Spanaway resident Don Hansler announced this week that he’ll make another run for the state office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The retired teacher also ran for the office in 2008. Incumbent Randy Dorn won that race. Dorn also announced this week that he’ll seek re-election to the post.

Hansler said he spent most of his teaching career in the Bellevue School District. After retiring in 1982, he wrote a textbook on teaching and used it in his work as an adjunct professor for several years at Seattle Pacific University, he said. He has also worked in retirement as a …

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With his rival blocked from fundraising all but three days of the month because of the Legislature’s stalemate, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee reported raising well over $500,000 in March to reach $4.8 million.

That total includes a more than $660,000 assist from the state Democratic Party, plus some contributions carried over from his congressional campaigns.

Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna has reported raising $4 million, including $270,000 during the three-day break between regular and special session. The two have each spent a bit more than $1.7 million, leaving Inslee with a cash advantage.

While it’s all but certain that lawmakers’ …

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Democrat Jay Inslee’s campaign brought in $4.25 million through February, while a freeze on campaign fundraising by state officials during legislative sessions kept Republican Rob McKenna from adding to his $3.73 million haul until a three-day, $270,000 sprint last weekend between the end of the regular session and start of the special session.

That’s what the two candidates for governor report raising. Inslee is celebrating passing the $4 million mark, while McKenna is arguing Inslee would be far behind if not for more than $600,000 from the Democratic Party and hundreds of thousands more in transfers from his Congressional campaign. …

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“The fundraising freeze has temporarily thawed for just three days!” Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna proclaims on his campaign website. “Rob has been prohibited from fundraising since November 28 when the Legislature went into session. Help him make up for lost time.”

The attorney general told his Facebook and Twitter followers his goal is to raise $20,000 in the three days before special session starts.

The overtime period starting Monday could keep McKenna from raising money for up to another 30 days.

McKenna issued a statement as the clock ticked down and it became clear the Legislature wouldn’t …

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By a 4-0 vote, the Washington Public Disclosure Commission dismissed charges of failure to report campaign activities against the state affiliate of the Koch-brother’s conservative organization Americans for Prosperity.

The dismissal comes 15 months after complaints were filed and 16 months after AFP sponsored campaign attacks against 13 incumbent Democratic legislators on the eve of the 2010 election.

And it comes one month after the PDC sent its staff back to work to seek more information about what AFP did and what state law requires. The staff today reinforced its earlier conclusion that AFP stayed under legal thresholds that would …

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Attorney General Rob McKenna announced this morning that his office has settled its lawsuit against political consulting firm Moxie Media.

The settlement – one of the highest penalties levied against individuals, according to McKenna – requires Moxie’s principals, Lisa MacLean and Henry Underhill, to pay $250,000 in fines and $40,000 in attorney’s fees and costs. Of the penalty, $140,000 will be forgiven provided MacLean and Underhill don’t violate campaign reporting laws again before Dec. 31, 2015.

Moxie came under fire last year for shuffling money among dozens of political committees in an apparent attempt to hide who was funding campaign …

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Former state Senate Republican leader Bill Finkbeiner of Kirkland announced today he is running for lieutenant governor in 2012 in a bid to bring more bipartisanship to the state Capitol. Finkbeiner served as GOP leader in 2004-05, deciding one year later not to seek re-election.

In an email today, Finkbeiner spoke of trying to build more bipartisanship at the Legislature – even more than what four-term Democratic Lt. Gov. Brad Owen of Shelton has mustered as presiding officer. Among his ideas is use of a mediator to help settle disputes and less of the global travel Owen does to boost trade and good will.

“There’s things the lieutenant governor can do to make the Senate work better … It’s not that he’s doing something bad. … He’s kind of mailing it in. There’s more than following Robert’s Rules of Order and banging the gavel,’’ Finkbeiner said.

Feinbeiner’s suggestion there is insufficient bipartisanship might be news to those in the Senate who crossed party lines in May to produce the most bipartisan budget agreement in decades. But in a telephone interview Finkbeiner said he thinks lawmakers could bring that kind of spirit to a lot more issues.
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Conservative group Americans for Prosperity-Washington didn’t run afoul of Washington election law, the staff of the state’s campaign watchdog agency has determined.

The group led by Kirby Wilbur, now chairman of the state Republican Party, attacked incumbent Democratic state lawmakers in ads and mailers and didn’t report the spending to the Public Disclosure Commission until after the November 2010 election.

Democrats complained, especially because they saw it as similar to campaign attacks on Republicans by liberal and labor groups using a Democratic consultant, Moxie Media, which has come under scrutiny for misleading voters.

But the PDC staff determined the …

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