Bellevue, WA – Eric D. “Knoll”Lowney, the lawyer being paid by allies of Gov. Christine Gregoire’s to file a frivolouslawsuit against Dino Rossi a month before Election Day, has a long track recordof taking on cases ranging from the very left-wing to the very kooky.

Lowney, a partner in theSeattle-based Smith & Lowney law firm, is no stranger to headline-grabbinglawsuits. Funded by some of the same organizations that are bankrolling theanti-Rossi efforts at Evergreen Progress and Fuse, Lowney sued to prevent atax-limit initiative from appearing on the ballot, sued a U.S. Senate candidateright before a Primary Election, and even sued to have the Qwest logo removedfrom Qwest Field.

Among Lowney’s most notableexploits:

• Lowney was hired by a member of the wealthy, liberal Bullitt family to file a lawsuit against U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick. The suit was filed in August 2006, a month before the Primary Election. A few months after the General Election the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge, but it had served its political purpose.

• Lowney was hired by the Service Employees International Union (which is currently pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Evergreen Progress’ attacks on Rossi) and Futurewise (a left-wing environmental group) to try to stop Initiative 960, which requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature for tax increases, from going on the 2007 ballot. This effort failed, I-960 passed, and now Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, a Democrat, is suing to overturn it.

• Lowney was hired by Washington Citizen Action, another über-left group and others to overturn Initiative 747, which capped property tax increases at one percent per year. After the measure was struck down in court, the Legislature rushed to reinstate the cap in a special session late last year (recall that Gregoire initially opposed reinstating the one percent cap, but later became a fervent advocate after Dino Rossi announced his support).

• Lowney’s law partner, Richard Smith, filed at the last minute as a candidate for the state Supreme Court, part of a scheme by opponents of State Supreme Court candidate Steve Johnson to get as many candidates as possible named “Smith” and “Johnson” to file so as to confuse voters.

• Lowney was the lead attorney on a lawsuit to remove the Qwest logos from Qwest Stadium because he claimed they were too big and “pollute our skyline.”

WashingtonState Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser said Lowney’s loony-left antics maybe laughable, but his attempts to influence the gubernatorial election’soutcome through litigation are not.

“Thepublic not only needs to know about Mr. Lowney’s bizarre past, but more thanthat they deserve to know about his present motivation as well – namely, who isreally paying him to pursue this last-minute, politically motivated lawsuitagainst Dino Rossi,” said Esser. “We’ve heard plenty of quotes from Mr. Lowneyin the press, but nothing on where he’s getting his money from. What reallyneeds to be determined is whether Mr. Lowney is being paid exclusively by thetwo former justices whose names appear on the lawsuit, or are other Gregoiresupporters underwriting the effort? If Mr. Lowney is being funded by the samegroups trying so desperately to keep Gregoire in office, that will raiseserious ethical questions.”