by Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard
May 18, 2026
For more than a year, Rep. Tarra Simmons has been dogged by allegations she improperly used her cachet as a lawmaker and cash from her prior campaigns to assist two nonprofit organizations, one of which was her employer.
Simmons emphatically denies wrongdoing and calls the charges unsubstantiated. But as the case has dragged on, she said her political foes have been wielding the allegations as a cudgel in an ongoing campaign of harassment.
“Even if all of the facts were true, which they are not, there is no evidence that I violated any ethical rules,” Simmons said.
But the state’s Legislative Ethics Board isn’t convinced. It concluded last fall that “reasonable cause existed” that the Democratic lawmaker violated conflict of interest and special privilege laws.
Simmons rejected the board’s finding and will get a chance to defend herself at a public hearing in Olympia, scheduled for early June.
Such hearings before the ethics board are rare. The last occurred a decade ago, and involved a House member’s posting of state-produced photos and videos on her campaign Facebook page.
The board will conduct the hearing with an administrative law judge presiding over procedural questions. If Simmons is found to have breached ethics rules, she could be fined up to $5,000 per violation and ordered to pay the state’s costs.
The situation is coming to a head in an election year for Simmons, who is in House leadership and has garnered attention as the first formerly incarcerated person to serve in the Legislature.
Doug McKinley, Simmons’ attorney, called the investigation “the most flawed and one-sided I’ve ever seen.” He added that, “Rep. Simmons has been caught in the maw of a process that doesn’t provide fundamental safeguards.”
McKinley has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. It will be considered May 20.
Friends and enemies
Simmons, of Bremerton, won a House seat in 2020 and has been reelected twice. She represents the 23rd Legislative District in Kitsap County that includes the communities of Hansville, Kingston, Poulsbo, Bremerton and Bainbridge Island.
She serves as deputy speaker pro tem, a highly visible role in the Democratic caucus that requires frequently presiding over floor sessions.
The complaint that incited the ethics investigation was filed in February 2025.
On Oct. 15, the board concluded that reasonable cause existed that Simmons violated the Ethics Act. Simmons and the board discussed a possible settlement throughout the fall, but the lawmaker declined to sign a proposed stipulated agreement. She said she objected because the agreement contained mistruths.
In January, the board set dates for the public hearing on June 8 and 9 and released a 13-page order with contours of its findings.
It diagrams Simmons’ interactions with two nonprofit organizations, the American Equity and Justice Group and the Equity in Education Coalition, portraying her as willing to use her influence as a lawmaker and leftover campaign funds to help them.
The complaint was filed by Kim Gordon, a Seattle attorney and treasurer of the American Equity and Justice Group, that has developed a data dashboard on arrests and outcomes in the criminal justice system.
Gordon declined to comment. In her complaint filed Feb. 21, 2025, she wrote Simmons “has been an important, necessary, and appreciated voice in our legislature. But there is growing concern at apparent violations of the prohibition on special privileges – violations that harm constituents and the legislature alike.”
“My hope is that by initiating the process, I have made it possible for the Legislative Ethics Board to evaluate the situation and, if appropriate, assist Rep. Simmons in corrective action,” she wrote.
The complaint asserted ethical violations dated back to 2023. It contained no specifics, but Gordon offered to provide investigators names of witnesses and where to find documents.
Unpacking the allegations
The board’s order starts with her ties to Anthony Powers, founder and executive director of American Equity and Justice Group, who was incarcerated as a teen and later granted early release from a long sentence with the help of the Seattle Clemency Project.
He and Simmons knew each other through their work with others who have been incarcerated.
In the 2023 legislative session, Simmons secured $250,000 in the state budget to “contract with an equity and justice nonprofit organization to expand the capacity of the existing equity dashboard program.”
That money was destined for Powers’ nonprofit to compile two decades of felony sentencing data for adults in Washington into a public database.
Late that year, at a lunch meeting, Simmons told Powers of a man she thought would be a good fit for his staff. He told her the group lacked money to hire him. Simmons said she would make a $10,000 donation from her surplus campaign fund account. The man, unidentified in the report, was hired in early 2024.
According to the board order, Powers said Simmons provided the money to hire her friend.
Simmons denied putting any conditions on use of the donation.
In a declaration to the board, Simmons said that she told Powers “that if he interviewed my friend and found the connection to be what he needed, I would donate the money needed to make the hire.” She also said she supplied information on private foundations that might assist.
In February 2024, after attending several internal meetings, Simmons suggested leaders hold a retreat to plan for the group’s future. When told there was no money, Simmons donated $40,000 from her campaign surplus account to cover the costs.
