The skinny:

…the owner of novelty shop Archie McPhee, Mark Pahlow, gave $10,000 to Let’s Go Washington (LGW), a right-wing campaign promoting anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives and a social-services-starving repeal to Washington’s Millionaires Tax.

Pahlow publicly apologized, claiming he somehow missed all the anti-queer garbo LGW has been spewing for months and he really just wanted to protect the interest of the ultra wealthy. He claimed he got his LGW donation refunded and kicked it to the No Hate In Washington State campaign to oppose the anti-LGBTQ+ measures.

Digging a little deeper in the financial disclosure data for political contributions, Pahlow also made the following donations to conservative-aligned candidates over the years:

• $350 to Mun Julie Kang (Julie Kang) in 2026
• $500 to Sean Patrick O’Donnell (Sean O’Donnell) in 2026
• $300 to Ann Davison in 2025
• $650 to Sara Nelson in 2025
• $100 to Tanya Woo in 2024
• $2400 to Andrea Suarez in 2024
• $1948 to Let’s Go Washington (Sponsored by Brian Heywood) in 2024
• $500 to David A. Larson (Dave Larson) in 2024
• $2400 to Mark Mullet in 2024
• $300 to Rob Saka in 2023
• $300 to Maritza Rivera in 2023
• $300 to Catherine Moore (Cathy Moore) in 2023
• $300 to Pete Hanning in 2023
• $300 to Joy Hollingsworth in 2023
• $300 to Tanya Woo in 2023
• $150 to Stephen Charles Brown (Stephen Brown) in 2023
• $150 to Olga Sagan in 2023
• $50 to Kenneth Wilson in 2021
• $300 to Sara Nelson (NELSON SARA E) in 2021
• $10 to Ann Davison in 2021
• $250 to Arthur Kristian Langlie in 2021
• $250 to Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy Sponsored by Seattle Chamber (CASE) in 2019
• $250 to WILLS HEIDI A (HEIDI WILLS) in 2019
• $100 to LEVER HARLEY (HARLEY LEVER) in 2017
• $100 to SHIH DANIEL J (DANIEL SHIH) in 2016
• $250 to BRYANT WILLIAM L (WILLIAM BRYANT) in 2016
• $850 to DEFEAT 1098 in 2010
• $100 to YES ON I 1000 in 2008