Political Science Department at WWU Caught in the Act

WWU Campus from Downtown Bellingham

The Inslee Administration has found that the Political Science Department at Western Washington University violated state law(inappropriate) when it arranged for interns to work for local Democrats in the recent primary election.

The State Executive Ethics Board found that the University used public resources for political campaigns when it used government email asking for interns for the State Senate campaign of Tim Ballew II.

According to Western officials, the Assistant Attorney General said she received guidance from the State Executive Ethics Board that made it clear the activity was, “ inappropriate under RCW 42.52.180.   WWU’s ethics officer has sent a direction to the faculty members to stop forwarding such messages and refrain from activity such as this,” concerning e-mails sent to students in late May.

Ballew lost the primary to fellow Democrat Pinky Vargas. He reached out to her following his defeat, calling Vargas a “partner” and is supporting her against State Senator Doug Ericksen. It’s likely that many of Ballew’s illegally recruited interns will work for the Vargas campaign this fall.

Tim Ballew Democrat

Copies of original Recruiting e-mails

Copies of original Executive Ethics actions e-mails

 

 

 

 

Professor Todd Donovan of the WWU Political Science Department is used as a source for the Bellingham Herald Article that describes the consequences of the primary election.

The Herald does not disclose that he is a sitting County Councilman who has berated Republicans in the most insulting of terms. Nor do they mention that he and others have been called out for ethics violations from the WWU administration just this summer.  The Herald should think about publishing this information so that they are not accused of putting forth fake news and then allow people to decide for themselves whether Donovan’s opinions have bias.

Did the illegal interns hired by the Democratic campaigns change the outcome of the election?  We will never know for sure, but one campaign claimed over 12,000 doors were visited by volunteers and a portion of those doors had to be these interns who were illegally recruited by State Officials at WWU.

We hope that the staff at WWU will take to heart the spirit of the law and discontinue using taxpayer funding to campaign against candidates that do not even reside in the same Legislative District as Western Washington University.

One of the things not reported so far is the facts and figures for the August Primary Post Election.  Here and around the state many Races tightened up from those figures given on election night.

 Up to the minute results and commentary right here at the We the Governed Website… Linked below

We The Governed Executive Director Glen Morgan

From the We The Governed Website here: Excerpt for the 42nd here:

“In the 42nd LD(North Whatcom County)– all three Republican incumbents improved their results, but only by .2 %, which is positive, but not by much. Expect this district to include massive cash influxes by out of state donors for the Democrat challengers.  This is a Republican majority district, but residency isn’t enough.  Republicans have to actually vote to have an impact.”

There is also information on what happened in the normally heavy Democratic 40th district and how Michael Petrish just may get a chance to serve.

Check out the website for statewide results.

We The Governed Web Site