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Inside Olympia — Public Disclosure Commission Chair Fred Jarrett

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In the spirit of National Sunshine Week and its focus on government transparency, host Austin Jenkins sits down for an in-depth interview with Fred Jarrett, chair of the Public Disclosure Commission, or PDC. 

The PDC came about in 1972 via citizen initiative, as a way to shine light on money in politics. And that’s what the commission has done, for the last 50 years. The money is considerable: In 2022, the PDC tracked $130 million in contributions to candidates and political committees in our state. The same year, there were $16 million in independent expenditures — political ads paid for by independent entities. And, $85 million was spent on lobbying to influence government policy. 

The PDC makes all this financial info available to the public. One of the commission’s strategic goals is to make that information even more accessible, to give it context, make it more searchable, help it “make sense” to the public.  

Learn more about money in politics, and the state organization that makes that information accessible to Washingtonians, this week on Inside Olympia.