Advisory Opinion 96-11

At issue in this opinion was whether legislators could use public resources to issue a press release in response to the Governor's criticism of tax cuts and those legislators/candidates who supported the cuts.​​

​The Board said that the issuance of press releases to inform constituents about legislative matters is well within the traditional understanding of legislative duty.  In addition, in determining whether a particular responsive press release qualifies as "normal and regular conduct" pursuant to RCW 42.52.180, the Board will consider: (1) the timeliness of the response; (2) the proximity of the response to an election; (3) the relevance of the response to a legislative issue and to the initial outside statement; (4) the source of the initial outside statement; and (5) the tone and tenor of the response.  Self-initiated press releases from legislators, using public resources, are very different from responses to outside sources and deserve a higher level of scrutiny.

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Retired– see Advisory Opinion 2021-1