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"The sitting judges are under attack by the Building Industry Association of Washington, or BIAW, for their votes that allowed the since-defunct Seattle Monorail Project to condemn extra land and that went against open-government activists on a couple of public records cases," Brad Shannon [http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060905/NEWS/609050314 wrote] September 5, 2006, in ''The Olympian'' Online. "BIAW, which has contributed heavily to the PAC, has begun ads for Groen in movie theaters, and it plans radio ads soon." Other ads attacking Washington state "Supreme Court Justice Tom Chambers and backing challenger Jeanette Burrage" were "placed by a committee named" [[Citizens for Judicial Integrity (CJI) [initially called FairPAC]], " Connelly wrote. "Public Disclosure Commission records reveal that the 'citizens" group has a single contributor: It received $72,000" August on Aug. 25, 2006, from a [[political action committee]] called [[Constitution First PAC]], " which "also has a limited list of contributors." CJI "formed with money from the [[Service Employees International Union]], environmentalists, tribes, trial lawyers, the state teachers union, state employee groups and abortion-rights groups," Shannon wrote. In the August 31, 2006, ''Eye on Olympia'' Blog in the ''Spokesman Review'', Richard Roesler [http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/olympia/archive.asp?postID=3945 wrote] that CJI was at that time barely a week old and had already raised $72,000, with that money coming from yet another week-old committee, Constitution First PAC—which had "raised $75,000 from just three donors: It received $50,000 from Sabre Venture, Inc. of Poulsbo and $1225,500 each 000 from J.R. Sherrard and A.L. Alyce Sherrard, also both of Poulsbo. (The Sherrards also donated the maximum $1,400 each to Burrage's regular campaign fundSilverdale.)"
:The [http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?whoistoken=0 domain] / [http://www.votingforjudges.org website] VOTINGFORJUDGES.ORG calls itself "An information resource for Washington voters." As of September 8, 2006, CHANGEPAC (PO Box 1909, Olympia) had received an estimated $600,000 in revenues, with $400,000 attributed to donations on September 1, 2006, by the Building Industry Association of Washington (PO Box 1909, Olympia). "Advocacy" total expenditures to date are $336,704.82, with $291,377.09 spent on John Groen and $45,327.73 on Stephen Johnson. [http://www.votingforjudges.org/finance/itstime.html]
On the east coast, Connelly writes, an additional $320,000 was spent "on anti-Alexander ads ... aired by a group identified as 'Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse'," which "gives an address in Virginia and is the spawn" of the [[American Tort Reform Association]] [http://www.atra.org/][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tort_Reform_Association]."
:Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse WA PAC, with an Alexandria, Virginia, address, also links with VOTINGFORJUDGES.ORG. It shows a single contribution of $355,000.00 from Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse, also located in Alexandria, Virginia [http://www.vpap.org/donors/pac_soo.cfm?ComID=05-100&FmKey=ORP000240881]. "Advocacy" expendures total $320,000.00: $80,000.00 to support John Groen and $240,000.00 to support Stephen Johnson in Washington. [http://www.votingforjudges.org/finance/tired.html]
==Telecom astroturf==
*Dawn Holian, [http://www.commonblog.com/tag/Astroturf "New Astroturf,"] ''Common Cause'' Blog, August 25, 2006.
*R. Scott Raynovich, [http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=102497 "Astroturf, Anyone?"] ''Light Reading'', August 29, 2006.
*Richard Roesler, [http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/olympia/archive.asp?postID=3945 " ] ''Eye on Olympia'' Blog/''Spokesman Review'', August 31, 2006.
*Brad Shannon, [http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060905/NEWS/609050314 "Money pours into court races,"] ''The Olympian'' Online (WA), September 5, 2006.
*[http://www.brennancenter.org/presscenter/releases_2006/pressrelease_2006_0908.html Press Release: "Rash of Negative Ads in Court Races. Bring 'New Politics of Judicial Elections' to Washington State,"] [[Brennan Center for Justice]], September 8, 2006.
*Joel Connelly, [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/284607_joel11.html "Attack ads on judges paid for by fake PACs,"] ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', September 11, 2006.
[[Category:Public relations/Astroturf]][[Category:Ethics]]
