WA: National GOP Has Pulled the Plug on Ads for Rossi

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 11 October 2004 | Joel Connelly

[Publius]

Democrats crooned about "my old Kentucky home" for 32 years until last November, when Bluegrass State voters decided they were tired of the same old song.

Boosted by millions of dollars from the Republican Governors' Association, Ernie Fletcher became the first GOP governor elected since 1967.

The Republican Governors' Association has planned a negative blitz against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Christine Gregoire in a bid to end the 20-year Democratic dominance of Washington's statehouse.

The TV campaign was set to begin Oct. 2. An announcement came Friday that the ads were "going up today," but none was seen.

The GOP effort has seemed hesitant and slow to start, while last year's negative campaign in Kentucky was a case of political "Shock and Awe."

"I wonder whether they are reconsidering whether to spend money here or put it into Montana," said Frank Greer, Gregoire's strategist.

Republicans went into this year's gubernatorial race with their highest hopes in years. Former state Sen. Dino Rossi was their consensus choice; primary wars were avoided. Rossi had wowed colleagues and Olympia lobbyists as a budget writer.

But with prospects increasingly uncertain, GOP leaders in the U.S. Senate and statehouses across the United States may heed lyrics from a 1960s hit song: "Let's hang on to what we've got!"

Attorney General Gregoire has built a double-digit lead over Rossi in four recent surveys.

A Survey USA poll for KING/5 gave Gregoire a 51-41 lead, after the same poll had earlier indicated a tight race.

Republican state Chairman Chris Vance put out a news release denouncing Survey USA findings. Other polls, however, say the same.

An unpublished statewide poll by Evans/McDonough, completed Sept. 30, came up with an almost identical 51-40 Gregoire lead. The Seattle firm is polling for foes of a gambling initiative on the November ballot.

Working for Gregoire, in a survey finished Oct. 3, Democratic poll taker Mark Mellman found the attorney general ahead by a 51-39 ratio.

Another top Democratic pulse taker, Celinda Lake, found Gregoire with a 52-38 lead. Gregoire was running far stronger than another Lake client, Deborah Senn, the Democratic nominee to replace Gregoire as the state's chief legal officer.

At Rossi headquarters, spokeswoman Mary Lane described her candidate as "a couple points behind," citing an Oct. 4-6 survey by Atlanta-based Strategic Vision, and characterized the race as a "dead heat."

But the evidence is that Republicans' once-promising state ticket seems to be (using a phrase made famous by George H.W. Bush) in "deep doo-doo."

Money flow is a reliable tip-off. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has pulled a big "independent" TV campaign planned for GOP Senate nominee George Nethercutt. The Bush-Cheney campaign has cut far back from the frantic pace of its spring and summer advertising.

How come?

Although we vote to limit taxes, the Evergreen State may be just a little too "green" and socially progressive for today's militantly conservative brand of Republicanism.

Republicanism runs in the blood of Edith Roosevelt Williams of Vashon Island. The granddaughter of President Theodore Roosevelt served as honorary chairwoman of Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign in Washington.

"Whoever is the conservationist candidate is my choice," Williams said by phone last week. "In the presidential race, that would appear to be Mr. Kerry."

Williams has yet to make up her mind about the Gregoire-Rossi race, saying: "That's a toughie. I should support the woman. It's a tossup."

Similarly, a major Seattle business figure and philanthropist -- who asked not to be identified -- said he is casting his first Democratic votes for president and Senate since supporting Lyndon Johnson and Henry Jackson 40 years ago. He, too, is undecided about the governor's race.

Rossi can talk like a moderate, Dan Evans-style Republican.

He promises help for Washington's neglected state parks. He boasts of being a board member of The Nature Conservancy and told a debate audience: "I've even received the Good Green Deeds award twice from the Conservation Voters."

But the Republican nominee compiled a pro-environment score of only 36 percent with Washington Conservation Voters' tabulation of votes in the Legislature. He voted to let counties with populations under 75,000 opt out of Growth Management Act requirements. He backed a resolution that called for return of protected habitat in the Hanford Reach National Monument to agricultural and development use.

Rossi has pulled out of a debate with Gregoire at Wednesday's Wake Up for Your Environment breakfast, a bipartisan annual event put on by Washington Conservation Voters. "Clearly, they're very partisan against Dino and would not have given him a fair hearing," Lane said.

Huh? Rossi had earlier accepted the breakfast debate, even after the conservation voters group endorsed Gregoire.

Gregoire was sharp, composed and competent as she debated Rossi before a pro-GOP Association of Washington Business audience, just before the group backed her Republican opponent.

John F. Kennedy's speech on Catholicism and church-state separation, delivered before hostile preachers of the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, helped him win the White House.

Alas, Republicans in this corner of the country seem unable and/or unwilling to expand their base. They haven't elected a governor in Washington since 1980 and in Oregon since 1982.

Watch your TV screens for the tip-off: Republican governors' hopes for Dino can be measured in the volume of their TV spots. The same dollars could buy a lot of TV time in Montana, where a Democratic rancher, Brian Schweitzer, threatens Republicans' 16-year hold on the governorship.

