A veterans group contends Republican state Senate candidate Dave Schmidt improperly paid himself more than $30,000 from unspent funds of his 2006 campaign.
The Washington chapter of VoteVets.org has asked the state Public Disclosure Commission to verify if Schmidt correctly claimed $32,206 as lost wages for 208 days of missed National Guard duty.
Rick Hegdahl, a Navy veteran and leader of the chapter, said Schmidt should produce canceled orders for those missed days of duty or return the money. (I’ve included PDFs of the group’s filings with the PDC with this post.)
Schmidt said he doesn’t have all the records but insists he’s followed all the rules for reporting set out by staffers at the state agency.
“I gave them what they asked of me,” he said.
The PDC had not taken any public action as of today.
Schmidt was elected to the state Senate in the 44th District in 2002 and then lost re-election to Hobbs in 2006. They’re now facing off in a rematch.
Schmidt ended the 2006 race with unspent funds. State law allows candidates to use those surplus dollars to offset wages they lost out on because of campaigning or carrying out legislative responsibilities. The PDC can require candidates produce documents to support their claims.
Schmidt said once he paid the campaign bills he combed through calendars and totaled the number of days of National Guard duty he didn’t complete in his four-year term.
He found a slew of missed training days. He also tallied 128 days for opportunities he “turned down” to go to the Philippines and serve at a youth center in Bremerton. He said there were no orders for those assignments which are listed as “Active Duty Other Status” on campaign disclosure reports.
“I would have to go back and get a statement from the commander at the time,” he said. “There’s nothing (in the law) that says you have to have them.”
Hegdahl said Schmidt should have canceled orders for every missed day otherwise it looks like he disgraced himself by “falsifying missing National Guard duty so he could enrich himself.”
“He’s doing something that is patently illegal and if not illegal at least immoral,” Hegdahl said. “He’s taking money from his own campaign to pay himself for duty he never served.”
Schmidt, who is no longer in the National Guard, contends the allegation is politically motivated because the group is backing Hobbs in the race.
But Hegdahl said they couldn’t do anything sooner because the information only came to light recently as the final records of Schmidt’s spending in 2006 didn’t appear online until this year.
Hobbs, who is in the National Guard, had sharp words for his opponent.
What Schmidt did is an insult to all those people who juggle their schedules every day to comply with their training assignments, he said.
“He needs to return the money,” Hobbs said. “To not do your duty and to pocket the money is just appalling. It is dishonorable to tell you the truth.”
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