In and out: has Scott White mistakenly dropped bid for state rep?

A fax from Scott White to King County Elections: Obtained by PolitickerWA.comThe 46th Legislative District's race to succeed Rep. Jim McIntire for state representative in Position 1 has been no stranger to controversy this spring. There is a debate over who actually won the district line from the precinct committee, and now the two leading Democratic candidates are arguing over whether one of them is even in the race anymore.

On the afternoon of Friday, June 13, Erica C. Barnett at The Stranger reported that Scott White, a leading candidate, had withdrawn from the race upon receiving the news that he had come down with a case of pneumonia.

That Friday, White attempted to withdraw his withdrawal, and when he spoke with PolitickerWA.com White reiterated that he was still in the race, and even touted the sole endorsements of both the Washington Education Association and the Washington Conservation Voters, two highly influential interest groups in the Seattle area. White acknowledged that he had come down with a terrible illness, which he recently found out was walking pneumonia, and in the heat of his suffering felt that he would not be able to campaign for too long a time.

But the question remained, since the report came a day after Thursday's withdrawal deadleine, and was still not fully substantiated (despite this image of the King County elections website obtained by The Stranger), what did White do and when did he do it?

Back on May 15 the 46th LD Democrats held a meeting of Precinct Committee Officers to select an official nominee for the district in line with rules the state party instituted upon passage of the "top two" primary. Gerry Pollet won the nomination in a close vote of weighted PCOs, yet later that night Scott White claimed, both on his website and in an e-mail to PolitickerWA.com, that a misplaced ballot was found, thus handing the nomination to him. Regardless, Pollet, who had an uncounted ballot of his own that was disqualified for being written on the wrong colored piece of paper, remained the nominee.

Despite the nomination loss, White maintained a substantial lead in all of the normal electoral metrics. As of the end of May he had outraised Pollet $49,000 to $23,000 and, despite having greatly outspent Pollet, still held a $4,000 cash on hand advantage. White also had the endorsements of nearly every elected official in the greater Seattle area including the full 46th District delegation. This all made it so much of a surprise that White had apparently withdrawn.

Upon hearing the news, Pollet came to the conclusion that if White had truly withdrawn, state law would not allow him to "un-withdraw" pursuant to state election statute RCW 29A.24.131. It states, "No filing fee may be refunded to any candidate who withdraws under this section," and the law is otherwise very clear that upon submission of a filing withdrawal, a candidate submits his or her filing fee.

So it would seem that if White had formally submitted a withdrawal form, he would be forfeiting his filing fee and, since the filing deadline had passed nearly a week ago, would be unable to regain entry to the ballot.

On Monday, upon returning home from the state Democratic Party convention, Pollet submitted a public records request to King County Elections asking for any documents submitted by White pertaining to a withdrawal of his candidacy.

King County provided a fax from White on Tuesday afternoon, which was obtained by PolitickerWA.com. Although the fax has a hand written note on it saying "late withdrawal", the time stamp at the top of the fax clearly shows that it was sent on Thursday at 13:29, prior to the Thursday afternoon deadline imposed by the Secretary of State's office and King County.

Adding further intrigue to the story is the fact that the fax number the document was sent from is the fax number for the office of King County Executive, where White works as a Special Projects Manager. Sending faxes for political means from a King County office is a clear violation of ethics.

Pollet has requested that White be removed from the ballot in accordance with what he says are election laws that preclude White from withdrawing his withdrawal. Given the overwhelming Democratic slant of the 46th District, such a move would all but hand him a seat in the legislature.