[Publius]

First they pulled the plug on Nethercutt. Then they pulled the Bush ads. Now they’re pulling the plug on Rossi. I don’t know what to think anymore.

[Publius]

Please ping the chapter.

[The Old Hoosier]

They need the money for more competitive races, evidently. It's all for the best if it goes to other states where there are much closer and much more crucial races.

[watsonfellow]

Well no, the Republican Party has always been rather foolish where it sends money and how it allocates it. Essentially it's a never ending cycle, the GOP fearful of wasting money puts no money in Pacific states and because of this, good candidates lose, and when they lose, the GOP says, "well that was a good decision!"......

That being written, I think Nethercutt (sic) could win based on the following.

1) He apparently has a great commercial in which Murray praises Osama

2) If Bush does very well in the East, NJ, PA etc.......Washingtonians inclined to vote for Kerry will proably stay home.

3) He did defeat Tom Foley.....

[GraniteStateConservative]

Think Illinois. You've become Illinois.

[Carry_Okie]

Kerry would rather burn forests than thin them.

Republicans are so stupid. They could own the high ground on the environment and just boot it over and over. They won't do the homework to understand what to do to win.

[The Old Hoosier]

Nethercutt's race is a lost cause. In spite of the Osama ad, he's down by double-digits. Aside from the obvious presidential states, the national get-out-the-vote effort will be better used to win senate races in Oklahoma and South Dakota.

As far as RGA money is concerned, they should spend it all in W. Va., even if the GOP candidate there has no chance, just to get the Republicans to the polls for Bush. Also, they should use it in NH, where Benson will win anyway, but a very strong turnout will help Bush.

WA just doesn't figure into the equation at any level. If they can't throw out the dems with an 8% unemployment rate, then they are a hopeless state, at least this cycle. Better to come back and try to beat Cantwell in the mid-terms.

[RetiredArmy]

Sadly, putting money into our state by the GOP is a total waste of time. The greater Seattle metro area, plus Tacoma and Everett out number all the reminder of the state combined. Why do you think WA's population is growing by leaps and bounds????? Because all the liberals from CA and other states are coming here, the homosexuals in the heartland are moving here (I know of one Auburn University, in Alabama, grad, who moved here because he could be an open homosexual, but could not at Auburn or in Alabama (that is what he told me)). Liberals, socialists, communists, etc, are moving here into the greater Sodom on the Sound area, and that is why they win all the elections. If WA were two states, Eastern WA and Western WA, then Eastern WA would be a conservative state and Western a liberal state. Some in the East would like to be their own state. In fact, some in Eastern KING county (Seattle), wanted to form their own county, but the state legislature put a lid on that to keep a conservative base in Eastern King CO. from forming. This way, they can defeat that want-to-be county by keeping it in King Co. Plus, the tax money also.

Nope, sadly, we have lost and will probably never get back the governor, senators, attorney general. The dems are running an atty general candidate that is scum. She will probably win.

[Carry_Okie]

Ping

[proudpapa]

I hope they are keeping their powder dry until the last 10 days.

(Either that or the internals aren't close at all.)

[Coop]

Militantly conservative? I'd take this article more seriously if that nonsensical phrase had not been used.

[chimera]

Republicans are so stupid. They could own the high ground on the environment and just boot it over and over. They won't do the homework to understand what to do to win.

You're right. Many policies espoused by Republicans are inherently pro-environment. For some reason, they seem reluctant to seize the initiative and portray them as such.

Besides that, nobody is "anti-environment". We all have to live in this world. Every time the 'Rats start running their mouths about conservatives being "anti-environment", we should cream them. Too often they get away with that crap and every time they start in with it we should challenge it.

[citizen]

I don't suppose it means they're way ahead?

[bigfootbob]

Rossi was thought to have had the best chance of any R in 20 years. He's toast and so is this state.

We're like alcoholics, we haven't hit rock bottom yet. Gregoire is the worst AG this state has ever had and now it appears she's cruising to the Gov's mansion. I'm sick to my stomach.

How goes the battle, Mark? Funny you'd ping me today, I read several chapters in your book last night refreshing my memory. What's new?

[KoneZone]

The only thing that is more sickening than the state of affairs in WA. is the state of things in the Peoples Republic of Portland, OR. I lived there in the 90's and I'm glad to be gone.

[LS]

I didn't think Nethercutt was a viable senate candidate. Sorry, but he wasn't strong enough to beat Osama Mama. Likewise, we don't have good candidates in NV, AK, or CA.

[Publius]

Everytime I think we've hit rock bottom, we crash through that bottom and find a whole new bottom.

[CyberCowboy777]

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[vox_freedom]

WA just doesn't figure into the equation at any level. If they can't throw out the dems with an 8% unemployment rate, then they are a hopeless state, at least this cycle. Better to come back and try to beat Cantwell in the mid-terms.
Sad but true. Kerry will carry WA easily. Murray is presently ahead of Nethercutt by double digits and unless something big happens (Osama, is that you?) we'll have Murray for another six -- ugh -- years. I had previously thought Rossi might be able to beat Gregoire but the odds are looking worse as the top of the ticket sags. Unfortunately, the D's are riding high in this state that is increasingly liberal, union activated, and has populace of sheep.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

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