RGA

SHELTON - Gov. Chris Gregoire railed against a recent mailer sent out by the Republican Governors Association at a campaign rally in Shelton today. The mailer, which hit mailboxes on October 10, displayed a number of frightening looking mug shots of sexual predators and said that Gregoire had overseen the early release of 1300 people convicted of sex crimes, including some against children, who are now registered as homeless.

"Last week when the sex predator ads went up was probably the worst day in my political career," Gregoire said in her stump speech, "because there could be nothing further from the truth.

She then said the ad prompted a bi-partisan coalition police chiefs and prosecutors to become "incensed" to the point of releasing radio ads and recording robo calls in order to condemn them.

The Democratic Governors Association, one of Gov. Chris Gregoire's largest third party backers, announced today that it had broken its own record for annual fundraising, having raised $18.7 million through three quarters. 

So far they said they have put $3.8 million of that right here into Washington state, $2 million of which has gone toward the group Evergreen Progress including a $1 million dollar contribution as recently as September 22.

But despite a recent influx of third party spending on behalf of Gregoire's opponent, Republican Dino Rossi, from their counterparts at the Republican Governors Association and the Building Industry Association of Washington, the DGA was coy about whether they would do a last minute match.

Independent backers of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi have added millions of dollars into the already record-breaking campaign in the last few days, and the Democrats aren't happy about it.

Both the Washington State Democratic Party and the Gregoire campaign released statements about the news that the Building Industry Association of Washington added another $4 million to their campaign efforts on behalf of Dino Rossi, and that the Republican Governors Association contributed another $3.5 million to advocate for Rossi.

The Seattle Times reports that the total cash on hand between interest groups and campaigns is now lopsided on Rossi's behalf by a 4-to-1 ratio. The RGA, BIAW and Rossi campaign have $8 million to spend in the next three weeks compared to $1.8 million for Gregoire and her backers, the union-backed Evergreen Progress.

In addition to the third party influx, Rossi has outraised Gregoire recently, and has accrued the highest total of individual contributors in state history.

ELLENSBURG - Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish) is feeling good about the impression he has made in the four gubernatorial debates so far.

"In Spokane I did quite well," he told PolitickerWA.com after a Saturday rally about the Friday debate he had with Gov. Chris Gregoire. "We got a lot of terrific feedback from people. I think even in the online polls of the tv station, people thought we won that debate."

He said his main goal in these debates was to convey to the public what he was all about, but felt that he had been doing so in a hostile environment next to Gregoire.

"For the most part I got yelled at for an hour by my opponent and I just talked to the voters of the state of Washington," he said. "She seems to be very angry all the time."

The Republican Governor's Association's Washington State RGA PAC has produced a new website and video mocking Governor Chris Gregoire's role in negotiating the 2005 gambling compact with state tribes. The website, CasinoChris.com, contains the video called "Negotiations".

"It just may have been one of the most bizarre negotiations in the history of mankind," an announcer says at the beginning of the piece, which starts off with music reminiscent of the television show "Seinfeld".

It then goes into a dramatization of the state turning down revenue sharing with tribal gaming interests before declaring that, by receiving $650,000 in campaign contributions from tribal interests, Gregoire was "the biggest casino jackpot winner of all."

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic Governors Association, a Washington, D.C.-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.