Elizabeth Campbell, an anti-tunnel activist who ran in the mayoral primary, filed a complaint with the Washington Executive Ethics Board today charging the governor and nine other state employees with colluding to swing the 2009 Seattle mayor's race. She said the state's attempts to sway public opinion in favor of a deep-bore tunnel under downtown was intended to support pro-tunnel candidates, thereby constituting "illegal contributions to the campaigns of City of Seattle mayoral candidates Greg Nickels and Joe Mallahan."

Campbell requested hundreds of documents earlier this year (including a controversial video simulation of the viaduct collapsing) relating to the tunnel plans. Among them was an email exchange between Governor Christine Gregoire's office and staff of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). "The implications of this document are disturbing," Campbell writes to Susan Harris, executive director of the state ethics board, "a sitting governor using her office to exert influence over a municipal election, in order to protect a controversial highway construction project from scrutiny and possible elimination."

Ron Judd, the governor’s external affairs director, sent the email on August 19—the day after the primary election results showed tunnel-advocate Nickels trailing and Mike McGinn, who opposed the tunnel, in the lead. The subject line was "Mayor's race."

Judd wrote: "As you all know the Mayor is in big trouble and I am not sure he can pull it out even if he is in the run off. That brings me to the big issue that will be front and center between now and the election......our tunnel. I think we need to pull together a discussion about messaging and other strategies for the tunnel over the next 2+ months. It will not be helpful if this election turns out to be a referendum on the tunnel. So we need to work on ensuring as much as possible that does not happen. Thought's??"

(The email exchange between Gregoire's office and WSDOT staff, and the memo that accompanies Campbell's complaint, is in this .pdf.)

The emails don't specifically state support for Mallahan, so Campbell's case of "contributions" to the campaign is not entirely clear. But the emails were clearly trying to push public support for the tunnel—"I think we can fall back on our messaging from January," wrote the governor communication director Pearse Edwards—and the mayor's race in August was largely a referendum of the tunnel's expense, costs, and viability. If state employees were trying to protect the tunnel in the context of the "mayor's race," they were trying to prevent McGinn from getting elected.

(For the record: Campbell is an extremist among neighborhood activists, even fighting against homeless housing in Magnolia, but her pursuit of accountability on this government mega-project is commendable. Someone has got to do it.)

Melanie De Leon, director of the executive ethics board, says she has not yet received the complaint—which was sent via certified mail today—and could not comment on Campbell's allegations.