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<< Previous   of   Next >> Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Dino Rossi (right) and Jay Buhner talk during a fundraising event at an Everett AquaSox game last month. Mark Mulligan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Gov. Gregoire speaks with supporters at a fundraising dinner in Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick's back yard Tuesday evening.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, August 3, 2008 Rossi, Gregoire seek momentum in primary By Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writer OLYMPIA -- In the race for governor, there is meaning in a primary that won't decide anything. Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi presumably will emerge as the top two vote-getters in the Aug. 19 election and advance to November for a rematch four years in the making. Unlike 2004 when they ran on separate party ballots, this time they are going head-to-head because the new "top two" primary format groups all candidates together. While vote totals probably will be worth more as conversation fodder than political insight, they will nonetheless provide Gregoire and Rossi each with a yardstick for measuring their needs for the rugged months ahead. The candidates will compare this month's outcome with that of the September 2004 primary, keeping an eye out for unexpected swings among the state's electorate. Of course, the candidates are tamping down expectations of how well they will perform. Yet you can almost count on them spinning something positive from the results and aiming that message at the hundreds of thousands of eligible voters who will skip this primary and wait until the fall to choose sides. "It's kind of a dry run, a test for the general election," Rossi said. "The primary doesn't elect anybody but a judge." Gregoire tells supporters to not underestimate the value a good showing in August can mean in November. "I know better than any governor in the nation every vote counts," she routinely says at fundraisers. One woman and nine men are competing for the job of governor. Two are from Snohomish County -- Christian Pierre Joubert of Edmonds, a Democrat, and James White of Marysville, an independent. Duff Badgley of Seattle is the lone Green Party candidate and Will Baker of Tacoma is running on the Reform Party ticket. Christopher Tudor of Seattle and Mohammad Hassan Said of Ephrata are declaring "no party" preference. John Aiken of Medical Lake near Spokane and Javier Lopez of Lacey are vying as Republicans. Aiken also ran in 2004 and picked up 6.3 percent of the votes cast by Republicans in the primary. Gregoire and Rossi are the best known and most financially fortified. After conducting a duel for the history books in 2004, another close tussle is widely anticipated. In 2004, Rossi was certified the winner after initial balloting and a machine recount. Gregoire emerged the victor on a hand recount of nearly 3 million ballots and months later, in the summer of 2005, a court upheld her 133-vote win. Last time, they fenced on their differing visions for the state as they sought to succeed Gov. Gary Locke. This time, Gregoire's record is the line of battle. She's defending what she's done against his criticism of what she didn't do. She talks of staying on course and he contends that will steer the state into trouble. Gregoire, 61, has benefited from a period of robust economic growth marked by a hot housing market, increased foreign trade and the creation of 220,000 jobs. With record amounts of revenue pouring into government coffers, she's been able to boost spending on education from preschool to college. She put money into raising teacher pay and reducing class sizes as directed by voter-approved initiatives. In 2003 Locke and Rossi, then the head of the state Senate Ways and Means Committee, held off from funding the initiatives to help balance a deficit-plagued budget. Gregoire increased spending to provide health care coverage for tens of thousands more children in low-income families, clean up Puget Sound and help new green-power companies start up. On transportation, in 2005, she pushed through a 9.5-cent hike in the gas tax to fund projects around the state. She said crime is down due in part to a hike in state dollars for public safety, She's not apologizing for any of it despite criticism by Rossi. "I am proud of what Washington state has done the last three years," she told supporters in Mill Creek last week. "We've invested based on your values." She's also signed into law a ban on hand-held cell phones, toxics in toys and the long-stalled social policy initiative of Democrats to provide legal recognition to same-sex partnerships. For Snohomish County, she backed money for rumble strips and other improvements on U.S. 2 not included in the 2005 gas-tax plan. She also has supported launching a new four-year college in the county though she's stayed away from getting involved in the community dispute on where it should be built. The budget is going to be a fulcrum for debate. She said she inherited a $2.2 billion deficit and today can point to more than $800 million socked away in reserves. While she's not readily acknowledging the threat of a future deficit, she said she's aware the slumping economy means tightening the strings on spending. "We will set priorities and fund priorities. We can't do everything. Those programs not performing well won't be funded," she said in an interview. Rossi, 48, is older and wealthier than four years ago. "I do know how to invest," he joked this week upon mention of commercial real estate dealings that bolstered his personal income. There's nothing funny to Rossi about the state's fiscal health; he said government under Gregoire is spending at a greater rate than the income it is taking in. "We're on our way to hitting a brick wall," he said. The staff of the state Senate budget committee is predicting a $2.7 billion deficit in two years if the governor and the Legislature make no course corrections. To make ends meet, he said, he won't raise taxes and will trim spending -- though he's offered no specific program cuts thus far. He predicts the governor will raise taxes. She says that's unfounded and pledged voters would get a say on any general tax increase. Public safety and transportation are two other central issues in his campaign. Each is plagued with problems in need of fixing, he said. Rossi criticizes Gregoire's administration for not knowing the whereabouts of hundreds of convicted sex offenders who are without a home when released from prison. "I won't be dropping off homeless sex offenders under bridges in Snohomish County," he said. He was referring to convicted rapist David J. Torrence, whom the Department of Corrections in April outfitted with a GPS tracking device and ordered to sleep under a bridge because he had no place to live. Torrence removed the device and fled the state. He then surrendered a couple of weeks later in Arkansas. "We will monitor these people even if I have to attach GPS tracking devices to both ankles," he said. On transportation, Rossi backs a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct and proposes $600 million in projects on U.S. 2. The money for U.S. 2 would most likely come by diverting a portion of sales tax on new and used car sales from the general fund into transportation. Overall, people living in Washington are worse off today than in 2005, he said. "People don't believe they are getting a good return on their investments," he said. Snohomish County is one of the key battlegrounds this election. Rossi's 6,500-vote win in Snohomish County in 2004 was the first by a Republican in a gubernatorial election in two decades. He's confident he can repeat that in 2008 because he's doing better among donors. In 2004, Rossi raised nearly $366,000 from donors living in the county. He said as of last week that 4,081 people contributed a total of $540,558. Gregoire's campaign reported she had collected $272,033.92 in the 2008 cycle from Snohomish County residents. That total does not include a fundraiser July 29 in Mill Creek attended by about 100 people. Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

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