House Republican Organizational Committee

A political action committee is questioning whether Rep. Laura Grant’s votes on transportation issues were in the best interest of the district she represents, but she says the group is being misleading.

Grant, D-Walla Walla, is running for election to the 16th District seat she was appointed to fill in February after the death of her father, the late Rep. Bill Grant.

The district includes Walla Walla and Columbia counties, as well as Pasco and part of Kennewick.

Recently, some voters have received a mailer paid for by a Republican-funded political action committee saying Grant supported a $2.4 billion tunnel for Seattle while voting down funding to repair Highway 12, which connects Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities.

The mailer claims Grant “sent our money to Seattle.”

It reads in part: “Our State Representative should take our values to Olympia, and work for us. Laura Grant had the chance to ensure the taxes we pay are spent here at home — to fix Highway 12 and make it safer. Instead, Laura voted against money to fix Highway 12 and make it safer.”

Grant said the mailer doesn’t tell the whole story.

The mailer refers to Amendment 465 to Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5352. The bill adopted a $5.8 billion 2009-11 transportation budget for the state and included all projects that would be funded during the budget biennium, from chip sealing on rural roads to the controversial Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement in Seattle.

Republicans and some Democrats objected during the legislative session to replacing the existing above-ground highway — which already was crumbling when it sustained damage in the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually earthquake in 2001 — with a costly deep-bore tunnel.

Amendment 465, introduced when the House considered the Senate’s transportation budget on April 10, funneled money away from the viaduct and into other projects around the state — including $50 million to widen Highway 12 between Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities.

The Washington State Department of Transportation has a multiphase widening project in progress on Highway 12, and recently completed a section from Frenchtown to Walla Walla.

Three additional phases between Burbank and Wallula Junction also have been completed, and a rebuild of the intersection with Highway 124 near Burbank is scheduled for 2010, according to the Transportation Department.

Three phases between Wallula and Frenchtown totaling $362 million are either partially funded or not funded.

Grant said she voted against the amendment because she feared it would open the door to have money secured for the district in the future taken away and put elsewhere.

“I consciously voted against this amendment, which was misleading and intended to be political baloney,” Grant said. “It would have set a horrible precedent to take money from a funded project and sprinkle it throughout the state. The next time we had money allocated for a project, others could begin yanking the rug out from us.”

Grant went on to vote in favor of the transportation budget, which did include $2.4 billion for the deep-bore tunnel in Seattle.

She said she did that because it also included money for projects in her district.

“The transportation budget, without this silly amendment, already included over $40 million allocated to continuation of the U.S. Highway 12 project,” Grant said. “The next phases of Highway 12 are not ’shovel ready.’ Indeed, federal money recently was received to begin an environmental impact study. According to the Highway 12 project manager, voting against this amendment was in the best interest of the project.”

While Grant did vote for the overall transportation bill, the mailer omits that on April 22 she voted no on Senate Bill 5768, which actually adopted the deep bore tunnel option, expedited environmental review and put in place a funding scheme that included $2.4 billion in state money.

Grant said she opposed the tunnel and advocated that Seattle pay for cost overruns instead of asking the state for more money.

“I made it clear to the governor and Seattle legislators that I was there to fight for the people of my district, and that’s what I did,” she said.

The mailer was paid for by the Transportation Accountability Project, a group registered as a political action committee with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission.

Although the mailer and PDC filings give a Walla Walla address — 1934 Isaacs Ave. — the phone book shows that’s a Mailboxes Etc. location. The only individual listed on the filings is Jeffrey Davis of Woodinville, near Seattle.

Davis is the project’s treasurer and said Monday that he wasn’t authorized to speak on behalf of the group. Requests by the Herald on Monday and Thursday for interviews with a group spokesman were unanswered.

The sole funding source for the Transportation Accountability Project is GOPAC Inc., a 30-year-old national political organization that describes itself on its website as “dedicated exclusively to electing Republicans to state and local offices.”

The project’s contribution disclosure forms show GOPAC has given $28,500 to the organization since Sept. 29.

Grant’s Republican opponent, Dayton lawyer Terry Nealey, has not received any contributions from GOPAC, the Transportation Accountability Project or Davis, according to his PDC filings. Nealey’s name is not mentioned on the mailer.

– Michelle Dupler: 582-1543; mdupler@tricityherald.com