Tag Archives: Dino Rossi

Who’s Raising Money for the 2008 Washington State Races?

Some candidates are getting an early start on raising money for the 2008 statewide races. Financial reports filed for the 2008 statewide races show the Governor’s race getting the most attention.

As of the latest reports filed with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission for the period though Nov 30, 2007, Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire, has raised over $4,156,386, spent $1,368,739 and has $2,678,454 in cash on hand.

Republican Dino Rossi, who lost to Gregoire in 2004, is re-running and has raised $1,435,355, spent $525,748 and has $909,607 on hand.

Lt Governor Brad Owen, a Democrat reported raising $16,635, spending $6917 and having $9717 on hand. No Republican has filed yet with the PDC.

Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican has raised $635,617, spent $267,364 and has $368,252 in cash on hand. Although Pierce Count Executive John Ladenburg has been rumored to be considering a run for this seat, he has not filed with the Public Disclosure Commission.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, has raised $230,899, spent $62,023 and has $168,875 on hand. He has no announced opponents at this time.

The current State Treasurer Mike Murphy, a Democrat, is retiring. Democratic State Legislator Jim McIntire is running for this seat. He has raised $33,945, spent $13,899 and has $20,046 on hand. Allan Martin is the Republican candidate. He has raised $21,530, spent $1786 and has $19,744 in cash on hand.

Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland, a Republican has raised $157,459, spent $15,370 and has $142,088 in cash on hand. Former Democratic Congressional candidate Peter Goldmark from eastern Washington is challenging Sutherland for this seat. Goldmark has raised $59,969, spent $29,197 and has $30,371 in cash on hand.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag, a Demcrat, has no opponent at this time. He has raised $27,432, spent $4054 and has $23,398 on hand.

Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, a Democrat, has raised some $38,686, spent $12,046 and has $26,640 on hand.

Superintendent of Public Instruction, Terry Bergeson has raised $27,051, spent $1980, and has $25,071 on hand.

If only one name is mentioned in a race, it means no one else has filed with the PDC at this time.

None of these figures include money raised for independent expenditures in these races. In 2004, eg, the Building Industry Association of Washington, through its affiliated PAC called It’s Time for A Change, made $1,053,251 in independent expenditures -most of it to support Republican Rob McKenna in his race for Attorney General. In addition $1.5 million came from out of state from the US Chamber of Commerce opposing Debra Senn in the primary.

Senn received $1,080,028 in contributions for her whole campaign. This approximately matched the $1,211,814 McKenna received directly to his campaign. The $ 2.5 million in independent expenditures supporting McKenna was more than both candidates raised together.

McKenna personally thanked the BIAW for their support on election night saying if it wasn’t for the BIAW he wouldn’t have been elected.

Governor Gregoire Panders to Ghosts of Christmas Past

It’s Christmas time and Governor Gregoire has become like Ebenezer Scrooge. She’s busy visiting and revisiting the ghosts of Christmas past. In a trance like daze she calls for a Special Session of the Washington State Legislature to re-enact a flawed policy wish of her right wing opponents – Initiative 747.

Never mind that the Legislature is scheduled to meet in January and the issue of property tax reform deserves more than a one day session to fairly resolve.

The ghosts of Tiny Tim and Dino the DINO flit about in her harried brain. “I must be re-elected. I must be re-elected. Remove these demons!” she screams. “Give them whatever they want, just leave me alone.

Quite the contrary, Christine, feeding these waifs of thin air only give them more substance and embolden them in their mischievous pranks to throw rotten eggs at state and local governments.

These ghosts are not here to help the citizens of this state that are looking for leadership to change the way we raise revenue in Washington state and end our de facto tax motto of “most regressive tax system in the nation.

These ghosts are not here to tell the public “when compared to the other 49 states, state and local property taxes in Washington appear to be about in the middle. For fiscal year 2004, Washington state ranked 28th in property taxes at $31.68 per $1000 of personal income, below the national average of $34.75. Calculated on a per capita basis, Washington ranked 18th at $3452 per person.

The above statement comes from “2007 Legislative Guide to Washington State Property Taxes ” and was prepared by the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program.

These ghosts will not tell the public that those most in need of property tax help are lower and middle class homeowners whose tax bill is going up due to assessed values on homes increasing faster than their income is going up.

What the ghosts will not tell you is that “In 1995, commercial value of property represented 41.5 percent of the statewide assessed value, and therefore paid 41.5% of the property tax. Since then, the relative share of commercial assessed value (and therefore taxes) has decreased by 8.7% points to 32.8%.” (from 2007 Legislative Guide.)

Re-enacting I-747 will do nothing to address this fact – that homeowners are picking up more and more of the property tax burden.

And I-747 will do nothing to address the fact the the Washington State Legislature also continues to give new tax breaks to businesses .This further reduces the available revenue base and shifts more and more tax tax burden onto individuals and families.

As the Economic Opportunity Institute noted in it’s report “Adding Up: New Tax Breaks in Washington 2004 -2006″ “In the three Legislative sessions from 2004 through 2006, the Washington Legislature passed at least 61 measures either granting new tax preferences or extending old ones. These new tax breaks will cost the state nearly half a billion dollars in the 2007 – 2009 biennium.”

Washington state needs to do tax reform, not keep failed tax policies in place. When compared with alternatives like Circuit Breaker Legislation as proposed by the Washington Budget & Policy Center or a Homestead Exemption as proposed by Tax Sanity.org, Initiative 747 pales.

