Details about this story

• Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• Date: October 15, 2008
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Daniel Lathrop
• Topics: Campaign Finance , Lobbying
• Data Types: State Data
• Description/Excerpt: Lobbyists in Washington state have raised and spent at least $18 million on political contributions to this year's state campaigns, but despite strong disclosure laws it's virtually impossible for taxpayers to track the money, thanks to years of knowing inaction in Olympia. The total is about $1 of every $6 spent on political campaigns. To determine how much lobbyists are spending and where they are placing their bets, the P-I reviewed a variety of records and data made available by the Public Disclosure Commission, which tracks the registrations of lobbyists as well as contributions to political campaigns. To speed up the process, the P-I cross-referenced lists of lobbyists, incomplete records on lobbyist contributions that had been manually entered by the Public Disclosure Commission and contributions reported to the PDC by political candidates and groups.