Oops...

Republican gubernatorial candidate and state Attorney General Rob McKenna has returned nearly $14,000 in donations from people tied to a firm that helps mediate foreclosures.

McKenna's office had put the company, Northwest Trustee Services, Inc., on notice in 2010 that they could face investigation, but his campaign accepted donations from the donors on Sept. 30. He has since returned the money, according to an amended financial disclosure form that was submitted on Feb. 9, the same day McKenna announced Washington state's share of a $25 billion settlement with the nation's biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses.

McKenna campaign spokesman Charles McCray said that the timing was a coincidence...

Oh, yeah... a total "coincidence." Sure. Returning the money—more than four months later—had absolutely nothing to do with the lousy of optics of claiming to be a champion of foreclosure victims while at the same time taking $14,000 from foreclosure specialists you've informed you might be investigating.

Two questions that pop into my mind: 1) Why did it take so long for McKenna to return money from possible targets of investigation? And 2) What did these foreclosure specialists assume they would get as a return on their investment in McKenna?

(I'd ask McKenna myself, but apparently, we're not on speaking terms.)