Walmart and Amazon Fund PAC for ‘Defund the Police’ Attack Ads in Close Central Australia Race

KENNEWICK — Big business donors are pouring huge amounts of money into Central Washington to hurt the chances of three Latino Democrats getting elected.

In one such case, a PAC affiliated with prominent Republicans and funded by major corporations such as Walmart, Amazon.com and Koch Industries is distributing strong messages through campaign mailers that the Washington Senate hopes Maria Beltran will “defund the police and will make Washington less violent.” safe.”

That PAC, People for Jobs, run by the pro-business organization Enterprise Washington, has spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on digital, mail and television ads against Beltran, as well as fellow Democrats Ana Ruiz Kennedy and Chelsea Dimas, also running in 14th arrondissement. Legislative district.

He is funded by Jobs PAC, also an Enterprise Washington committee that said it has received $7,500 from Walmart, $35,000 from Amazon.com and $10,000 from Koch Industries this year.

“I do not support defunding the police and have been clear about that throughout the campaign,” Beltran told the Tri-City Herald this month. “Groups supporting my opponent Curtis King are outright lying about my positions on public safety issues. What a shame that King supporters feel they have to lie to win.”

But King, a Republican, says he “can’t control” the messages from outside donors. He declined to comment when asked if he agreed with the reports.

“We just tried to stay positive and let the voters ultimately make the decision,” he said this week.

Tyler Mason, executive director of Enterprise Washington, points to Beltran’s track record as One America board president during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. In a series of Facebook posts, the immigrant rights nonprofit expressed support for cutting funding for the Seattle Police Department by 50% and implementing sweeping changes to the state’s criminal justice system.

One America also sent a letter to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and called on the city to commit to “dismantling the current version of the Seattle Police Department, replacing it with a vision of public safety led by community leaders.”

“By and large, the business community is in these races for the same reasons that the anti-business community is putting six figures into them: the candidates clearly disagree on business issues,” Mason said.

“From public safety to taxes to demonstrating pragmatism in the fight against extremism, the candidates in these races have very different views on the things that matter to the business community and voters in Central Washington,” he continued.

But Beltran said in a statement that she does not and has never supported defunding the police. Everything else, she says, is “dishonest lies.”

“I will always support law enforcement. We must equip police departments with the tools and resources needed to hire more officers from this region so they can do their jobs correctly and rebuild trust with all communities,” she said.

A pair of television ads paid for by the Washington State Republican Party and released in English and Spanish characterize the three Democrats as “Seattle liberals” who are “too radical for Central Washington” and do not support four voter-sponsored initiatives. Republicans and the group Let’s Go Washington.

Ruiz Kennedy on Wednesday called the ad “character assassination” and likened it to a “fear-mongering campaign.”

“If this is how they plan to win elections, will they also govern in the same way?” she asked. “We’ve made a concerted effort to run a clean campaign… This is about people’s characters and their livelihoods, and we’re not going to do that.”

Race for Washington’s 14th District heats up

The fight for three seats representing Central Washington’s district in the Legislature has drawn national attention as Democrats seek to expand their hold on the state House and Senate.

Republicans hold three seats in the 14th Legislative District, but Democrats are seeking to flip them after a federal judge redrew Washington’s legislative district map to give Yakima Valley Latinos a fairer chance to elect candidates of their choice.

The only incumbent running in a new Latino-majority district is King, a four-term Yakima resident who was ousted from his district but decided to move 1.5 miles from his previous home to run for a Senate seat.

He is being challenged by Beltran, a Yakima Valley native who most recently served as deputy director of the House Democratic Campaign Committee.

Their campaigns raised a total of $1.1 million and spent nearly $775,000.

In the race for the Washington House, Dimas faces former Grandview Mayor Gloria Mendoza, while Ruiz Kennedy faces accountant and gardener Deb Manjares.

These four candidates raised approximately $910,000 and reported expenses of $690,000.

Republican candidates won a majority of the vote in August’s jungle primary, but Democrats are hoping their chances in the general election can boost their chances into double digits.

Washington’s 14th Legislative District stretches from the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers to the snow-capped summit of Mount Adams. It includes parts of several communities, including Pasco, Finley, Grandview, Sunnyside, Toppenish, Yakima, Goldendale and most of the Yakama Indian Reservation.

Combined voting data from the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections shows the district favoring Democrats by 9 percentage points. However, there was no public vote on any of the three races.

Ballots have already been mailed to registered voters in 39 Washington counties for the November 5 presidential election.

Voters have until 8:00 pm on Election Day to vote and update their registration in person at their local county elections office.

Ballot drop boxes close statewide at 8 pm on Election Day. Voters can check the status of their ballot online at votewa.gov.

Six-figure expenses for big businesses

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising were spent in the 14th Legislative District in the final weeks of the Nov. 5 general election cycle.

Energy giants such as Phillips 66 and the Marathon Patroleum, as well as other business interest groups such as the Building Industry Association of Washington and the Washington Association of Realtors, have poured tons of money into the race in Central Washington.

These contributions were registered with the Jobs PAC, which in turn funneled the money to the People for Jobs PAC through transfers and contributions.

People for Jobs then used those contributions to cover more than $238,000 in expenses, mostly on mailers benefiting Republicans, video production for television ads, text messages, websites and other expenses.

Protests against police violence erupted across the country in mid-2020 following the killing of George Floyd, a black man, while in Minneapolis police custody. Among the demands of many protesters was to “defund the police,” or to reallocate funds away from police militarization and toward other forms of public safety and addressing underlying crime problems.

But despite short-term support, “defunding” efforts have never translated into substantive legislation, especially in Seattle. Although some attribute the 2020 movement to an exodus of police officers from the Emerald City department.

More Americans say they want to spend more on police officers and public safety in their communities, according to a 2021 Pew Research poll. About 47% said they want spending to increase, while 37% said they want spending to stay the same.