Washingtonians For Ethical Government files bar complaint against Rob McKenna

One of this year’s most egre­gious polit­i­cal ads is the Big Oil-fund­ed spot against Ini­tia­tive 1631 that stars for­mer Repub­li­can guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Rob McKen­na. In the ad, McKen­na casts him­self as a cham­pi­on for con­sumer pro­tec­tion and tells vot­ers they should vote against I‑1631, the well-thought out plan to put a price on pol­luters and use the mon­ey to fund a just and respon­si­ble tran­si­tion to a clean ener­gy future… with­out dis­clos­ing that he rep­re­sents one of those oil companies.

“As Attor­ney Gen­er­al, con­sumer pro­tec­tion was my top pri­or­i­ty,” McKen­na says as the ad opens. “That’s why I’m speak­ing out against I‑1631.”

(It should be not­ed that the per­son who cur­rent serves as Wash­ing­ton’s Attor­ney Gen­er­al — that would be Bob Fer­gu­son — is sup­port­ing I‑1631.)

McKen­na goes on to duti­ful­ly recite Big Oil’s talk­ing points against I‑1631. At no point does he dis­close that he is being paid by Chevron for legal services.

In response to McKen­na’s fla­grant chi­canery, the non­prof­it cam­paign finance watch­dog Wash­ing­to­ni­ans For Eth­i­cal Gov­ern­ment — which I serve as Pres­i­dent of — filed a com­plaint this week with the Wash­ing­ton State Bar Asso­ci­a­tion urg­ing that McKen­na be dis­ci­plined for his uneth­i­cal conduct.

“Big Oil is spend­ing tens of mil­lions of dol­lars to lie to the peo­ple, but as a Wash­ing­ton lawyer, McKen­na can­not strength­en those lies by con­ceal­ing that he is a tool of Big Oil,” WFEG coun­sel Knoll Lowney said in our press release announc­ing the com­plaint. “He is not speak­ing as a con­sumer advo­cate or attor­ney gen­er­al; he is Chevron’s lawyer. McKen­na should be sanc­tioned for vio­lat­ing the eth­i­cal rules.”

Big Oil has spent over $28 mil­lion on a slick cam­paign intend­ed to cajole Wash­ing­to­ni­ans into vot­ing against I‑1631, which NPI strong­ly sup­ports. The oil com­pa­nies’ gush­er of an effort to defeat I‑1631 has already set a new record for the most mon­ey spent against an ini­tia­tive in Wash­ing­ton State history.

As you can see, the top con­trib­u­tors to No on I‑1631 are all hideous­ly wealthy oil com­pa­nies: BP, Phillips 66, Andeav­or, and Valero. Even Koch Indus­tries and Chevron have got­ten in on the action. BP — whose Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon rig caused cat­a­stroph­ic destruc­tion in the Gulf of Mex­i­co eight years ago — has under­writ­ten much of the cam­paign, writ­ing an $11 mil­lion check from its Hous­ton headquarters.

Although hard­ly any of the cam­paign’s mon­ey is com­ing from with­in the state, there are peo­ple based who are will­ing to car­ry Big Oil’s black goo for them.

Peo­ple like Rob McKen­na and his seem­ing­ly-always-grumpy advi­sor Randy Pep­ple, who tried to brush off WFEG’s com­plaint as friv­o­lous in an inter­view with KOMO.

Pep­ple — whose name amus­ing­ly got tran­scribed as “Rainy Peb­bles” by the tool that flagged his com­ments — called Wash­ing­to­ni­ans For Eth­i­cal Gov­ern­ment a “front” for the Yes on I‑1631 campaign.

“It’s a mer­it­less com­plaint that’s filed by a front group for a cam­paign that is upset that Rob McKen­na’s mes­sage has mer­it,” Pep­ple said.

Way to miss the point, Randy. It’s not what McKen­na said WFEG finds upset­ting, it’s what he did­n’t say — specif­i­cal­ly, that he is Chevron’s lawyer.

Plen­ty of orga­ni­za­tions oper­at­ing in the polit­i­cal sphere could be called front groups (like “Amer­i­cans for Pros­per­i­ty”, an arm of the Koch Broth­ers), but WFEG, con­trary to Pep­ple’s state­ment, is not a front for the I‑1631 cam­paign or any oth­er cam­paign. It was cre­at­ed back in 2016 by activists want­i­ng to cham­pi­on time­ly and effec­tive enforce­ment of Wash­ing­ton State’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure laws and ethics codes.

WFEG’s found­ing, inci­den­tal­ly, pre­dates Repub­li­can oper­a­tive and dirty trick­ster Glen Mor­gan’s weaponiza­tion of Chap­ter 42.17A RCW on behalf of right wing forces like the out­fits that Pep­ple advis­es and con­sults for.

Pep­ple also groused that “these same groups that are now com­plain­ing about Rob” opposed Ini­tia­tive 732 in 2016. That’s Car­bon­WA’s pol­lu­tion pric­ing mea­sure from two years ago, which McKen­na decid­ed to endorse in the cam­paign’s last days.

This com­ment is per­plex­ing con­sid­er­ing that the coali­tion sup­port­ing I‑1631 includes both orga­ni­za­tions that sup­port­ed I‑732 two years ago (includ­ing Car­bon­WA) as well as groups that opposed it. The entire coali­tion is unhap­py with the many fab­ri­ca­tions and dis­hon­est state­ments com­ing out of the NO on I‑1631 cam­paign, not just the orga­ni­za­tions that took a posi­tion oppos­ing I‑732.

As for WFEG, it has no posi­tion on I‑1631 and had no posi­tion on I‑732 either.

WFEG is not a polit­i­cal com­mit­tee. It does­n’t take posi­tions on bal­lot mea­sures, it does­n’t endorse can­di­dates, and it does­n’t par­tic­i­pate in any elec­toral activ­i­ties. It is a cam­paign & ethics watch­dog — noth­ing more, and noth­ing less.

When peo­ple like Rob McKen­na behave uneth­i­cal­ly, Wash­ing­to­ni­ans For Eth­i­cal Gov­ern­ment seeks to hold them account­able. That’s why it exists.

Rob McKen­na delib­er­ate­ly chose to deceive Wash­ing­to­ni­ans by appear­ing in an ad on behalf of Big Oil with­out dis­clos­ing in the ad that he rep­re­sents Chevron.

That was a grave error on his part.

As WFEG’s com­plaint doc­u­ments, McKen­na did­n’t just fail to dis­close. He took mea­sures to con­ceal his rela­tion­ship with Chevron by alter­ing his LinkedIn pro­file to remove a ref­er­ence to Chevron. His fail­ure to be forth­right with the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton is uneth­i­cal con­duct for which he ought to be sanc­tioned. As McKen­na him­self proud­ly says, he is a for­mer Attor­ney Gen­er­al, and he ought to know better.