Advisory Opinion 19-03

Date

11/05/2019

Number

2019 – No. 3

Requester

Senators Marco Liias and Hans Zeiger

Topic

Transfer to the Legislature of Previous Campaign or Personal Social Media Contacts

Issue/Question

Would it be a violation of the Ethics in Public Service Act to allow a legislator to transfer to the legislature from either his or her campaign or personal social media account, the contacts associated with that account to be used thereafter in a legislative social media account for legislative purposes only?

Summary

No. When a legislator transfers the contact list from a campaign or personal social media account to the legislature, that list becomes a public asset. Provided the list is not transferred back to the campaign, such action does not violate RCW 42.52.180.

Document

ETHICS2019.03 (PDF 93.8 Kilobytes)