Leaked Audio Puts Governor Ferguson's Fight With Microsoft Over a PAC Ad on the Record
In remarks at an off-the-record business conference, the governor called out Microsoft for backing a PAC whose ads call state government broken. The audio did not stay off the record.
The remarks were supposed to stay in the room. Governor Bob Ferguson, speaking at the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's Regional Leadership Conference at Suncadia — an off-the-record event — took direct aim at Microsoft for helping fund a political committee whose television ads describe Washington state government as broken.
The audio leaked. The Washington Observer, an independent state-politics newsletter, published it Friday, saying it obtained the recording from an unnamed source. GeekWire reported the remarks and the responses.
In the audio, Ferguson argues the 'broken' message is contradicted by the region's own numbers: Seattle-area startups raised a record $3.5 billion in the third quarter, per PitchBook data — more than triple the same period a year earlier. He also said he plans to be governor 'for a long time.'
Microsoft referred questions to the coalition behind the committee, Washington Needs to Compete, which it describes as more than 60 funders. Per the Observer, the group spent $97,000 airing its ad during the Seahawks' October 15 game against Denver and $130,000 during the October 25 game against Kansas City.
The fight underneath the leak is about how Washington taxes and regulates its biggest industry, and whether 'broken' is a diagnosis or a negotiating position. Thanks to a recorder in the room, Seattle gets to hear the argument in the governor's own words.
