Stand For Children Washington PAC: Alleged Violation of RCW 42.17A.320 for failure to accurately disclose sponsor identification for political advertising. (NOV 2018)

The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) has completed its review of the complaint filed by Danielle Franco-Malone on November 5, 2018. Your complaint alleged that the Stand For Children Washington PAC, a continuing political committee registered with the PDC, may have violated RCW 42.17A.320 by sponsoring political advertising that failed to list the correct sponsor identification on Facebook.  

PDC staff reviewed your allegations, the statutes and rules, and the response from Stand For Children Washington PAC.  

Based on these findings and the following facts, staff has determined that in this instance, the failure to disclose the correct sponsor identification does not amount to a material violation warranting further investigation since: (1) The Campaign acknowledged that the misspelling of the sponsor identification was an unintentional error resulting from the vendor’s staff; (2) The corresponding Facebook link contained a correct version of the sponsor committee name; and (3) The failure to correctly disclose the committee name of the sponsor was inadvertent and minor in nature, and did not materially impact the public interest. 

However, pursuant to WAC 390-37-060(1)(b), PDC staff issued a formal written warning to the Stand For Children Washington PAC concerning the importance of identifying the proper sponsor identification on all political advertising, including digital advertisements as required by PDC laws and rules. This formal written warning conveys staff’s expectation that the Stand For Children Washington PAC will fully comply with the political advertising requirements listed above in the future as a registered continuing political committee. The Commission will consider this formal written warning if there are any future PDC law or rule violations by the Stand For Children Washington PAC.

Based on this information, the PDC has dismissed this matter in accordance with RCW 42.17A.755(1), and will not be conducting a more formal investigation into your complaint or pursuing further enforcement action in this case.