WA Legislator Questioned After Her Non-Profit Employer Benefits From Bill She Wrote.
Rep. Tarra Simmons Ethics Board Hearing Summons.
The Undoing of Representative Tarra Simmons
Self Dealing Inside Olympia’s “Spending Problem”.
Legislator to pay $35,000 in fines and reimbursements.
Washington State Rep. Tarra Simmons was recently fined by the Washington State Legislative Ethics Board for writing a funding proviso benefiting her employer. They also found she broke rules regarding influence peddling. Now, voters are on the verge of rewarding her with another trip back to Olympia. In the August primary, Democrat Simmons holds a commanding lead over another Democrat opponent in the vote count.
Forgiveness is a central part of our culture and this is part of the Tarra Simmons story.
Years ago, Simmons went astray with drug addiction, resulting in arrest under felony charges. She turned her life around by embracing recovery, earning a law degree, then making history by getting elected to the Washington State legislature.
To their credit, voters in the 23rd Legislative District in North Kitsap, looked past the rehabilitated Simmons’ mistakes to grant her the privilege and honor of representing them in Olympia.
Once in office, Simmons found herself in trouble again.
Ethics Investigation & Penalty
The Simmons investigation is a story about how a legislator wrote a bill financially benefiting her employer — a state funded non-profit group selling the notion of equity. It’s about a hookup at a convention of criminal justice reformers in New Orleans eventually turning into influence peddling. The drama then takes a turn towards a soured relationship over grant money, resulting in Simmons sending bitter texts promising political retaliation.
A character in the drama above filed a formal ethics complaint resulting in two days of public hearings.
Ultimately, on August 14, the Washington State Legislative Ethics Board issued a final order against Representative Tarra Simmons. The board ordered her to pay a $15,000 civil penalty — $5,000 for each of three distinct ethics violations. Simmons must also reimburse over $20,000 in state investigation costs.
The Ethics Board Concluded the following:
Rep. Simmons violated RCW 42.52.020 by sponsoring a proviso that directly benefited an organization that employed her at that time. Although Simmons may not have been paid from these funds, the funds from the proviso she sponsored boosted the financial well-being of her employer and, as a result, personally benefited Simmons.
Rep. Simmons violated RCW 42.52.070 [No state officer or state employee may use his or her position to secure special privileges or exemptions for himself or herself, or his or her spouse, child, parents, or other persons.] Simmons used her official position as a legislator to intervene in a dispute between two organizations, one of whom employed her, so that her employer continued receiving funding from the proviso Simmons sponsored.
Rep. Simmons violated that same statute by requesting that the employer of the Complainant in this matter fire the Complainant, or Simmons would no longer assist the employer with his legislative work. Simmons' conduct was an attempt to force the employer to act against the Complainant in this matter using her influence as a legislator to do so.
Buzzwords Driving Public Spending
Simmons was employed by the Equity in Education Center (EEC) from December of 2023 until January of 2025, and was paid a salary of $120K per year. She further worked for the non-profit group as an independent contractor from January 15, 2025 until March 31, 2025.
Simmons was busted by the Ethics Board for her actions during the 2024 supplemental budget session. That was when she secured a $1 million budget proviso directed to an entity called the American Equity and Justice Group (AEJG). The terms of the proviso required the primary recipient to subcontract $500,000 of those funds directly to the EEC for some kind of social justice dashboard — which never materialized.
After many months passing, Kim Gordon —an employee and board member of AEJG— recognized the EEC was not performing and made a formal complaint. This led to the investigation of Simmons, which concluded with penalties for influence peddling. (Read more about the dramatic revelations of romance, grant money, betrayal and bitterness in the links below)
More $$$
Simmons has stated she stopped working for the EEC because the non-profit no longer had money. There’s more to know about Simmons’ former employer.
The EEC received $10,223,042 in 2023 from the Washington State Department of Commerce (DOC) for a “Digital Equity” project.
State government thinks kids need formal instruction with how to use a cell phone, by way of committing millions of dollars to the idea of digital equity. Then things get worse.
A Washington State Auditor’s Office review of the DOC grant found the majority of the $10.7M paid to EEC during the audit period “did not have sufficient documentation to determine whether the grant expenditures were allowable.” According to KUOW , investigators identified clearly unallowable expenses by the EEC including first-class flights and an open bar at a resort.
Spending Problem
Two former Governors are on record stating how our state legislature has “a spending problem”. Gov. Christine Gregoire and Gov. Gary Locke, respectively, have mentioned this situation in broad terms.
I welcome them speaking out as Olympia has vastly increased both taxes and spending in recent years — far outpacing inflation and population growth. If you’re wondering where the money is really going, the Simmons case offers a detailed look into behavior driving our legislature's “spending problem”.
The Simmons verdict highlights political attitudes that favor personal privilege, demonstrating how elected officials can exploit the state treasury to fund their own interests.
(Krist Novoselić is Chair of Cascade Party.)
(Image: Megan Blackburn Friend)
