Washington gubernatorial race

Dino Rossi has launched a new segment on his website called factcheck.dinorossi.com, which bills itself with reporting "The truth behind the ads attacking Dino Rossi."

"The 2008 Washington governor's race is extremely competitive," the site says. "The incumbent governor and her political allies are attempting to distort Rossi's record on the issues in order to keep control of the governor's mansion."

Dino Rossi's campaign recently sent out letters to the Seattle Mariners single A affiliate Everett AquaSox's team mailing list inviting them to join the campaign's Snohomish County finance committee for a $100 per person fundraiser at a July 7 AquaSox game, the Seattle Times' David Postman is reporting.

The fundraising letter, however, did not go over well with Sox fans. Many of them complained to the ownership group, in which Rossi himself has a minority stake, prompting the team's majority owners, Peter A. and Peter E. Carfagna, to apologize for what they called a compromise of privacy.

The Gregoire campaign, much like their opponents did last week when Evergreen Progress went on the air with three television ads focusing on Dino Rossi's state senate record, are pushing back in advance of a third party television advertising buy by the BIAW's It's Time for a Change PAC. They are looking to set the tone before the ads hit the airwaves.

The Change PAC has not publicized which television advertisements it will be using, but its website, changeourgov.com, highlights videos from both the state Republican Party and MoveRed.org, the youth coalition of the King County Republican Party.

The weekend is over and, despite the summery Monday weather, it is time to get back to work.

The same goes for Gov. Chris Gregoire who is participating in the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) "walk a day in my shoes" program today, where candidates and elected officials follow a union worker for a day on their job.

Gov. Chris Gregoire leads Republican challenger Dino Rossi in the lastest poll conducted by Elway Research. The poll, conducted among 405 registered voters from June 18-22, showed Gregoire with 47 percent of the vote, 8 points higher than Dino Rossi at 39 percent.

The P-I has some further data on the poll here, including stats on Gregoire's 6-point lead among independents and the large amount of undecided young voters.

Dino Rossi's campaign has been fighting back early and often against new television ads attacking Rossi's record in the state Senate.

They put out a press release Thursday afternoon before the ad buy was even announced Friday morning, and now that the Rossi camp has seen the videos, they have more to say. Rossi today called the attacks old news and called the claims of the 527 that sponsored the ad, Evergreen Progress, false. 

The long wait is over. Washingtonians can now see just what kind of issue ads that the 527 group Evergreen Progress will be running. Today they launched a half million dollar ad buy consisting of three television ads discussing Dino Rossi's record as a state Senator.

The ads, seen here, touch on the topics of children's health care, prescription drugs and a patient's bill of rights

George Fearing, 4th District candidate for congress, with his son George: Politicker PhotoWith the end of June rapidly approaching, and with it the time limit for reporting monthly (for state offices) and second quarterly (for congressional races) fundraising figures, candidates across the state have appealed to their supporters for a last-minute surge in contributions to beef up their prospects for the coming home stretch.

On Wednesday night Governor Chris Gregoire sent out an e-mail to supporters asking for $50,000 by month's end. Her letter doubles to show up her new radio ad, and with it the campaign theme that Democrats are being attacked on two fronts, both by the Republican Party and their "special interest lobbyist" backers.

Two congressional candidates, Darcy Burner (D-Carnation) and George Fearing (D-Richland) , also got into the act.

One could say the Democrats' latest web video has gone viral since its release; but not the good kind of viral, more like the flu kind of viral. The video, which juxtaposes a black and white image of Dino Rossi with a series of local news reports about the BIAW's "mud-slinging" on Rossi's behalf followed by news clips talking about the BIAW's agenda.

No problem there.  

But it also plays the theme song to "The Sopranos" in the background, a move that is being harshly criticized by both the state Republican Party and the Italian Club of Seattle.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's campaign has created a new radio advertisement, her first of the 2008 cycle. The ad firmly rebuts the Rossi campaign and ChangePAC's assertion that Gregoire is weak on crime, and instead blames the budget Rossi oversaw as a state senator in 2003 for cutting money from criminal supervision programs.

See the full text of the ad, which uses an older-sounding male narrator and will be running statewide, after the jump.