Washington State Public Disclosure Commission Receives Complaints Regarding School Board Election Mailers
Plus a Q&A with the man responsible for them, as well as a look at his history of homophobic activism
The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission today confirmed it has received multiple complaints about mailers designed to influence the Wenatchee School Board elections taking place today.
The mailers, one attributed to Chelan-Douglas Health Board Member Bill Sullivan and the other a faux-newspaper titled “The Wenatchee Record” were produced by a man named Glenn Dobbs.
“We have very recently received a complaint about the mailer in question, which is being processed by staff. It should be public on our website soon,” PDC communications specialist Natalie Johnson wrote. “Here’s another ongoing complaint regarding another mailer produced by Glenn Dobbs.”
Dobbs was a member of the Washington State House of Representatives from 1985-87 and has a long history of political activism in the state.
As far as whether Dobbs has violated state election law, Johnson said that only the PDC can determine if that has occurred. But she included a link to the PDC’s enforcement guide, which “lays out the enforcement process and possible penalties for violations.”
According to a recent Wenatchee World article, Dobbs told reporter Oscar Rodriguez that his byline was “sufficient to identify as sponsor of the publication.”
Yet according to state election law political mailers like Dobbs’ must display the sponsor’s ID and any party preference in an area set apart from the ad text. That sponsor ID should also be on the front page of a multi-page mailer.
Dobbs’ identification as “editor” was on the second page, his identification was not set apart from the content and no party preference appeared. Wenatchee School Board candidates Randy Smith and Tricia Cleek also penned articles for the publication, and Dobbs denied he collaborated with them, which would be a violation of the pledge he signed under the penalty of perjury.
Yet he did not explain how he received their columns he then placed in the mailer he paid nearly $5000 to send out.
He did say it wouldn’t be the last time Wenatchee residents would see “The Wenatchee Record” in their mailboxes.
While Dobbs has not responded to my questions, which I included in my first piece about this mailer, you can read Rodriguez’s Q&A with Dobbs in its entirety here:
OR: What is your intent with publishing The Wenatchee Record?
GD: This is a story of what has been done to schools in the Wenatchee School District. OSPI Report Card makes it very clear, children in WSD are not being educated. This can only happen when a community is kept in the dark and there is no accountability. The objective of publishing The Wenatchee Record, has been to inform the community of the realities—to connect the dots between cause and effect.
OR: You said The Wenatchee Record is ‘published intermittently.’ When was it last published, and do you plan on running it again?
GD: There will be future issues of The Wenatchee Record.
OR: Why did you not include any sponsor identification in the paper?
GD: I am identified as Editor, which is sufficient to identify as sponsor of the publication.
OR: You're described as an editor in The Wenatchee Record. Did you edit all the stories?
GD: I edited substantially all of the articles, except for the editorials by Smith and Cleek.
OR: Did you write ‘Sacrificing Academics for Political Agenda?’
GD: Yes.
OR: Did Randy Smith and Tricia Cleek write their respective pieces?
GD: Yes, with some minor edits for length. It is my understanding they submitted their editorials to The World.
OR: Who designed the paper?
GD: NA
OR: How much collaboration was there between you, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Cleek in the production of the record?
GD: None. They knew nothing about it until they received it in the mail.
OR: Did anyone else collaborate with you in producing the record?
GD: No. There will be those who disagree with our interpretation of the devolution of academic standards in the WSD, but the facts of the decline are irrefutable. The question is, what can be done, what will be done to reverse the downward slide. It is clear, staying the course, or band-aid patches will not solve the problems. Certainly, providing San Francisco-based telephone psychotherapy for 10-year-old children, without parental involvement is not an answer. My comments in the Editorial, ‘Sacrificing Academics for Political Agenda’, succinctly states the condition of the schools and how that has occurred. You have my permission to publish that Editorial in The World, but only in total, without editing, and with proper attribution.”
A Look At Dobbs’ History of Homophobic Activism
The mailer, which contained hyperbolic claims about “transgender ideology” in Wenatchee schools and “sexuality training” the district is doing to students seems to be in keeping with Dobbs’ style.
Back in 1985, when he was just a freshman representative, he was using similar language and tactics to shape policy, according to this article in Seattle Gay News on May 30, 1986.
“Dobbs’ unsuccessful five-page House Bill 1969 included a tasteless litany of every conceivable type of deviant behavior (such as drinking the bodily wastes of animals), implying subtly these were common homosexual practices,” the Gay Times wrote.
At that time he was targeting the LGBTQ community by trying to codify into Washington law the freedom to discriminate against gay and lesbian workers.
In a letter to a supporter that publication ran in the same issue, Dobbs said he and other lawmakers had to do something about “the Governor’s Gay Executive Order.” And even then he was focused on the issue of members of the LGBTQ community being accepted in the public school system.
“We cannot allow sexual deviants to act as role models in our schools and our communities,” Dobbs wrote.
He also accused then-Governor Booth Gardener and other elected officials trying to ensure gay and lesbian workers were not being discriminated against in the workplace of pandering “to the promoters of perversion, at the expense of the decent citizens.”
Do we have any comment from Cleek and Smith?