The Morning Digest: Tuesday, October 28, 2008

With the PolitickerWA.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Washington's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.

Both parties step up efforts to turn out voters

If there's one number that haunts Democrats and Republicans in the final week of this election, it's 133. That's the margin of victory for Gov. Christine Gregoire over Dino Rossi four years ago. (Andrew Garber, Seattle Times)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/governorsrace/2008319882_getoutvote28m.html

Rossi, Gregoire leaving it all out on the campaign trail

With time quickly running down before next Tuesday's election, which is not just barely over a week away, both gubernatorial candidates are hard at work on the campaign trail. (PolitickerWA.com)

http://www.politickerwa.com/bryanbissell/2485/rossi-gregoire-leaving-it-all-out-campaign-trail

Jamieson: Mayor takes ax to council's 'babies'

Tired of ex-cons cycling in and out of jail? Fed up with chronic drug users plaguing our streets? Ticked off about young adults stuck in a crime rut? (Robert L. Jamieson Jr., Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/385227_robert28xx.html

Poll: Gregoire getting an Obama bounce

OLYMPIA _ A new poll released Monday suggests that Gov. Chris Gregoire may finally be getting something that for months eluded her: a political updraft from fellow Democrat Barack Obama. (Richard Roseler, Spokesman Review)

http://spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=17432

Poll finds support for every major ballot initiative

The four major ballot initiatives up for a vote this November, I-1000, I-985, I-1029 and Prop. 1, all have positive support according to the latest Washington Poll.  (PolitickerWA.com)

http://www.politickerwa.com/bryanbissell/2484/washington-poll-finds-support-every-major-ballot-initiative

Candidates get specific on traffic

When a car crashed into a guardrail on the Alaskan Way Viaduct last week, knocking a piece of it to the ground, the Dino Rossi gubernatorial campaign pounced. “As Viaduct chunks fall, Gregoire still has no plan,” read the headline on a news release Rossi’s campaign issued later that day. (Jason Hagey, The News Tribune)

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topphoto/story/520687.html

Rossi camp responds to deposition ruling

Dino Rossi's campaign for governor has officially responded to this afternoon's ruling by King County Judge Paris Kallas calling for Rossi to be deposed in the BIAW fundraising lawsuit. (PolitickerWA.com)

http://www.politickerwa.com/bryanbissell/2482/rossi-camp-responds-deposition-ruling

Religious groups lead I-1000 opposition

The Rev. Robert Siler used his father's death to illustrate the issue. Before becoming a priest, he told parishioners during a recent Mass at Yakima's St. Paul Cathedral, he served as his father's caregiver, living with him for two years until he died of pancreatic cancer in 1994. (Adriana Janovich, Yakima-Herald Republic)

http://yakimaherald.com/stories/2008/10/27/a-decision-of-life-and-death-religious-groups-lead-i-1000-opposition

Bellingham mayor's budget would eliminate 13 vacant jobs

BELLINGHAM - Flattening revenues and severely declining real estate taxes mean a smaller budget proposal from Mayor Dan Pike for this next year, compared to the 2008 adopted budget. (Sam Taylor, The Bellingham Herald)

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/255/story/633403.html

Select Ridgefield voters mull sales tax hike

The city of Ridgefield has an item on the Nov. 4 ballot that concerns the tiniest number of voters. Eighty-one people living around the Ridgefield I-5 exit are registered to vote on a sales tax increase. The increase, from 8.2 percent to 8.4 percent, would apply to the receipts of future shoppers of a possible commercial venture there. (Isolde Raftery, The Columbian)

http://www.columbian.com/article/20081028/NEWS02/710289970

With the PolitickerWA.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Washington's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.