PAC warfare raising eyebrows in state races

SANDPOINT — Incumbent District 1 Senator Shawn Keough said she is still unclear why Avista Corp. is funneling money to her tea party counterpart in a bid to knock her out of office.

“It’s just a puzzle to me to see them take this position so ferociously,” said Keough, a Republican who represents constituents in Bonner and Boundary counties.

State campaign disclosure reports show that the Washington state-based utility donated $1,000 to Keough’s political rival, Danielle Ahrens. Avista kicked in the same amount to Pam Stout, a Republican who’s running to unseat incumbent House Rep. George Eskridge in Tuesday’s primary.

Eskridge said he became crosswise with the utility for opposing last-minute legislation proposed by an Avista lobbyist during a heated debate over tax incentives for renewable legislation.

“The affected parties didn’t have a chance to respond,” Eskridge said of the 11th hour legislation.

Eskridge’s son, Perry, told the Spokesman-Review that the lobbyist threatened to ruin his father’s political career if he didn’t vote the way Avista wanted him to.

Keough believes Avista is backing her opponent because she unsuccessfully introduced legislation to establish a consumer advocacy bureau at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. Keough has also in the past testified against Avista rate increases on behalf of her constituents.

“If it’s because I’ve been defending the rate payers, I’m not going to apologize for that,” said Keough.

However, those efforts occurred years ago and since then Keough has had a productive relationship with Avista on matters such as the Outlet Bay Dam at Priest Lake, in addition to water quantity and quality issues on Lake Pend Oreille.

Avista released a statement Thursday explaining that its most recent political activism is not a precedent.

“It is appropriate and responsible for the company, through shareholder dollars and the employee-funded political action committee, to make political contributions as part of comprehensive government relations program,” said Scott Morris, Avista’s chairman, president and CEO.

Morris emphasized that rate dollars do not sustain Avista political activities, and its customers, shareholders and employees are affected by local, state and federal officials policy decisions.

All four candidates in the Republican primary are beneficiaries of donations from political action committees, campaign disclosure reports show.

But several PAC donations to Ahrens and Stout are raising some eyebrows. They include the Idaho Land PAC and the Free Enterprise PAC, both of which are operated by Lou Esposito, a Republican political consultant.

Those PAC have sponsored direct-mail advertisements skewering Keough and Eskridge.

Esposito’s consulting firm, Spartac, has also made $1,000 in-kind contributions to Ahrens and Stout for broadcast advertising and campaign management, disclosure reports indicate.

Questions have been raised about the interrelatedness of the PACs contributors and beneficiaries. But Eskridge said the Idaho Secretary of State has found nothing illegal.

“It certainly doesn’t look like it’s illegal, but it’s certainly a question of ethics. For those of us that get back into office, I think you’ll see some efforts to get at the bottom of this and possibly pass some legislation that would make it more transparent and maybe even illegal,” said Eskridge.

Both Keough and Eskridge said they’ve not seen such a concerted effort to target rival lawmakers within the same party.

“I’ve never seen this actually. This is a new day,” said Keough.