Peter Goldmark

LONGVIEW -- Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland (R-Tacoma) took part in Dino Rossi’s “Road to Victory Tour” on Saturday to tell Cowlitz County Republicans about the importance of his re-election this fall.

Afterward, PolitickerWA.com spoke with Sutherland, who said he felt “pretty good” about his electoral chances. The latest SurveyUSA poll showed Sutherland leading his opponent Peter Gold mark (D-Okanogan) by two points, 45-43.

“We are feeling pretty good,” Sutherland said. “I’ve seen polls and two is the smallest margin I’ve seen, all the way up to nine but the trend is continuous so we’re feeling pretty good.

Newspapers get to endorse candidates, and we're at least as smart as them, so here are our endorsements for statewide candidates in the Washington primary election.

A new poll shows Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire with a large lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi. The survey, which took place July 27-31 with a relatively small sample of 405 registered voters, had Gregoire up by a count of 52 percent to 36 percent with 12 percent undecided. Gregoire defeated Rossi in 2004 in the closest election in state history, and forecasters have been labeling their rematch one of the tightest gubernatorial races in the nation.

Because of the delayed reporting date for July, in accordance with the seismic changes in the Public Disclosure Commission's website this summer, June's and July's entries in PolitickerWA.com's money races at a glance series have been combined into one post.

The first number listed is contributions, the second number is expenditures and the third number is the difference between the two. Precluding any unusual circumstances, that third number in bold is equal to cash on hand. The candidate with the most cash on hand is listed at the top of each section. Asterisk denotes incumbent.

With the exception of the gubernatorial and attorney general races, in-kind contributions were ignored and significant campaign loans and personal candidate contributions have been noted in parentheses where applicable.

See April's figures here, and May's figures here and the latest number after the jump.

SPOKANE -

Washington's slate of statewide candidates gave speeches this afternoon after becoming the official nominees of the party.

Peter Goldmark, Jason Osgood, and John Ladenburg all spoke on behalf of their candidacy with a few digs at their opponents. Recaps below the fold. 

SPOKANE -

Check out more images from the convention below the jump.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels: Politicker Photo

The 40th Legislative District Democrats held a series of endorsement meetings earlier this week. Members from all three counties, San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom, had their say as to who would be the officially endorsed nominees going into the top two primary in August. Here are the candidates they chose.

40th LD State Senate: Kevin Ranker
40th LD State Rep: Jeff Morris and Dave Quall
Governor: Christine Gregoire
Supreme Court Justice: Mary Fairhurst
State Treasurer: Jim McIntire
Public Lands Commissioner: Peter Goldmark
2nd Congressional District: Rick Larsen

May is the second in a monthly PolitickerWA.com series of the financial status of some of the state's top races.

Here is how things stand as of May 31, 2008. The first number listed is contributions, the second number is expenditures and the third number is the difference between the two. Precluding any unusual circumstances, that third number is equal to cash on hand. The candidate with the most cash on hand is listed at the top of each section.

All numbers below are in the thousands of dollars, unless otherwise noted. See April's figures here.

Washington's State Commissioner of Public Lands, Republican Doug Sutherland, formally began his campaign on Tuesday with events in Bellevue and Spokane sandwiched around the time he spent with John McCain. Now that he is fully on board, he is already touting his bipartisan support.

Sutherland sent out a press release highlighting the endorsements of Republican and Democratic leaders from across the state in the legislature and beyond.