State law forbids political committees from accepting contributions larger than $5,000 during the 21 days preceding an election. On Friday, Oct. 17, Evergreen Progress filed a Last Minute Contribution report of a $250,000 contribution by the Service Employees International Union on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Both dates fall within 21 days of the Nov. 4 general election.

The Washington State Republican Party filed a complaint with the PDC late yesterday afternoon. Early today, the WSRP was informed by the PDC that Evergreen Progress had been directed to return the quarter-million dollars to SEIU.

Evergreen Progress is a political committee that appeared out of thin air earlier this year, exists only run attack ads to benefit Gregoire, whose Campaign Manager is a Gregoire donor and supporter, and which will likely disappear into the mist after the general election.

Evergreen Progress’ major contributors include unions which were negotiating with the governor for increased pay and benefits at the same time they were making large donations to Evergreen Progress to support Gregoire’s re-election.

Washington State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser offered the following statement:

“I’m gratified that Evergreen Progress was forced to return the illegal $250,000 contribution that they would have undoubtedly used to run even more negative ads on behalf of Christine Gregoire,” Esser said. “It’s not surprising that Evergreen Progress is worried about Gregoire’s high unfavorable ratings with the voters, and that they are trying to scrape up even more money for their personal, negative attacks against Dino Rossi. But the law is clear and this contribution was illegal. Evergreen Progress is a shadowy organization that exists to do the bidding of Christine Gregoire, and this incident proves that they deserve much more scrutiny from public regulators and the press.”