Ferguson fills seat on WA campaign watchdog panel as recall effort looms

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson has appointed Matt Segal, a founding partner of the Pacifica Law Group and former King County Superior Court judge, to the commission that enforces state campaign finance laws.

Segal, whose firm serves as Ferguson’s private counsel, was appointed April 16 to the state Public Disclosure Commission. His first meeting will be May 28.

His selection came two weeks after the launch of a recall effort against Ferguson for allowing two of the commission’s five seats to remain unfilled for months. One had been open for nearly all of Ferguson’s term, which began in January last year.

RELATED: Ferguson’s failure to fill seats on Washington campaign watchdog panel incites recall bid

The longshot petition to remove the first-term governor from office accused Ferguson of misfeasance and violating his oath of office by failing to fill the seats within a timeline prescribed in state law. Ferguson is due to file a formal response to the petition Friday.

Segal will serve a term that runs through the end of 2030. With his selection, all four sitting commission members are lawyers and three are former judges.

Segal fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Commissioner Allen Hayward in January 2025. The other opening is for the seat held by Commissioner Nancy Isserlis, who left last August. An appointment for that vacancy could be made this week, according to a Ferguson spokesperson.

Conner Edwards, an attorney and prolific filer of campaign finance complaints, undertook the recall to spotlight a situation that could hamstring the commission in the upcoming election season. With only three of its allotted five members, all had to be present for the citizen panel to have the quorum required to adopt rules, conduct hearings, and decide cases.

Edwards said Tuesday that he was “glad that the vacancy has finally been filled. Mr. Segal certainly has a very impressive and eclectic resume and I hope that he will bring a fresh perspective to the Commission.”

He reiterated that he’s prepared to end the effort to oust Ferguson if the other seat is filled soon.

RELATED: Ferguson may have broken WA ethics laws allowing ex-adviser to fly on state plane

Segal, a former print and broadcast journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from the Seattle University School of Law.

He helped found Pacifica Law Group in 2011. A decade later, former Gov. Jay Inslee appointed him to the bench and he won election in 2022. He retired two years later, rejoining Pacifica as a partner in its division devoted to public law and finance matters.

Segal did not respond to requests for comment.

He has donated mostly to Democratic candidates since 2009 including all three of Ferguson’s campaigns for attorney general, according to Public Disclosure Commission records.

While he did not give to Ferguson’s 2024 gubernatorial campaign, Pacifica Law Group contributed $4,800, records show.

A Pacifica Law attorney, Zachary Pekelis, defended Ferguson in two headline-grabbing stories in the campaign.

In 2023, a complaint to the Public Disclosure Commission brought scrutiny of Ferguson’s shifting of more than a million dollars raised for past campaigns into his new one for governor.

Commissioners found no wrongdoing but reached an agreement with Ferguson to disclose the identities of the donors to the past campaigns and treat their contributions as if they were for his gubernatorial campaign.

Then, in May 2024, a conservative activist recruited two other people named Bob Ferguson to file for governor in a not-so-subtle attempt to confuse voters. A flurry of activity ensued with the state Democratic Party and Ferguson — the one who was attorney general at the time — applying enough pressure to force that duo to withdraw.

Simultaneously, Ferguson and Pekelis pushed Secretary of State Steve Hobbs to reorder the names on the ballot and were prepared to sue if he didn’t. That issue became moot when the other Bobs pulled out.

This story was originally published by the Washington State Standard.