(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In the midst of a Washington state gubernatorial campaign, Bob Ferguson, the Democrat attorney general and candidate for governor, has sent thousands of checks to dead or fictional people as a repayment for a chicken and tuna price-fixing lawsuit, the Post Millennial reported.
A local radio show, the Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, acquired dozens of photos of the various checks sent out to some people who had never lived in the state, others who have been long dead and still others who were a combination of the names of family members in a household.
In total, 440,000 Washington residents were supposed to get settlement checks this month, for a total of $40.6 million—all with Bob Ferguson’s name on the checks as the payer.
Ferguson has faced scrutiny from Republicans and the media for his monumental blunder.
Washington state GOP Chair Rep. Jim Walsh called the situation a “mess” and a “typical bureaucratic screw-up.”
Walsh suggested that the mess came about because the AG was trying to get his name on checks to “low-income Washingtonians” by sending them cash “willy nilly.”
And it turned out that the list “included a significant number of people who’ve been dead, not for like a few months, but for like 20 years? 25 years? And they started sending checks out to these people.”
Walsh’s deceased wife even received a check from the state.
This arrived at my house today.
Stranger than fiction…. pic.twitter.com/IVkdgtpe99— Jim Walsh (@JimWalshLD19) January 4, 2024
The blunders, however, didn’t stop there.
According to Walsh, the AG screwed up the spelling of names on numerous occasions, leading to difficulty depositing checks at banks.
“It looks like it’s an attempt to do some electioneering,” he concluded.
An ethics complaint has been filed against Ferguson with the State Auditor’s Office, alleging that Ferguson essentially used taxpayer dollars to support his gubernatorial campaign.
“Bob Ferguson decided to send checks to hundreds of thousands or millions of lower-income people, giving them a portion of the settlement with chicken and tuna companies,” the complaint said.
“He put his name on the check as the payer, and he attached a letter to the checks that is blatant and illegal campaigning with public funds,” it added.
