December 21, 2017  Sandy Robson

Current state Senator Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) may soon be working for the U.S. Federal Government. According to a reliable source who has ties to the EPA, Ericksen, will be joining the EPA as a Special Adviser to the agency’s Region 10 Regional Administrator, after the New Year.

Upon hearing that news, I called into the EPA Region 10 office yesterday afternoon, December 20, 2017, to try to confirm if the news that Doug Ericksen would soon be joining the Region 10 office was correct. The staff person in the Region 10 Administrator’s office I spoke to had no information on that and the individual she then tried to check with at that time was in a meeting, so she told me she would try to help me with my inquiry, and took my name and number.

While I have not yet been able to confirm the news officially with the EPA, this additional piece of information gives me reason to believe that what I was told yesterday may indeed be accurate. I checked the Public Disclosure Commission website today and found that Senator Ericksen filed a C4 report on 12/10/17, listing surplus election-campaign money expenditures for November 2017, some of which include, airfare (Alaska Airlines) and hotel (Embassy Suites in Washington, D.C.) as shown in the attached screenshot photo. 

I wonder if Senator Ericksen, while staying in D.C., met with the EPA regarding a position in the Region 10 office with their agency? If so, that could be a questionable use of surplus election-campaign money.

In checking Ericksen’s Facebook page today, it shows that on November 15, 2017, his cover photo was updated to display an image of the Capitol Building in D.C. Was that updated cover photo somehow meant as any kind of sign relating to his travel to D.C. and/or his possible employment with the federal government?

Just one day before Doug Ericksen had changed his cover photo, Senator Reuven Carlyle (D-Seattle), on November 14, 2017, tagged Ericksen in a Facebook post which now displays on Ericksen’s Facebook page (screenshot photo attached). Carlyle’s post reads:
“I want to acknowledge and express my appreciation that today Sen. Doug Ericksen graciously handed over control of the chair gavel well before the formal change of control in the Senate in a few weeks. #waleg”

Senator Ericksen, then-Chair of the Senate Energy, Environment and Technology Committee, lost the gavel, so-to-speak that goes with being Chair of that committee, to Senator Reuven Carlyle, due to the November 7 election of state Senator Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond). Dhingra’s election resulted in Democrats assuming the majority in the Washington state Senate. Senate Republicans had been the majority party in the Washington state Senate since 2012.