Complaint against WA Rep. Tarra Simmons alleges misuse of $30,000 in campaign funds

A local group of Democrats in Kitsap County has filed an ethics complaint against Washington state Rep. Tarra Simmons regarding a large donation she made to an out-of-state nonprofit to which she has personal ties.

The 13-page complaint, which was filed on Jan. 12 with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, was submitted by Val Torrens, the chair of the 23rd Legislative District Democrats in Kitsap County, which is in Simmons’ district west of Seattle. It’s one of three pending ethics complaints, two of which question Simmons’ use of surplus campaign funds. The complaints come as the lawmaker faces increased public scrutiny after InvestigateWest revealed she backed state funding cuts to legal aid groups that included her former employer.   

State law allows candidates to use unspent campaign funds after an election for restricted purposes such as public office-related expenses, transfers to political party or caucus political committees, donations to charitable organizations, or as a refund to those who contributed to the campaign. The restrictions are to ensure candidates are not raising funds for personal benefit, according to the Public Disclosure Commission’s website. 

“When people donate money to a candidate, they expect those funds to be used by that candidate to get elected to office by paying for advertising, printed materials, campaign staff/office, etc,” Torrens wrote in the complaint. “It is not expected that a few individuals would receive substantial amounts of money with no ties to anything, let alone an entity that has no documented purpose.”

The complaint highlights $30,000 Simmons gave in two separate allotments last year from her surplus campaign fund to a Nevada-based organization called Better Minds Better Communities. 

Better Minds Better Communities does not have an active website or donation platform, and the nonprofit has not filed annual tax reports with the IRS since 2021. In 2020, the nonprofit was registered to Jovan Jackson, a current Democratic assemblymember in the Nevada Legislature who, like Simmons, is the first formerly incarcerated lawmaker in his state. The complaint cites Simmons' Facebook posts in which she shared photos taken with Jackson during trips to Las Vegas, including a May 2025 trip in which she visited the Nevada Legislature. Simmons also appeared to be in Las Vegas again in June 2025, about a month before the first of the two payments, the complaint said. 

"Timing alone does not establish intent or wrongdoing, but it raises reasonable questions about how the organization was selected and whether personal or professional relationships influenced that decision," according to the complaint. 

The address that Simmons listed in her financial disclosures for Better Minds Better Communities is the mailing address for Jackson’s family trust fund, which he lists as a business entity in his 2025 Nevada financial disclosure.

The organization shares a business address with another organization, True Family Services, which Jackson listed as his only source of income in a financial disclosure in 2022. The Nevada Office of Attorney General found in 2024 that True Family Services was fraudulently billing Medicaid for health care services that were never provided. Jackson did not respond to a request for more information.

Simmons said she had no knowledge of any businesses affiliated with Better Minds Better Communities. “I donated to BMBC and followed all laws utilizing a professional treasurer,” she said.

Simmons, who holds a leadership position at the legislature as the deputy speaker pro tempore, said she believes the ethics complaints filed against her are motivated by a “narrow political interest” but did not elaborate. The merits of the complaint will be assessed by the PDC in the next 90 days to determine if a full investigation, including a commission hearing, is warranted.

“All of my campaign expenses are available for review on the Public Disclosure Commission’s database and I am confident they are in accordance with all appropriate rules, guidelines, and general practices for such expenses,” she wrote to InvestigateWest.

A second complaint, currently under review by the state Legislature’s ethics board, was filed by a local criminal justice research nonprofit, American Equity and Justice Group, regarding a $10,000 donation from her surplus fund they received and later returned, which is documented in Simmons' financial disclosures. The organization’s leadership declined to comment further, citing the pending review. 

A third complaint was also filed with the Legislative Ethics Board on Jan. 8 by Torrens, the chair of the 23rd Legislative District Democrats in Kitsap County. It alleged that Simmons used her position as a state lawmaker to intimidate a member of their executive board, Daria Ilgen, who was thinking about running against Simmons in the next election, according to the complaint. 

House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said in a written statement that she will follow the process of the Legislative Ethics Board, which has authority over ethics complaints. 

“This complaint is before them now, and I look forward to hearing the results of their review,” Jinkins said. 

The complaint included a text message in which Simmons listed off the elected officials she knew who could pressure him against running.

“If (Gov.) Bob Ferguson calls you will you stop doing this?” Simmons wrote in the text message. “Because I worked my ass off for our district. I’m a really great legislator and you’re really ruining the only time I’ve had with my mother since I was 13 years old!”

Simmons previously faced two ethics complaints in 2023, one of which was founded. She was found to have violated the state’s Ethics Act for accepting a $1,000 fee for speaking on a panel where she discussed her legislative work. She was invited to speak on the panel by a friend.

The other complaint alleged it was a conflict of interest that, while serving as a lawmaker, she was the executive director of the civil legal aid organization, Civil Survival, that also employed a paid lobbyist. The ethics board determined it was not a conflict of interest, as long as she did not oversee the work of the lobbyist or set the legislative agenda. Simmons was fired from the organization in July 2024.

Simmons has championed criminal justice reform at the legislature, but turned heads when public records obtained by InvestigateWest revealed that she had advocated behind the scenes for budget cuts to civil legal aid groups working to remove unconstitutional drug convictions from people’s criminal records. The cuts had the highest monetary impact on Civil Survival, which she was simultaneously suing. 

“As a representative of my district, I fight for our community's values of social justice and criminal justice reform both in Olympia and across the nation where there are also efforts to lower barriers to working in public service,” Simmons said in her written statement. “That work includes collaborating with community leaders and nonprofits in the organizing work to help make important reforms a reality.”