The answer is simple. That paper blizzard was financed by the same PACs, once removed, that Smith was denouncing. They were oozing through loopholes in Initiative 134, the alleged election finance reform that PACs helped right wing Republicans sell to Washington voters four years earlier. Smith was a nominal sponsor although it was crafted and sold from a Seattle law office. It's outside the cash that contributors are allowed to give to individual candidates.
Fat cats can give unlimited amounts to political parties to spend on candidates as they wish.
Yet the media, here and nationally, deified Smith as the saviour of a public sickened by the purchase of elections. Initiative 134's clever venality helped Republicans retain control of the State House of Representatives and take the Senate from the Democrats. Voters did turn out some of the dingiest ding-dongs to disgrace a legislative body in 70 years, but it was the grapevine that exposed them, not the media. Newspapers ignored the craziness and television didn't even know it was happening. Among the losers was Bruce Craswell, the Rasputin-like husband of the GOP gubernatorial candidate.