Editor's Note: The funds that were received from the campaign by the Culps came in the days and weeks after the election. See https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer/candidate?filer_id=CULPL--166&election_year=2020 for more information.
It's December, a full month after the election and a few things have recently come to light that the voters should know about. According to the Public Disclosure Commission and the Campaign Summary Receipts & Expenditures - C4 reports for the Loren Culp Campaign large amounts of money were spent on items not disclosed to the public while he was running.
Recently, Culp filed a lawsuit against Kim Wyman and Washington State for election irregularities. According to his C4 reports, he has also paid himself the amount of $33,136.30 from his contributors for lost wages. His expenditure report also shows a reimbursement of $15,287.50 for mileage. There is also an expense to Mindy Culp for $1,000.
Loren Culp did not have enough vacation or sick time to pay his salary while he was running for Governor for the State of Washington. He did not mention that he was taking pay from his contributors during his campaign, only taking a break from his job as Chief of Police in Republic Washington. When Loren Culp ran out of vacation and sick time from his employer, he collected a salary from his campaign in a lump sum after the election. The question is why was this never mentioned?
Culp's major opponents did not take a salary from their campaign. Eyman, Fortunato, Garcia, and Freed did not pay themselves a salary for campaigning nor did they involve their family to the degree Culp did, yet Culp talked about transparency throughout his campaign.
Mindy Culp, a contributor in the election who contributed $3348.96 in cash, was recently paid $2,000 in the October C4 report and $1453.00 in November for being a field representative for the campaign.
Culp's Campaign Manager, Chris Gergen who operates his own political company called Dark Horse Political also benefited from Culp's supporters. According to the C4 reports filed in June, July and the beginning of August. In June, Dark Horse Political received $37,500, while personally, Gergen received $10,000. In July, Dark Horse Political received $19,750 while Gergen personally received $5,000. Last July, Dark Horse Political was paid $10,000 for Google Ad Words for a two-month marketing campaign. Gergen received $82,250 according to C4 reports throughout Culp's campaign. It also shows Gergen enjoys expensive restaurants such as 13 Coins. Gergen was also given a win bonus on the first of August for $15,000, a total of $97,250 in a little over two months.
The Culp Lawsuit against the Secretary of State about election fraud is yet to be determined, it's up to the courts to decide. By looking at the C4 reports posted on https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer/candidate?filer_id=CULPL--166&election_year=2020 it looks like Culp was not clear about his finances during his campaign.