Republican Governors Association

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.

A number of law enforcement officials from across the state have written a letter on behalf of Gov. Chris Gregoire's safety record in response to an attack mailer sent out by the Republican Governors Association.

The mailer includes the names and faces of six of 1,300 convicted sex offenders the RGA claims are unaccounted for, as well as a dozen other mugshots of shady looking characters. It says Gregoire's record includes overseeing 3,100 early released felons and 600 sex offenders released as "homeless".

"We are writing to express our collective outrage at the Republican Governors Association (RGA) for broadcasting misleading television ads that distort Governor Gregoire's record and slander the hard work we do every day," the letter states.

The Republican Governors Association launched another television ad in Washington this week, changing their tack from the gambling compact to Gregoire's record on safety.

The ad, called "On Her Watch", blames Gregoire for releasing 1300 sex offenders who classified themselves as homeless. It features a mother saying she has become more concerned for her child's safety since Gregoire came into office.

The Gregoire campaign quickly responded, releasing their own ad and disputing the facts of the RGA spot. 

The Washington State Democrats have produced a web video to counter the television ad recently put out by the Republican Governors Association about Gov. Chris Gregoire's tribal gaming negotiations. The Democrats point to a Seattle P-I editorial that calls the ad "almost fact free" and claims the RGA's actions are hypocritical.

For starters, the video goes out of its way to explain the negotiations in a different light than the RGA ad, saying that Gregoire, in turning down revenue sharing, stopped the largest expansion of gambling in state history. Meanwhile, they point out that the RGA has taken in over a million and a half dollars from national casino interests and suggest they are using Las Vegas casino money to "distort" the record of Gov. Gregoire.

See the full video here.

Gov. Chris GregoireThe Republican Governors Association will take to the Washington state airwaves today with a television ad about the tribal gaming negotiations done by Gov. Chris Gregoire's office that resulted in less gambling in the state, but along with that a rejection of revenue profit sharing between the tribes and the state.

The ad says that the revenue-sharing deal turned down by the governor, which they call "bizarre", would have been able to help with social services in the state, and tries to connect the negotiations with later campaign contributions from local tribes as a payoff.

Gregoire's campaign has called the attempt to make an issue of out of the casino deal "desperate", and maintains that the deal was right for Washington.

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."

The Republican Governors Association, whose presence in Washington state's race has increased of late with a mocking of Chris Gregoire's Barack Obama radio ad, kept at it this morning by weighing in with their expectations for tomorrow's "top two" primary.

In the memo, the RGA echoes the Dino Rossi campaign's assertion that Republicans tend to do relatively poorly in primary elections compared to general elections. They also float the idea that removing third parties by November will be uniquely helpful to their candidate. 

"The primary will help Rossi by clearing the race of other candidates who would capture the anti-Gregoire vote," the memo says. 

UPDATE: The Democratic Governors Association responded to their counterpart's memo. See below for more.

The Republican Governor's Association went after Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire's most recent radio ad today, which features Sen. Barack Obama calling for the type of change in government Gregoire has produced in her first term.

The RGA begs to differ. In addition to mocking Barack Obama for vacationing in his home state of Hawaii and speaking to European audiences, they question his judgment in supporting Gregoire by hitting the governor on the topics state Republicans have been using to make their case against her, namely her negotiations with state tribes, a lack of results on certain road projects and the projected budget deficit.

The Gregoire camp responded later the same day, using the attack to tie Dino Rossi to President George W. Bush, citing that Bush has raised $10 million for the RGA.