Michael Nelson is hard to miss at election time. The state voter's guide lists his candidacy for U.S. Senate under the name "Goodspaceguy." He urges voters to colonize space.
Nelson once called himself a Libertarian. He now gives his party affiliation as Democratic, much to the party's horror.
Over the years, Robert Jesse Hill has called himself a Democrat, a Green and a Libertarian. He once demanded Tacoma create a "Masturbation Day" by stripping off his clothes at City Hall. In January, a judge sentenced him to four months in the King County Jail for stalking a porn star.
All three parties have kicked Hill out. The Libertarians say they did so after he made harassing phone calls to their state party's female chair. But nothing stops Nelson, Hill or anyone from claiming a party affiliation in the voter's guide.
Leaders with a statewide group called the Third Party Alliance say people who make false claims about party affiliation misinform voters and tar the parties. If the state allowed political parties to put disclaimers in the voter's guide and disavow candidates who use their name, that would help solve the problem, they say.
The group is looking to make this change in Olympia, but some members of the alliance say their method is unconstitutional.
The Third Party Alliance, which includes the Greens, Libertarians, the Progressives and others, is pinning its hope on Senate Bill 5655, a piece of legislation put forward by Auburn Republican Pam Roach.
The bill makes it a gross misdemeanor to intentionally make a false statement in the voter's guide and gives the Public Disclosure Commission the right to fine candidates up to $5,000.
Currently, a candidate can sue an opponent for making false statements in the voter's guide. At a hearing Feb. 21 before the Senate's Government Operations, Tribal Relations and Elections Committee, Roach said she sued and won a case last year against opponent Matt Richardson, but it cost her $1,700 in legal fees.
The judge ordered Richardson to rewrite his voter guide statement because he had misstated details about Republican Party sanctions against Roach.
Green Party member Janet Jordan, speaking for the Third Party Alliance, testified in favor of Roach's bill, but asked for an amendment to allow parties to put a disclaimer in the voter's guide.
"We really feel it's crucial," Jody Grage, a member of the state Green Party governing council, said of the proposed amendment.
"If someone claims they're in the Green Party and the Green Party doesn't get a chance to agree with or rebut that statement, it does a great disservice," Grage said.
That's particularly true for minor parties, which have few opportunities to communicate with voters at all, she said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington opposes the bill. In the Feb. 21 hearing, ACLU Legislative Director Shankar Narayan testified that the government shouldn't be in the business of determining what is or isn't truthful in political speech.
Leaders of the Libertarian and Freedom Socialist Party agree.
"We oppose 5655 because it would criminalize political speech," said Fred Hyde, an attorney with the Freedom Socialist Party, which works with, but does not belong to, the Third Party Alliance.
Political parties in the state once submitted the names of their chosen candidates to the secretary of state for inclusion in the voter's guide, Hyde said. Today, nothing prevents a candidate from saying they belong to a party, but he said Roach's bill is the wrong way to try to get control of the situation.
Hyde said a better approach would be to simply give parties the right to include a disclaimer in the voter's guide by amending the applicable state law (RCW 29A.32.032) to allow them to do so.
"They should do that separately," he said, not "as an amendment to a bad bill."
Roach and the Green Party argue that candidate literature paid for by a campaign and candidate statements paid for by taxpayers are two different things.
"It's one thing if a private outfit is paying for something and there are problems with what is said, but to have the voter's pamphlet go out with things that are misleading, to say the least, it doesn't seem that that is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars," Grage said.