Coal news and updates

Promoters of a giant coal export terminal, proposed for north of Bellingham, have given $40,000 to the Washington Republican Party, bucks that a Western Washington University professor suspects are being funneled into campaigns of sympathetic but officially “non-partisan” Whatcom County Council candidates.

 

“It appears that Pacific International Terminals and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad have earmarked campaign funds given to the state Republican Party such that these funds exclusively benefit candidates in Whatcom County,” Todd Donovan, a WWU political scientist and elections expert, said in a filing with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

 

No way, responded state Republican Party spokesman Keith Schipper:  “The state party does not accept earmarked funds. Period.”

 

Donovan wants the state Public Disclosure Commission to investigate “unreported earmarkings” of campaign money in the battle to control Whatcom County government.

 

“This practice allows Pacific International and BNSF to disguise the fact that they are a primary source of campaign funds for these candidates and for the Whatcom County Republican Party,” Donovan wrote the PDC.

 

He is not suggesting the Republicans are getting illegal funding, Donovan stressed.  “It’s not that they are completely evading spending limits — it’s just a matter of how this is disclosed,” he said Wednesday.

 

The Bellingham-Whatcom County area is sharply divided over the proposed coal port.  It has stirred a citizen opposition movement in Bellingham, where 17 one-mile to mile-and-a-half long coal trains would run along the downtown waterfront each day.  Support in the county, particularly in the Ferndale area, is strong.

 

The county council has a quasi-judicial role in deciding whether the controversial Gateway Pacific project gets built.  The Army Corps of Engineers also has a permitting process underway, and the state of Washington is studying impacts of the project.  It would ship coal to fuel power plants in China.

 

The movement of money into and out of state Republican coffers has been as follows:

 

– State Republicans, on May 1, received a $10,000 donation from Pacific International Terminals.  Pacific doubled down with a $20,000 contribution on Sept. 17.

 

– The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, on June 25, made two donations totaling $10,000 to state Republicans.

 

– The state Republican Party, on May 1, gave $5,000 to the Whatcom County Republican Party.  It followed with a second $5,000 donation on May 24, and a third $5,000 donation on July 19.

 

– The state party has given $500 apiece to four candidates — Kathy Kershner, Michelle Luke, Ben Elenbass and Bill Knutzen — who have been endorsed by the Whatcom County Republican Party.  The county party strongly supports the proposed coal export terminal.

 

–The Whatcom County Republican Party, between July 29 and Aug. 1, made donations of $900 apiece to Kershner, Luke, Elenbass and Knutzen.

 

It is not unusual for state Republicans to invest campaign dollars in county campaigns, Schipper argued.  The party is, for instance, supporting the re-election of non-partisan King County Councilman Reagan Dunn.  (Dunn was the Republicans’ 2012 nominee for state attorney general.)

 

Whatcom County’s Republican Chairman Charlie Crabtree has launched what Schipper described as “an experimental process” of voter registration and contact, said Schipper, which merits support from the state party.  Crabtree is the state party’s technology chairman.

 

Donovan is “throwing mud at the wall” and “making factually inaccurate charges” in claiming the money Pacific International Terminals and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe is earmarked for Whatcom County four.

 

But Donovan argued that it is not uncommon for donors to channel or disguise money put into a controversial cause.  “There are business groups that don’t want to see their names as supporters of a candidate,” he said.  “The candidate often doesn’t want to seem beholden to corporate interests.”

 

The Whatcom County Council battle has drawn interest from as far away as Washington, D.C.

 

The MSNBC political report, “The Daily Rundown,” has featured a segment on whether a county council in far-off Bellingham could torpedo coal companies’ intense efforts to find new export markets for their product.  Coal is losing out to natural gas and is desperate to find a market in China.

 

Democrats in Whatcom County have opposed the coal terminal, which would be located at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham.  Cherry Point is already home to two oil refineries and an aluminum smelter.

 

The Whatcom County Democratic Party has raised more than $70,000 and opened a headquarters in the old Bellingham Herald building that it shares with four party-backed candidates.

 

With a campaign called Whatcom Wins, it is boosting county council candidates Carl Weimer, Ken Mann, Barry Buchanan and Rod Browne.  Weimer and Mann are incumbents seeking re-election.

 

“They’re getting outside money as well,” Donovan said.

 

Source: blog.seattlepi.com