State Democrats Launch Offensive Web Video

Bellevue, WA... The Washington State Democratic Party yesterday released an offensive, racist web video that features a black-and-white pseudo mug shot of Dino Rossi with the theme song from The Sopranos playing in the background, implying that Rossi, because of his Italian heritage, is involved in organized crime.

"Gov. Gregoire's political operatives have engaged in bigotry with this web video in order to shift the focus away from the ethical clouds surrounding Gregoire," said Luke Esser, Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. "This video is offensive to every Italian-American in this state and should not be tolerated. 

"Furthermore, Gov. Gregoire, who dramatically announced last week that we had hit ‘rock bottom' with negative campaigning, should call on her party's Chairman to immediately remove this video and offer an apology.

"It is outrageous that the Democrats would stoop to this level on Gregoire's behalf. What's next? Dino is also part Tlingit, Alaskan Native. Are they going to attack him for that, too? This type of racial stereotyping is unacceptable. Gregoire and the Democrats know they can't win on the issues so instead they turn to ethnic attacks. It's shameful and an insult to the voters of our state."

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