The Legislature needs to look at property tax alternatives that will help those most feeling the increased pressure of residential property taxes – low and middle income individuals and families . Relief should be considered first on one’s principal residence which homestead exemptions do or by circuit breaker legislation which specifically helps lower income families and homeowners.

But Governor Gregoire and the Democratic controlled Legislature need to leave behind the ghosts of Christmas past and look to what the future can bring. This is why it was encouraging to read the comments of Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and House Finance Committee Chair Ross Hunter in today’s Seattle PI. that the issue is not as simple as just passing a 1% limit.

Senate Majority Leader Brown notes that “The 1 percent limit has been in place for 5 years and there are still people out there who are struggling with property taxes.”

BIAW and Rossi Conducting Stealth Campaign for Governor

Public Disclosure be Damned! So say Dino Rossi and the BIAW in their early starting rematch with Governor Christine Gregoire. Both are conducting efforts to get Rossi elected and both are not reporting to the PDC their real campaign efforts .

As Andrew over at the NW Progressive Blog writes in his post Walking for Washington, the BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington) is the main funder behind the Walking for Washington PAC which it turns out is once again a “Walking for Rossi” PAC. They have been going door to door canvassing for a number of months now asking voters survey questions starting out with a “Would you vote for Rossi or Gregoire for Governor?”‘ first question.

The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission reports that Walking for Washington has raised some $125,618 total. The BIAW gave $90,000 in cash and $15,193 in kind. The remainder was transferred from another BIAW PAC, It’s Time for a Change, which has the same BIAW address and treasurer, as the Walking for Washington PAC.

Where the BIAW and it’s Walking for Washington PAC skirt state law and are a stealth campaign, is that they never report for what candidate they are spending money doing the survey and voter id work for. They are trying to slide this work under the radar so to speak. They have never filed paperwork with the PDC declaring what candidate or candidates they are spending money supporting or opposing. They merely report expenditures for individual contractors with no mention of the race or candidate they are involved with.

In fact they repeatedly check off as no the statement “During the Reporting Period, did the committee make an independent expenditure (ie an expense not considered a contribution) supporting or opposing a state or local candidate?”

OK please explain to me how a committee which previously supported Rossi and that is asking voters about issues to micro target them and that asks them if they would vote for Rossi or Gregoire for Governor is not making an expenditure supporting Rossi and opposing Gregoire?

It is obvious that they are opposing Gregoire and supporting Rossi from both the questions asked about the Governor’s race and the fact that this is the identical work of micro targeting based on a list of issues the voters support or oppose, just as they did for Rossi in his 2004 Gubernatorial campaign.

Meanwhile Rossi himself is running as a candidate without filing with the PDC as a candidate. He is doing this through his traveling and speaking for his foundation Forward Washington. David Goldstein writes about this in a post entitled “Forward Washington, Rewind Rossi

We first wrote about this this in a post last December entitled “Rossi Starts Run for Governor

So what’s wrong with these guys? Why can’t they be straightforward with Washington voters and admit what they are up to? Why are they bending over backward to skirt state law rather than be honest with the voters as to what they are up to.

Voters should interpret this behavior for what it is – dishonesty. It is a ridiculous attempt to hide campaign activities. Who do they think they are fooling? Voters should read Rossi’s actions as indicative of the type of Governor he would be.

It portrays Rossi as a politician that you can’t trust to tell the truth or that doesn’t care to treat voters with respect. It’s one of “I don’t give a damn about public disclosure and the voters knowing what I am really doing.” Let it be a warning – a flashing light or a buzzer that gives you pause and makes you wonder just how open and honest Rossi would be as Governor.

Rossi Starts Run for Governor 2008

Republican Dino Rossi has started his re-match campaign against Democrat Christine Gregoire for Washington State Governor in 2008. But he is hiding it behind a 501(c)(4) he has formed so that he can conceal the names and amounts of contributions supporting his efforts.

The Rossi for Governor campaign website is now not just promoting Rossi’s book by Forward Books, LLC but also Rossi’s latest effort to promote himself. It is called the Forward Washington Foundation. The Foundation claims to be “a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing public awareness of issues affecting the future of Washington state, its citizens and its economy.”

The funny thing is that the Home Page looks like a campaign website with a picture of of the Washington State Capitol and a big headline saying “A Message from Dino Rossi” and his signature at the bottom of the page.

Clicking on the About Us page you come up with a picture of none other than Dino Rossi who quickly introduces himself by saying he “is the President of the Forward Washington Foundation.” The next sentence -” Dino was the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Washington’s 2004 election,” You would think that if he was trying to head up a nonpartisan organization he would have left out the word “Republican.”

The About Us page also tells us that former legislator Dan McDonald is the only other Board Member. No mention is made that he is also a Republican. Dan McDonald doesn’t rate a picture or even an office like VP. He is just a Board Member. No other Board members are mentioned.

But guess what is the background and experience of the Campaign Manager Executive Director of Forward Washington. She was “the Assistant Campaign Manager for Mike McGavick’s 2006 U.S.Senate campaign and previously worked on Dino Rossi’s 2004 gubernatorial campaign.”

Rossi’s The Foundation’s campaign platform mission according to a press release issued on Dec. 20, 2006 is “focused on state-level issues such as improving the business climate-especially for small and medium-sized businesses, responsible state budgeting, accountability in state government and protecting the poor and the vulnerable. “

Any guesses as to who might be funding this new Foundation promoting Rossi for Governor? You probably need to look no further than Rossi’s Public Disclosure Commission reports when he ran for Governor.