Ferguson PDC commissioner vacancies — statutory 30-day deadline missed, recall filed, vacancies filled, recall ended

Governor Ferguson left Washington’s campaign finance watchdog agency short two commissioners for over a year — and when a recall petition was filed, his office argued the 30-day appointment deadline in state law was merely a suggestion.

What happened

Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) — the state agency that enforces campaign finance rules — had two open commissioner seats as of early 2026. One seat had been vacant since January 2025, nearly all of Governor Bob Ferguson’s first year in office. State law requires the governor to fill PDC vacancies within 30 days.

On April 1, 2026, Seattle attorney Conner Edwards filed a recall petition against Ferguson, citing the failure to fill the seats within the statutory window. Ferguson’s office argued in a legal filing that the 30-day requirement is “simply a procedural guide” rather than a binding deadline.

Ferguson appointed Matt Segal to the PDC on April 16, 2026, and Teebah Alsaleh in late April 2026. Edwards ended the recall effort on April 25, 2026, after the appointments were made.

OPB reported that Segal is a founding partner at Pacifica Law Group, which serves as Ferguson’s private legal counsel — a relationship that raises a separate conflict-of-interest question about the appointment.

What the primary source says

OPB reported both appointments and the end of the recall effort. The recall petition and the governor’s legal response were also reported by OPB and Lynnwood Times.

Status

Both PDC commissioner vacancies have been filled. The recall effort was withdrawn April 25, 2026. This case is resolved in the sense that the vacancies no longer exist — but the mechanism of resolution was a recall petition, not legal enforcement of the statutory deadline.

Why it’s in the registry

A campaign finance watchdog with missing commissioners cannot function at full capacity. The governor’s office contested whether the 30-day deadline was even enforceable. The vacancy was ultimately filled, but only after a citizen filed a recall petition. The registry tracks resolved governance failures because the way they get resolved — political pressure rather than automatic enforcement — is itself a structural problem.

Reform implication

A statutory appointment deadline that carries no automatic enforcement mechanism is effectively optional. An escalation rule — for example, giving the legislature authority to make the appointment if the executive misses the deadline by a set number of days — would make the deadline real rather than advisory. The governor’s own private legal counsel being appointed to an independent oversight body is a separate concern that should trigger a recusal review by default. See [reform: pdc_enforcement] and [reform: appointment_accountability].