Washington State Democratic Party

The Washington State Democratic Party released two videos on Wednesday to highlight the differences in the campaign styles of Gov. Chris Gregoire and her opponent Dino Rossi. Specifically, they try to mock the exclusive nature of Rossi's campaign events that are otherwise billed as being open to the public.

In the latest example they show Rossi's campaign, with the help of the Washington State Farm Bureau, roping off an event in East Wenatchee's Hydro Park with yellow caution tape which the Democrats say suggests a police crime scene. To hammer home the point they open and close the video with the theme song to television's "Law & Order". This is the second such video they have released showing Democrats being turned away from Rossi events.

Solicitor General Maureen Hart wrote a letter Friday on behalf of Secretary of State Sam Reed to lawyers from the state Democratic and Republican Parties sticking up for the legality of the state's "top two" primary. Earlier in the week Democrat David McDonald and Republican John White wrote to Reed suggesting that a 9th Circuit Court injunction banning the primary was still in place despite the Supreme Court's decision that it was facially legal.

"Wholly aside from the practical impossibility of your suggestion, there is no legal basis for it," Hart said of the lawyers' claim that the state should cease with the top two primary. "The injunction was based entirely upon the District Court's conclusion that I-872 would facially violate the constitutional rights of the plaintiff political parties - a judgment that has been reversed. An injunction must be obeyed until it is ‘reversed by orderly and proper proceedings.'"

State Democrats are once again seeking to tie Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi to President Bush, one of the most unpopular elected officials among Washingtonians. This time they are doing it by way of a web video that shows Rossi staffers barring someone with a video camera from entry to multiple Rossi events.

This is all the while juxtaposed with clips of Rossi touting the need for more transparency. The video is below.

Although Governor Chris Gregoire led the May fundraising battle between her and opponent Dino Rossi, $785,000 to $701,000 and the overall matchup $6.8 million to $5.15 million, the Rossi campaign is claiming that it has raised more money, both in May and throughout the campaign, from in-state individuals and businesses.

The Seattle Times' David Postman first reported this morning that Gregoire received $200,000 of her $785,000 in May from the state Democratic Party. Postman also notes that Gregoire has received $511,000 of the $2 million she has raised since officially beginning her campaign two months ago has come from the state party.

The Washington State Democratic Party has released a video on youtube today mocking Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's ambivalence on climate change. Recently, he has made remarks in support of the existence of gloabl warming, but as recently as two months ago in Kitsap County and two weeks ago in the Seattle Times he was not so clear.

The Democrats focus on statements Rossi made at a meeting with the Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce in March where he was asked his position on global warming. They have video of Rossi's response where he says, "There is still a lot of debate going on on this. There is going to be a big debate on this coming up in the next two or three years...We'll see how this debate goes, but I don't think anybody should panic at this point."

As PolitickerWA.com's own Wally Edge suggested earlier, 2008 could be the year of hardball politics in the Evergreen State. Today the Washington State Democratic Party has created a website, http://www.therealrossi2008.com, knocking Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi on everything from his past statements to his policy positions and his association with national Republican officials.

The site banner contains a flash image that shows Dino Rossi morphing back and forth into President George W. Bush and the mp3 of Rossi's statement of September 11, 2007, "I've found you can do pretty much anything you want if you do it with a smile on your face. It's amazing what you can get away with if you do it with a smile on your face."

It also links to critical news stories in the local media as well as many of the Democrats' attacking press releases and youtube videos and the Gregoire campaign website. Politics, as they say, ain't bean bag.

First it was the 36th and 10th Legislative Districts. Now, a county in Eastern Washington has added themselves to the list of Democratic jurisdictions refusing to follow state party rules of nominating candidates. Hillary Hamm at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that Whitman County Democrats have decided not to nominate candidates by way of a Precinct Committee Officer vote.

"It's not a democratic process," said Whitman County state committeeman Nathan Horter, who sponsored the resolution to buck the rules. "We don't think someone who sits in an office on the west side should make decisions for people in Whitman County."

On the day that Republican presidential candidate John McCain comes to Washington for the first time since becoming the GOP's presumptive nominee, the state Democratic Party is doing its best to run interference on his visit. Today they released a video highlighting Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's reference to McCain as "my guy" in an Aberdeen Daily World article earlier this year along with the Air Force tanker contract that McCain helped guide to a foreign competitor of Boeing.

"Republican Dino Rossi has demonstrated that his partisan GOP allies in Washington DC are more important than standing up for thousands of jobs here in Washington state," said Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz in a statement. "While Gov. Gregoire has sharply criticized the contract that shipped our jobs overseas and supported an appeal of the decision, Rossi stands by his man - further evidence that Washingtonians simply can't trust Rossi with our future."

In response to the news that some Legislative Districts have decided not to hold candidate nominating sessions as state Democratic Party rules stipulate by the vote of Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs), first reported here at PolitickerWA.com, State Party Chair Dwight Pelz has urged party leaders not to waver any further. The Times' Postman has details.

Pelz wrote an e-mail over the weekend to party leaders reminding them of the tough hand they were dealt by the Supreme Court decision upholding the "Top Two" primary, and urged them to follow the lead of some of the LDs and counties who have made nomination endorsements already.

From the Dept. of New and Improved: 

The Washington State Democratic Party has not drastically changed since last week, but their website has. Check out http://www.wa-democrats.org for the latests in political websitery.