Dino Rossi

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 26th Legislative District Democrats met Tuesday in Port Orchard to endorse statewide Democrats and local state House incumbent for position 2 Rep. Larry Seaquist (D-Gig Harbor) and candidate for position 1 Kim Abel (D-Port Orchard).

Then, using the platform of a captive audience of like-minded voters, the 26th Dems took some time not just to endorse their own, but to mock their opponents. Actors portrayed Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and 26th LD House candidates Jan Angel and Marlyn Jensen, spoofing their policies on things like development, health care and education as well as Rossi's and Angel's choice to use the term GOP instead of Republican on the "top two" primary ballot.

Steven Gardner of the Kitsap Sun covered the event and has video of the performances here.

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 most recent Elway Poll, done June 18-22, followed up on its gubernatorial preference question by asking would-be voters what they thought "GOP" meant. Three fourths of the 405 registered voters knew that Grand Old Party stood for the Republican Party, but the other twenty-five percent of them got it wrong.

Fifteen percent of the respondents did not know what the acronym stood for while seven percent believed it represented the Democratic Party, and three percent thought something else entirely. Even more significant is that the sample of people who answered incorrectly fell relatively evenly across the political spectrum.

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.

The Democratic Governors Association, a Washington, DC-based organization dedicated to supporting Democratic incumbent governors and challengers, is one of the main groups behind today’s launch of an independent group attacking Washington State Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi.

The group Evergreen Progress says on its website that the DGA is among its top five contributors. A spokesman for the DGA confirmed that it had given Evergreen Progress $250,000.

As PolitickerWA.com’s Bryan Bissell reports, the three hard-hitting television advertisements Evergreen Progress have begun airing, focusing on Rossi’s record on children's health care, prescription drugs and a patient's bill of rights. Rossi, a former state Senator, is challenging Democratic incumbent Christine Gregoire after a narrow loss in 2004.

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. 

Woke up this morning, got myself a gun. Here are the Winners & Losers for June 27, 2008.

Gubernatorial challenger Rossi, while not a member of the mob, is back to being a member of the Republican Party. At least according to his fundraising email.