Warning calls about offender anger sheriff

OLYMPIA — A Republican sheriff is criticizing GOP political tactics for upsetting some Snohomish County residents.

At issue are automated phone calls, placed to about 10,000 homes, that told residents a dangerous unidentified sex offender "has been released into your community."

The calls were generated by the Olympia-based Speaker's Roundtable, a political action group tied to Republicans in the state House.

Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart said the messages prompted at least 40 calls to his office from worried residents.

"This was uncalled for," Bart told The Herald. "I don't run the party. If they had asked me, I'd have said not to do it."

The phone messages described crimes committed by Jeffrey Henderson, who recently moved to Lake Stevens after serving a 19-year prison sentence, The Herald reported.

The calls also mention Reps. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, and John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, and say they refused to vote on a bill that would lock up child rapists for life.

All members of the state House are up for election this year, and the House GOP has made getting tough on sex offenders a major issue.

The recently concluded Legislature passed several measures that would strengthen punishments for sex crimes, including a new group of 25-year minimum prison sentences. But some Republicans said they wanted even tougher laws.

Kevin Carns, who runs the Speaker's Roundtable, told The Herald that more campaign materials based on sex offenders are planned.

"I wanted to tell people their representatives failed to put guys like this in prison for life," he said.

The GOP group launched similar tactics during the legislative session, prompting objections from Democrats. Dunshee criticized the newest round as "a new level of slime."

The Republican challengers to Dunshee and Lovick — Lake Stevens pastor Robert Legg and Seattle police Officer Mike Hope — denied any involvement with the calls.