In a tight battle for a WA legislative seat, a PAC tries influencers to reach voters

Tiffany knows fashion. Lita opines on the outdoors. Their online content creations draw thousands of views from those seeking their advice and recommendations.

Recently Tiffany and Lita veered into politics, posting Instagram videos urging their followers to back the re-election of Democratic state Rep. Amy Walen of Kirkland over Jessica Forsythe, a Democratic challenger.

Neither influencer lives in the 48th Legislative District in King County that Walen represents.

Both creators — and a handful of others — got paid for their pitch from the resources of Washington Needs to Compete, a political committee with a huge treasury and savvy leaders betting this approach, used increasingly in campaigns across the country, will pay dividends in the smaller battleground of a legislative district.

“Working with creators is simply another way to reach voters and share information about the issues that matter to them,” said Nick Streuli, an officer with the political committee who worked as a top policy adviser to Washington’s Democratic former Gov. Jay Inslee.

“Campaigns have long used a variety of channels to communicate with voters, and social media is increasingly part of that mix. This effort is no different,” said Streuli, managing partner of Sundial Advocacy.

The tactic drew fire from the leader of a political committee funded by statewide unions and Democratic legislative caucuses that is spending a small warchest to unseat Walen.

“Amy Walen’s campaign is so uninspiring that her corporate special interest backers needed to pay a firm in Wyoming $105,000 to buy phony influencer support from people who don’t even live in the 48th District,” said Kurt Fritts, director of New Direction PAC.

High Stakes

Walen, a moderate Democrat, is a business owner and former Kirkland City Council member. She won her House seat in 2018 and is seeking a fifth term. Last year, in a special election, she lost to Sen. Vandana Slatter, a Democrat to her political left. 

This year, she’s locked in a fierce battle with Forsythe, a two-term Redmond City Council member who is a progressive Democrat. She enjoys backing of Slatter and former governor Jay Inslee.

Forsythe won the primary by 17 votes, setting the stage for a potential nail-biter in Tuesday’s election.

A major policy on which they diverge is the state’s new income tax, a 9.9% levy on households with earnings of more than $1 million a year.

Walen voted against the income tax bill that her Democratic colleagues passed and Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed. In this election, she said she is voting for Initiative 645 to repeal the tax. Even so, Ferguson has endorsed her reelection. So too have former governors Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire, both Democrats.

Forsythe said she supports the tax  and will vote to keep it in place. She’s said she’ll work “really hard to ensure that it stays at the million-dollar threshold.”

Big money

Entering the weekend, Walen had reported spending roughly $382,000 to Forsythe’s  $128,000. The combined total of the candidates pales in comparison to the nearly $2 million spent by political committees boosting and attacking each of them.

Leading the way is Washington Needs to Compete, the brainchild and political vehicle of Microsoft president Brad Smith. Of the $13.8 million it has raised, nearly $5.1 million is from Microsoft, followed by T-Mobile at $1 million, according to filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission. 

The PAC had shelled out close to $3.2 million as of Wednesday, with $700,068 worth of independent expenditures aimed at boosting support for Walen.

New Direction PAC is keeping pace with money from its largest donors, including the Washington Education Association, Washington Federation of State Employees, SEIU and the Kennedy Fund, which is the political arm of the state Senate Democratic Caucus. That fund has contributed $950,000 since June.

In this race, New Direction has spent close to $690,000, based on state campaign finance records. Roughly $400,000 has gone to support Forsythe and the remainder trying to bring down the incumbent.

The Influencers entered the fray earlier this month when Washington Needs to Compete paid $105,000 to Ryegrass LLC in Wyoming for what is described in campaign finance records as social media management and posting. Ryegrass describes itself as the “leading influencer agency” with access to more than 17,000 creators and influencers in Washington.

“In a time of trust & efficacy erosion in digital media, Ryegrass engineers virality that earns votes, creates conversations, and impacts policy and elections,” reads its website.

At least six influencers posted Instagram videos endorsing Walen. Each video notes that they are paid for their post by Washington Needs to Compete.

How much those videos influence voters is uncertain. More clear is that with two Democrats on the ballot, the district’s independent and Republican-aligned voters could swing the outcome.

At a recent forum, each was asked to make their best pitch to win over a Republican voter.

“I guess what I would say is I have demonstrated my independence in the Legislature,” Walen said. “I listen to everyone. I’ve demonstrated my willingness to get into the nuance, consider the unintended consequences, and to partner with my friends, offer amendments, and stand up to my caucus.”

Forsythe said she has had “a long history of working with a variety of folks. I’m not afraid to get into difficult conversations and find common ground. I believe that if we move past talking points, we can all find common threads and common realities that we want to work on and we want to fix.”

The winner of Tuesday’s election will serve a two-year term in the district that takes in Hunts Point and Medina and portions of Redmond, Bellevue and Kirkland.