ISSAQUAH—Washington state gubernatorial hopeful, Senator Mark Mullet (D), on May 28, filed official ethics complaints with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board alleging that Attorney General (AG) Bob Ferguson used his public office for his political campaign, a violation of RCW 42.52.180, and the other with the Washington State Bar Association for conflict of interest. Mullet alleged the incident occurred on May 13, during a phone conversation between the attorney general and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs regarding a demand to modify the Primary Election ballot in his favor.
On the last day at the eleventh-hour of filing week on May 10, two other men, sharing the name Bob Ferguson, filed for Governor as Democrats. AG Ferguson’s attorney, Zachery Pekelis of Pacifica Law Group, in a letter to Secretary of State Hobbs, “strongly” urging him, the chief election officer, that he “must” reorder the ballot to place AG Ferguson’s name above the other two Bobs who were in the second and third slots.
Pekelis then also requested that Secretary Hobbs “remove the Fraudulent Candidates from the ballot all together,” referring to the other two candidates named Bob Ferguson.
In a phone call with Secretary of State Hobbs on May 13, Attorney General Bob Ferguson learned that the occupations would be listed next to each of the three Bob Fergusons on the ballot so voters could differentiate between the candidates, but the ballot order would not be rearranged to list himself, AG Bob Ferguson, ahead of the other Bob Ferguson’s. AG Ferguson then applied verbal pressure on Secretary of State Steve Hobbs to violate RCW 29A.36.131 and rearrange the ballot order as the Ferguson campaign legal team had already demanded in their memo earlier that day.
“This verbal demand then became a violation of RCW 42.52.180 (this RCW falls under the jurisdiction of the Executive Ethics Board),” Mullet wrote in his official complaint to the Washington State Ethics Board. “AG Ferguson was putting verbal pressure on Secretary of State Steve Hobbs to rearrange the ballot order for his own personal political campaign benefit. This was also a violation of his public duties as the Attorney General is supposed to recuse themselves from a case if they have a conflict of interest, which there was during the events of May 13th, 2024.”
“It was so stressful with the three Bobs and (Attorney General) Bob Ferguson yelling at me. Oh man, I was so mad,” Hobbs said in his interview with 770 KTTH host Jason Rantz. “It’s like, I just took it because it’s like, I get it, he’s upset.”
AG Ferguson, according to Hobbs responded, “Bullshit! You could push the envelope,” after Hobbs told him he cannot reorder the ballot as it will break the law.
This verbal demand, the Mullet campaign alleges, is a Washington State Ethics violation of RCW 42.52.180.
“Steve Hobbs was also crystal clear that it was completely illegal for him to do what [AG] Bob Ferguson asked of him to do, to rearrange the ballot order to favor him politically,” Senator Mullet told the Lynnwood Times in a phone interview on May 22. “And that is exactly what Bob Ferguson asked a state agency to do on his behalf. And that for me is really shocking, is that he would in writing, demand, that the Secretary of State ‘must’ do this.”
AG Ferguson, the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Washington, joined by former King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, held a press conference in Seattle, Monday, May 13, accusing the two other “Bob Fergusons” of breaking a state law with the threat of 10 years imprisonment if they did not drop out of the race by 5 p.m. that day.
The alleged crime in question, a violation of statute RCW 29A.84.320 dealing with duplicate, nonexistent and non-true names which has been a state of Washington law for the last 80 years — originally passing in 1943. The penalty for violating this state law is a class B felony. The two other Bob Fergusons dropped out of the race with Bob A Ferguson withdrawing his candidacy under duress he wrote on the withdraw form.
The Mullet for Governor Campaign is also asking the Washington State Executive Ethics Board for a ruling to clarify for future statewide elected officials that you are not allowed to use your personal political power to pressure the Secretary of State’s office to change the order in which candidates’ names appear on the ballot. The State of Georgia highlighted in December of 2020 the importance of elected officials not having phone conversations with a Secretary of State telling them how to run an election.
On January 2, 2021, President Trump allegedly pressured Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, a fellow Republican, to overturn the election results in his state with claims of election fraud. Earlier, in December of 2020, in a phone call with a top investigator with the Georgia secretary of state’s office, Trump allegedly urged the investigator to look for fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and that that she would be “praised” for overturning results in his favor, CNN reports.
The second ethics complaint, this one filed with the Washington State Bar Association, alleges that on May 13, Washington State Attorney Bob Ferguson violated commonly known rules about lawyers recusing themselves from cases where there is a conflict of interest, along with Washington State Executive Ethics rules about not using the power of your elected office to benefit your political campaign.
“Washington State Bar Code 1.7 (a)(2) was violated by Washington State Attorney Bob Ferguson on May 13, when he applied verbal pressure to the Secretary of State Steve Hobbs to rearrange the order of where candidates would appear on the ballot order for Governor,” the statement from the Mullet campaign reads.
Former Democratic State Senator and Washington State Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge says, “An attorney, even the Attorney General, has a direct conflict of interest if she or he is self-interested in giving advice to a client. Attorney General Ferguson had no business giving advice to Secretary of State Hobbs or trying to override the advice of his Assistant AG to Hobbs about the order of candidates on the ballot.”
The Mullet for Governor campaign has requested the Washington State Bar Association and the Washington State Executive Ethics Board to directly interview both Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs regarding the complaints filed.
4 Responses
AG Bob Ferguson would not have intervened on behalf of any of the other 27 governor candidates to try to get their names off the ballot if there was a duplicate similar situation. The speed at witch Pacifica legal group, and the attorney Pekalis acted is breathtaking, pushing the legal ethics codes of conduct.. Full investigation is mandatory.
I love how this started because you GOP morons know you have to cheat to win elections now because you’re not the majority. And you aren’t the majority nationwide which is why you do voter suppression to make it as hard as possible for working people and black people to vote.
Heaven forbid Bob get mad about the cheat tactics you guys use. Jason Rantz has always been an idiot but the GOP loves idiots.
Name caller with a fake name !!
Enough name calling. Republican or Democrat, everyone’s actions should be held accountable with the law as the standard. As far as who to vote for, forget parties. Please, step back and decide if you like where things are going in this state. Regardless of party, we need to vote into office the kind of people who support our most basic need of law & order first and foremost. Without that we will have increasing lawlessness and anarchy, and none of our other needs can be met. Public safety must happen first or no other beneficial goals can be achieved.