Fun with Photoshop? The case of the vanishing business lobbyist

We know he was there. He's got the pen to prove it.

But judging solely by the photo published on the Washington State Labor Council website, one would never know that AWB's Kris Tefft attended the governor's bill-signing ceremony Monday for Senate Bill 5801.

The legislation represents a small part of the workers' compensation reform that the business community is hoping to see this year, but it's as far as the labor unions want to go.

Could it be that this ideological gulf is the reason Tefft does not appear in the labor photo?

Consider the evidence: Tefft is clearly visible (at least to his close friends and family) in a photo published on the Washington State Wire website. This despite the fact that he's standing in the back row behind several other folks.

And yet his smiling mug is nowhere to be found in a similar photo published on the labor website.

To be fair, the two photos are not identical. They were taken by different photographers and from slightly different angles, literally and politically. It's conceivable that Tefft's image was innocently obscured by another person. Or maybe he dropped to the floor for a moment to adjust the tassels on his loafers.

Still, the conspiracy-minded among us will notice upon close examination of the labor photo what appears to be a slight smudge where one would guess that Tefft should appear. Was he rubbed out with Photoshop? Is he a ghost? Is he one of Olympia's undead?

We may never know the full truth. But the two photos, similar in so many respects, are also eerily different. Judge for yourself.

UPDATE:  For the record, Olympia Business Watch was contacted by the "entire staff" of WLSC Reports Today to disclaim any skullduggery in the bill signing photograph.