STAN SHORE

Washington state news media in 2001 reported that GOP consultant Stan Shore was helping Green Party candidates without the candidates’ knowledge.
The plan: to siphon enough liberal votes away from Democrats. Following is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s account:

Greens say Republicans crashed their party
Environmentalists accuse them of helping in order to sabotage Democrats
Tuesday, August 7, 2001
By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Stan Shore is a veteran political campaign consultant for Washington state Republicans, but on July 7 he wasn't working for Republicans -- at least not directly.
He was in Lynnwood organizing a Green Party convention to nominate a Green candidate to run for the state House from the 21st District, in the state's most closely watched race. It could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the House of Representatives.
In SeaTac the same day, Shore's wife, Leslie Donovan, was working to nominate a Green Party candidate for the King County Council's 13th District -- against one of her husband's Republican clients, state Sen. Pam Roach.
The delegates to that nominating convention reportedly included several Republican precinct committee officers from South King County.
Green Party leaders charged yesterday that Shore and other Republicans hijacked their party to get Greens onto the ballot to siphon votes away from Democrats in two tight, high-profile races.
"Certain Republicans seem to think they can influence these elections, and we take exception to that," said Kara Ceriello, who heads the Green Party of Washington state.
It was a revealing introduction to politics for Young Han, 18, the Greens' 21st District House candidate, an idealistic newcomer who graduated from Mountlake Terrace High School two months ago.
"I can't believe this is happening. It's just horrid that this stuff goes on in our political system," exclaimed Han, who decided several months ago to run as a Green candidate.
Dave Swart, 21, was a member of the Green Party of South King County but resigned to protest what happened at the 13th County Council district convention.
"We didn't do our homework on who was running this convention," he said.
Shore said he helped the Greens nominate a House candidate because "I like the Greens. I've always liked them," although he isn't a member of the party. He denied having done it to help Republicans.
Shore and his wife live in Olympia, far from the 21st Legislative District and County Council District 13.
Han said Shore and Donovan contacted him after learning he had intended to run. They took him to lunch and urged him to run, and Shore gave him a $250 campaign contribution -- all without revealing that Shore was a professional Republican political operative. Han now says he will give that money back.
Donovan said she is a member of the national Green Party -- although local Green leaders disputed it -- and has been an environmental activist. She emphatically denied having helped organize the South King County Green convention to benefit Republicans.
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance, although denying the state or local GOP organizations were involved in the effort, was blasé about what the Republicans were accused of doing.
"Working to make sure you get the right mixture of candidates on the ballot is a tactic that goes as far back as the dawn of democracy," Vance said. "This is nothing illegal or unethical, and it's a common tactic.
"Most people in politics assume that having a Libertarian on the ballot takes votes away from a Republican and having a Green on the ballot takes votes away from a Democrat."
Shore, who said he has helped run "dozens and dozens" of Republican campaigns, is Roach's consultant in her County Council race against recently appointed Republican incumbent Les Thomas and state Sen. Julia Patterson, a Des Moines Democrat.
He isn't working for Rep. Joe Marine, a Mukilteo Republican who was appointed to the 21st District House seat. But Shore said the state GOP hired him to do research on Marine and his two Democratic challengers, Brian Sullivan and D.J. Wilson.
The Republican consultant admitted that he made arrangements for the Greens' legislative district convention, rented the hotel room where it was held and bought doughnuts for the delegates.
His wife, Donovan, meanwhile, recruited Michael Jepson, 21, of Des Moines, to be the Green Party's County Council candidate even though Jepson -- unlike Han, the other Green candidate -- has had no involvement with the environmentalist party. Jepson said Donovan got his name from a mutual friend.
However, he also said, "I don't have anything to do with the Republican Party."
Ceriello and other Greens said Jepson's nomination might be invalid because he was recruited after the July 7 statutory deadline for minor-party nominations. He didn't attend the Greens' July 7 convention and was approached by Donovan several days later, he said, after at least one other Green Party member declined to be nominated.
Ceriello said Donovan placed a legal notice of the convention in a newspaper, as required by law, and didn't even contact the South King County Greens until she already arranged for the convention. Donovan said she worked with a South King County Green leader on the arrangements.
Greens obtained a list of Republican precinct committee officers from the Patterson campaign and said four of the 27 delegates to the 13th County Council District convention were Republican precinct committee officers, and three are married or related to Republican PCOs.
Jepson said Patterson, the Democratic council candidate, and a representative of Washington Conservation Voters tried to persuade him to drop out of the race, but he refused.