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Plot alleged to elect 3rd-runway supporters – Election watchdog links businessman’s $49,000 with mayor

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Des Moines Mayor Don Wasson was charged by Washington State's Public Disclosure Commission with concealing $49,000 in illegal campaign contributions from local businessman Hank Hopkins, who stood to profit from a third-runway construction contract at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The funds allegedly helped elect three pro-runway City Council members in 2001, after which Wasson was named mayor and the council voted to cut the city's $150,000 funding to the anti-runway Airport Communities Coalition. Wasson denied the charges, but investigators confronted him with an endorsed check he had initially claimed not to have received.

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Seattle Times article by Bob Young and Michael Ko reporting Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) charges against Des Moines Mayor Don Wasson and businessman Hank Hopkins for concealing $49,000 in campaign contributions to elect pro-third-runway candidates Gary Petersen, Richard Benjamin, and Maggie Steenrod to the Des Moines City Council in the November 2001 election. PDC alleges Hopkins, owner of Wescot Company, funded the scheme to reverse Des Moines opposition to the Sea-Tac Airport third runway and secure a contract to haul fill dirt to the construction site. Wasson, who denied the charges, acknowledged endorsing a check from Hopkins when confronted with evidence. The newly elected council subsequently voted 4-3 on December 19, 2002, to stop the city’s $150,000 contribution to the Airport Communities Coalition anti-runway fight. Former councilman David Kaplan filed the complaint initiating the PDC probe.

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