Over eight in ten Washington State voters support ban on foreign campaign donations

Almost all vot­ers in Wash­ing­ton sup­port the con­tin­ued adop­tion of poli­cies that enure for­eign cam­paign dona­tions are banned, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute’s most recent sur­vey of the Ever­green State elec­torate has found.

83% per­cent of 700 like­ly vot­ers sur­veyed last month for NPI by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling said they sup­port­ed ban­ning for­eign cam­paign dona­tions to all can­di­dates and bal­lot mea­sures at the state and local lev­el in Wash­ing­ton. Just 11% said they were opposed. 6% said they were not sure.

This is eas­i­ly one of the most lop­sided poll find­ings we have ever seen in almost a decade of research polling. It’s not often that we find a 7:1+ ratio of sup­port to oppo­si­tion for a pro­posed pol­i­cy. But Wash­ing­ton vot­ers are near­ly of one mind with respect to keep­ing for­eign mon­ey out of cam­paigns in our state.

Sup­port extends all the way across the ide­o­log­i­cal spectrum.

Fed­er­al law — specif­i­cal­ly, the Fed­er­al Elec­tion Cam­paign Act — already pro­hibits for­eign enti­ties from donat­ing mon­ey to fed­er­al, state, and local can­di­dates, or sup­port­ing inde­pen­dent expen­di­tures favor­ing or oppos­ing a candidate.

How­ev­er, the Fed­er­al Elec­tion Cam­paign Act lacks a pro­hi­bi­tion bar­ring for­eign enti­ties from financ­ing bal­lot mea­sures, and Wash­ing­ton is among the states that has a long and well-used tra­di­tion of direct democ­ra­cy, with the pow­ers of ini­tia­tive and ref­er­en­dum guar­an­teed by the Wash­ing­ton State Constitution.

In 2019, the Leg­is­la­ture addressed this loop­hole in fed­er­al law by pass­ing Sen­ate Bill 6152, con­cern­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the lev­el of for­eign nation­al own­er­ship for cor­po­ra­tions that par­tic­i­pate in Wash­ing­ton state elections.

Cod­i­fied as RCW 42.17A.417, this law states:

(1) A for­eign nation­al may not make a con­tri­bu­tion to any can­di­date or polit­i­cal com­mit­tee, make an expen­di­ture in sup­port of or in oppo­si­tion to any can­di­date or bal­lot mea­sure, or spon­sor polit­i­cal adver­tis­ing or an elec­tion­eer­ing communication.

(2) A per­son may not make a con­tri­bu­tion to any can­di­date or polit­i­cal com­mit­tee, make an expen­di­ture in sup­port of or in oppo­si­tion to any can­di­date or bal­lot mea­sure, or spon­sor polit­i­cal adver­tis­ing or an elec­tion­eer­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion, if:

(a) The con­tri­bu­tion, expen­di­ture, polit­i­cal adver­tis­ing, or elec­tion­eer­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion is financed in any part by a for­eign nation­al; or

(b) For­eign nation­als are involved in mak­ing deci­sions regard­ing the con­tri­bu­tion, expen­di­ture, polit­i­cal adver­tis­ing, or elec­tion­eer­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion in any way.

The Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion sub­se­quent­ly adopt­ed WACs to imple­ment this RCW, specif­i­cal­ly WAC 390–16-330 and WAC 390–16-335.

With these poli­cies now hav­ing been on the books for a few years, it seemed like a good time to check in and see how Wash­ing­ton vot­ers feel about them.

The exact ques­tion that we asked and the respons­es we received are as follows:

QUESTION: Do you strong­ly sup­port, some­what sup­port, some­what oppose or strong­ly oppose ban­ning for­eign cam­paign dona­tions to all can­di­dates and bal­lot mea­sures at the state and local lev­el in Washington?

ANSWERS:

• Sup­port: 83% 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 72%
  • Some­what sup­port: 11%
• Oppose: 11%
  • Some­what oppose: 2%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 9%
• Not sure: 6%