debates

The two gubernatorial candidates, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire and former Republican state Sen. Dino Rossi, met tonight at the KING-TV studio in Seattle for their fifth and final debate of the campaign season.

Given that the campaign has been going at full speed for nearly a year at this point, and that the two have had four direct debates already in which to sort out their differences, there were few policy differences brought up tonight.

However, the two candidates did get the opportunity to weigh in on an entirely new set of topics that, like the last few debates, had a local flavor.

BALLARD - The two candidates vying for the position 1 seat of the 36th Legislative District, Democrats Reuven Carlyle and John Burbank, exchanged ideas  and attempted to differentiate themselves from one another tonight in a debate at the Sunset Hill Community Association.

Each of the candidates looked to present themselves as agents of change in their opening statements, with Burbank framing it as a departure from special interest lobbyists, and Carlyle through the lens of becoming a citizen legislator with experience in the private sector and children in the public school system.

The two largely agreed on the fundamentals of educational funding and tax reform, arguing that there was not enough support for education and that the state needs to take a serious look at tax reform, typically in the direction of more progressive forms like implementing a state income tax and decreasing property taxes across the board.

They first began to differ on how they would approach the projected budget deficit. Carlyle suggested that the legislature needed to focus on priorities, but mostly felt that it lacked the courage to take on the kinds of structural changes it would take to fix these budget issues in the long run. Burbank was more specific, suggesting that the state look toward bringing more revenue into its coffers by closing corporate loopholes that would cause large corporations to make up much of the difference between future revenue and spending.

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."

SPOKANE - Washington's two gubernatorial candidate met today for their fourth debate of the season. Democrat Chris Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi were asked questions from local citizens and a panel of Spokane-area reporters about many of the usual issues like education, tribal gaming, stem cell research and the state budget as well as a handful of issues more pertinent to Eastern Washington.

See below for a recap of today's debate.

Did Gregoire really take a quid pro quo from local tribes?

Gregoire defended her action on negotiating the tribal gambling issue saying, "Our job is not to be a partner in gambling, it is to be the police." She also adamantly denied any wrongdoing, and said the "whole thing was distorted way out of proportion."

8th District congressional candidates Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Auburn) and Darcy Burner (D-Carnation) debated in Bellevue today.

According to the Seattle Times, the  debate mostly covered economic and foreign policy issues and was marked by an active effort on Reichert's part to go after Burner.

Reichert, as his campaign has been doing of late, accused Burner of planning to raise taxes in order to make the House's "pay-go" program tenable. Reichert does not support that particular program. Burner, however, stood by her position that her plan would cut taxes for the middle class.

Gov. George Pataki (R-NY)Former New York Gov. George Pataki will be the featured guest at a presidential debate watch party in Seattle tonight.

He will appear at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle to watch Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) trade verbal jabs with Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in their second debate of the election, this time done in a town hall style with audience questions.

Pataki was three-term Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state, serving from 1995-2006.

The two remaining gubernatorial candidates met Wednesday night for the third debate of their already year-long campaign.

The debate took place in Yakima, where location mattered more this time around than it had in the previous two as the questions shifted gear to focus more on the issues that affect the dry side of the state like immigration policy, water rights, bilingual education and state unity.

On the budget, both candidates continued to argue over Rossi's budgetary figures as a state senator, and the promise of the projected deficit for the next biennium. Rossi again blamed Gregoire's spending increases for the upcoming deficit, while Gregoire turned the tables and suggested that she had proposed around a half a billion in future cuts already, and argued that Rossi's current proposals would create a $4.5 billion dollar hole in two years.

The proposed gubernatorial debate that was planned for Vancouver in the middle of October is now in server limbo, Rich Roesler is reporting.

At issue is the start time, which was originally scheduled for noon, then changed to 11:00 AM. Now it appears that the Rossi camp, who had set the previous two times and dates, wants to bump it up further to 10:30 AM in order to accommodate a fundraiser planned for the same day.

Team Gregoire, however, isn't budging, and the disagreement has set forth a round of memos and e-mails between the campaigns.

BLAINE - The Association of Washington Business hosted the second gubernatorial debate of the season tonight. Gov. Chris Gregoire and challenger Dino Rossi took questions submitted by members of the AWB in an hour-long format that allowed for two minute responses and no rebuttals.

As Gregoire mentioned in her closing statement, the format made for a lot of one-sided dialogue and issue soundbytes, and was nowhere near as testy as the KOMO debate of last Saturday.

Tonight's debate, which will be aired on TVW this Sunday, and nationally on CSPAN at a later date, happened in solid Rossi territory. The crowd gave him numerous rounds of applause throughout the debate, and the group had given him an award for his career as a legislator earlier in the day.

Still, the two appeared sharp on the issues, and gave substantive, if oppositional answers to questions ranging from taxes and the budget to transportation, health care and the state of politics.

BLAINE - The two candidates for commisioner of public lands, Republican incumbent Doug Sutherland and Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark, were supposed to debate this morning but something funny happened along the way.

Sutherland never showed up for the debate.

The Seattle Times reports that Sutherland had the time marked incorrectly in his calendar, and was still driving en route to Semiahmoo whe the 11 AM start time elapsed.