State and local elected officials (and their agents) may not knowingly solicit, directly or indirectly, a contribution to a candidate, political party or other political committee from an employee in the official's agency. For example, neither legislators nor their campaign committees may solicit political contributions from legislative employees. RCW 42.17A.565
The PDC has determined that an official who obtains a general, broadly-based mailing list from a vendor is not required to scrutinize that list for the names of employees in the official's agency prior to using it to solicit campaign contributions. For example, if an official obtains from the county elections office a list of persons who are frequent voters, the official could use this list to solicit contributions without being in violation of the law.
However, if a list were not broadly-based (for instance, it originates from the state employees union), the official would be in jeopardy of violating the law if he or she uses the list to solicit contributions and it contains the names of persons who are employed by the official's agency. Similarly, if an official intends to use the list of contributors to his or her last campaign to solicit funds and is aware (or has reason to believe) that this list includes names of current agency employees, the names of employees known to the official must be removed before the mailing goes out.