The use of Jay Ketchum’s cranes to dangle red signs urging voters to re-elect Deb Kelly as Clallam County’s prosecuting attorney constitutes part of $54,446 in unreported in-kind campaign contributions, said a complaint filed this week with the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Kelly, a Republican, faces a challenge from Democrat Larry Freedman, a Sequim attorney, in the Nov. 2 general election.
Freedman supporter JulieAnna Gardiner of Sequim filed the complaint with the state late Monday afternoon.
Gardiner alleged that Kelly did not report $54,446 in in-kind campaign contributions from Sequim resident Ketchum, including the use of two industrial cranes owned by Ketchum — one of which dramatically suspended a van and a large Kelly campaign sign for several days last summer in the parking area of Ketchum’s shop on U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim.
Kelly described the allegation of unreported in-kind contributions as “ridiculous.”
“I don’t believe we have violated any reporting requirements,” she said. “We have tried scrupulously to honor the PDC requirements.”
She did not specifically address the use of the cranes to display her signs.
“I am not going down that road,” she said.
There are no cash or in-kind contributions from Ketchum to Kelly’s campaign that were listed on the PDC’s website, www.pdc.wa.gov, as of Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Ketchum has not returned repeated calls for comment on his involvement in Kelly’s campaign and the specifics of Gardiner’s complaint.
The PDC is expected to rule on the complaint by Oct. 20, a week after general election ballots are mailed countywide but almost two weeks before the ballots’ Nov. 2 due date, PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson said Tuesday.
While she suggested that the signage on the Ketchum cranes could be compared to a person riding around with a campaign sign in a car window, Anderson said the specifics of the complaint need to be examined, and that had not happened as of early Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after it was faxed to the agency.
“We can’t give any answers about the complaint or its validity,” Anderson said, adding there are no other ongoing PDC complaints against any other general election candidates in Clallam or Jefferson counties.
The contributions from Ketchum’s three companies — Affordable Roofing, Affordable Services and Affordable Crane — consist of “materials, paint and supplies and the use of commercial vehicles used in the construction and placement of campaign signs,” the complaint alleged.
“Whereas construction is allowed as a volunteer contribution, wood, paint, truck tires, welded iron frames, use of cranes and flat bed trucks and the fuel to power them are not volunteer or construction in nature,” the complaint said.
“They are materials and supplies purchased for use in the construction of campaign signs.”
The estimates cover what Gardiner alleged are in-kind contributions received by Kelly from Ketchum from June through September, with estimated crane and flatbed-truck rental costs of $39,288 most of the allegedly unreported contributions.
“It would be nice if everybody had a sugar daddy who had cranes and trucks and [unlimited] amounts of plywood, but what about the value of the cranes and trucks?” Gardiner said.
She said she started wondering about the crane usage while traveling daily from her home in Sequim with her husband, Craig Miller, to her office-manager job in Miller’s law office in Port Angeles and passing a Kelly sign hanging from a Ketchum crane on Highway 101.
“It seems like the electoral process in terms of disclosure of campaign contributions is being abused, and it’s just not fair,” Gardiner said.
Both Gardiner and Miller are listed in the complaint as “witnesses . . . who have knowledge of the facts that support [Gardiner’s] complaint.”
Kelly, who did not know of the complaint until she was contacted late Monday by a PDN reporter, was incredulous.
“Have not disclosed what?” she exclaimed.
“The allegation is completely ridiculous,” Kelly said.
She said that she is using about 50 campaign signs from her 2006 campaign and had purchased about 50 more for her current re-election effort.
Kelly paid for the signs by putting $1,555 on her credit card, said Maggie Roth, Kelly’s campaign manager.
They were delivered to Ketchum’s shop because “it’s a bigger place” and “anyone can swing by there and get a sign,” Roth said Tuesday.
Kelly said Tuesday evening that after being interviewed by the PDN, she reviewed her PDC reports and realized that she had not reported the expenditure for 50 news signs, made July 24. Kelly said she will amend her PDC report to reflect it.
Roth said she was told by the PDC that if she did not hear anything in two weeks about Gardiner’s complaint, “we haven’t violated anything,” Roth said.
Anderson responded that a decision on the complaint “should be made within the next two weeks.”
Ketchum’s daughter, Jennifer Ketchum-Ames, contributed $350 in in-kind contributions for signage material.
Freedman said he did not urge Gardiner to file the complaint.
But John D’Urso, Freedman’s campaign manager, alleged to Kelly in an Aug. 4 letter that Ketchum had not reported in-kind contributions for the Kelly campaign’s use of Ketchum’s cranes, trucks, materials and supplies.
During the Aug. 17 primary election campaign, Freedman said that between the night of July 23 and the morning of July 24, nine of his campaign signs valued at $900 were stolen, some of which were replaced by Kelly signs.
Kelly denied any involvement in the thefts and said at the time that she had “made it crystal clear” to her supporters that her opponents’ signs were not to be tampered with.
Gardiner and Miller sponsored a fundraiser for Freedman and have a Freedman campaign sign in the yard of their home.
They have donated $717.34 in in-kind contributions to Freedman’s campaign for a catered meal July 29, according to the PDC.
Freedman said that, because of the stolen signs, he purposely divorced himself from Gardiner’s complaint but knew she was going to file it and gave her a copy of D’Urso’s Aug. 4 letter to Kelly.
The latest PDC totals show that through August, Kelly has raised $20,457 and spent $19,026, while Freedman has raised $24,157 and spent $13,562.
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Senior Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
