The Ad Says: These real estate industry lobbyists helped this powerful state Senator buy this apartment building
The evidence:
A year into his first four-year term, Rossi said, three investors approached him about buying an apartment building. The group included two government lobbyists: David Ducharme and his father, Richard Ducharme, who represented the Building Industry Association of Washington while he invested with Rossi. On Rossi’s recommendation, the investors bought the Windsor Court Apartments, a Federal Way complex. [Seattle Times, 10/20/04]
Rossi’s commercial real estate investments, now worth several million dollars, include one partnership, with lobbyists Richard Ducharme and his son David, which bought a Federal Way apartment complex and helped form a Bellevue bank. Rossi was in the Senate at the time and his campaign for governor has been heavily supported by a Ducharme employer, the Building Industry Association of Washington. [Associated Press State & Local Wire, 10/21/04]
David Ducharme lobbied for the Association of Washington Retro Employees – of which BIAW is a member. [Washington Public Disclosure Commission, 1/25/00, L-1 filing]
Two of the apartment buildings Rossi has owned – Windsor Court Apartments and Harford Court Apartments – he purchased from Michael Mastro – a developer who has contributed to his campaigns. Mastro also financed both of the transactions. [Seattle Times, 10/20/04]
The Ad Says: Then helped Rossi buy a bank
The evidence:
Richard and David Ducharme are co-investors in a bank in Bellevue that Rossi provided $10,000 to help start in 2000. [Seattle Times, 10/20/04]
Rossi acknowledged that he’s the one who turned former lobbyists Richard and David Ducharme on to the opportunity to invest in Eastside Commercial Bank, of which Rossi was a co-founder. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/21/04]
The Ad Says: Making Dino a wealthier man
The Evidence:
Windsor Court Apartments LLC – which Rossi is the Managing Member of – purchased a 63-unit building in Federal Way from developer Michael Mastro in October 1997 for $2.5 million. In 1998, a deed of trust was given to Mastro. The property was sold in June 2001 for $3,093,700. [King County Property Records]
In fall 1997, Dino Rossi pulled into the parking lot of a troubled apartment building. The grass was brown, the units in disrepair, tenants weren’t paying their rent and Federal Way police had busted a methamphetamine lab there a year earlier. But Rossi, then a state senator, was sure he could drive out problem tenants, spruce up the place and make money for himself and his partners, two of them Statehouse lobbyists. He succeeded enough to sell the building 3-½ years later for $600,000 more than what the group paid for it. [Seattle Times, 10/20/04]
Rossi’s aides refused The Associated Press’ request to see his tax returns, saying he has “fully complied with all financial disclosures that are required.” [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/9/08]
The Ad Says: Now Rossi’s big developer friends are using “illegally solicited” money
The Public Disclosure Commission has determined that one of the state’s most politically aggressive industry groups violated campaign finance law while amassing its multimillion-dollar campaign fund …This summer a citizen group that included two former state Supreme Court justices filed a complaint through the state Attorney General’s Office, alleging that the BIAW had illegally operated as a political action committee. The complaint was forwarded to the Public Disclosure Commission for an investigation. A staff report concluded the BIAW had illegally solicited, received and retained more than $584,000 from its local associations without registering as a political action committee. The report also determined that the group failed to report its contributions to ChangePAC. The complaint has been returned to the state Attorney General’s Office, where it will be evaluated. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/16/08]
The Ad Says: and “deceitful tactics” to promote his campaign.
“Campaign Funding: Deceitful Tactics”: The PDC said a subsidiary of the Building Industry Association of Washington and a King-Snohomish counties builders group violated state campaign finance law by failing to properly report political contributions. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Editorial, 9/16/08]
The Building Industry Association of Washington has spent more than $2 million through its political action committee ChangePAC in an effort to oust Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/16/08]
The Ad Says: Even the Republican Attorney General is prosecuting Republican Rossi’s developer friends for their illegal activities.
Attorney General Rob McKenna took legal action against two builders’ groups accused of breaking state campaign finance laws. McKenna filed a lawsuit against the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties and a second lawsuit against a subsidiary of the Building Industry Association of Washington. The action comes just days after the state Public Disclosure Commission agreed unanimously that the two groups failed to properly report their roles in directing political donations. McKenna’s office found there was sufficient evidence in the cases, and filed the lawsuits in Thurston County Superior Court. [Associated Press, 9/20/08]
*The Ad Says: Dino Rossi is not the kind of change we need *
The Evidence:
The BIAW says Rossi backed its legislation an astounding 99 percent of the time in his seven years in the state Senate. [Seattle Weekly, 10/13/04]