Oregon Public Broadcasting

With five weeks until Election Day, Washington’s race for governor is turning a shade nastier. A liberal advocacy group is questioning the ethics of Republican candidate Dino Rossi. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Fuse Washington, a liberal non-profit, has dubbed it BuilderGate.

The group is suggesting Rossi improperly coordinated fundraising with a subsidiary of the Building Industry Association of Washington.

The BIAW has been running an independent ad campaign on behalf of Rossi. Documents from a meeting of that BIAW subsidiary suggest Rossi called board members last year at a time when BIAW was building a campaign war chest to help elect him governor.

Rossi’s campaign says he did not solicit funds in those calls. And that there were no illegal or unethical dealings.

The campaign points out that Rossi wasn’t even a candidate at the time of those phone calls.

It’s against the law in Washington for candidates to coordinate with independent campaigns in any way.

The state’s Attorney General is currently investigating the BIAW and its subsidiary for separate alleged campaign finance violations.

But Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission says in the case of the Rossi phone calls it sees no smoking gun and doesn’t plan to investigate at this point.