individual donors as already reported to the PDC. No other past or future contributions to the SJCDs have been or will be used for this purpose. Instead, all other 2018 contributions and other income will continue to be used to support the election of Democrats and other progressives in local, state and national elections in November, including efforts to help retain control of the state Legislature and to regain control of the U.S. House and Senate.

David Turnoy, San Juan County Democrats Chairman

David Dehlendorf, Treasurer