But, in an American Equity and Justice Group board meeting later that month, members were told that Simmons was involved in a relationship with the man she encouraged Powers to hire, according to the ethics investigation. The nonprofit’s board determined this presented a conflict of interest and subsequently returned both of her donations and laid off the man, citing a lack of resources.
Simmons told ethics board investigators, “he’s not my boyfriend.”
A second proviso
The investigation also highlighted issues around $1.35 million in grant funds secured by Simmons in the 2024 supplemental budget. The money went to the Administrative Office of the Courts to dole out for an expansion of the American Equity and Justice Group dashboard.
As written, it required subcontracting $500,000 of work with a nonprofit organization “that advocates for equity in technology and education to provide the public with data on social determinants that impact education outcomes.”
The only qualifying subcontractor was the Equity in Education Coalition, which focuses on improving education outcomes in disadvantaged communities. Founded in 2012, leaders renamed it Equity in Education Center in 2024.
Simmons was employed as the coalition’s part-time director of strategy from December 2023 through Jan. 10, 2025, then an additional three months as an independent contractor. Her tasks included facilitating connections with legislators, community leaders and governmental entities, according to the board order.
McKinley, Simmons’ lawyer, said the order is inaccurate because the word ‘legislators’ is crossed out in the final employment agreement. A copy was provided to the board, he said.
Sharonne Navas, the coalition executive director, told ethics board investigators that Simmons was not paid with any money from the grant funds but was paid exclusively from money received from individual and corporate donations.
Not on speaking terms
On March 8, 2025, two weeks after Gordon filed her complaint, Simmons engaged Powers in a lengthy late-night text exchange, excerpts of which are in the ethics board report.
Simmons said the exchange was spurred by Powers’ attendance at a support group named “Leaders they’re trying to cancel” that she said she formed with others who had had negative experiences while leading or working with nonprofits.
In the texts, she expressed frustration and threatened to withhold support for Powers’ organization where, at the time, Gordon worked as an employee and served on its board.
“Hey. I think unless you are willing to hold Kim accountable for the harm she’s causing me, you shouldn’t come to our leaders they’re trying to cancel group,” she texted. “I did a lot for YOU primarily…then AEJG secondarily. To be harmed like this is an incredible slap in the face.”
Powers responded, “If you’re coming at me for someone else’s actions then I think I’ll part ways for now. If you can’t be friends without expecting me to have unconditional loyalty to you and not be able to be professional in one space and friends in another then I wish you well, but I don’t need to be treated like this.”
Last November, Powers filed an ethics complaint alleging Simmons had harassed him in a series of posts on Facebook, accusing him of lying and scheming with Gordon. The ethics board dismissed that complaint May 2, noting that because the posts were on Simmons’ personal Facebook page, it had no jurisdiction.
This story was updated to clarify Simmons’ description of her tasks as a contractor for Equity in Education Coalition.
Complaint dismissed over separate campaign finance violation
In addition to the pending ethics complaint, Simmons faced recent allegations that she improperly gave $30,000 of campaign funds to a Nevada nonprofit that works with formerly incarcerated individuals before it registered as a charitable organization in Washington.
Late last month, she signed a statement of understanding for the state Public Disclosure Commission in which she admitted to the violation. She also agreed to pay a $300 civil penalty.
On May 6, commission executive director Peter Lavallee and compliance officer Tanya Mercier wrote to Simmons, summing up the findings and noting that the matter had been resolved and dismissed. Their letter said the lawmaker was “very cooperative throughout the investigation.”
That probe resulted from a complaint filed Dec. 23, 2025, by Val Torrens, who is chair of the 23rd Legislative Democrats. Her husband is a $1,000 donor to Daria Ilgen, a Democrat who is challenging Simmons in this year’s election.
The complaint centered on two separate $15,000 contributions that Simmons made from her cache of unspent campaign funds to Better Minds Better Communities on July 7 and Aug. 18, 2025. Both donations were properly disclosed on campaign finance filings.
Jovan Jackson, the group’s founder, is a formerly incarcerated person who won a seat in the Nevada Legislature in 2024. He, like Simmons, is the first person who served time to be elected into their respective legislatures. The group, which does not have an active website, is focused on helping people who were incarcerated, Simmons said.
State law allows candidates to dispose of unspent campaign funds after an election in various ways, such as transfers to party or caucus political committees and refunds to donors. They can also be donated to nonprofits that are also registered as charitable organizations in Washington.
Jackson registered the group when Simmons told him of the requirement.
“We did what we felt was right,” Torrens said of the complaint. “ She should know the rules. The rules weren’t followed. That’s what we took issue with.”
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