GOP Poll: Rossi even with Gregoire; Democrats scoff

• Published July 14, 2008

A poll by Republican Dino Rossi’s own hired hand shows the race between Rossi and Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is a dead heat, with 45 percent of voters supporting each candidate and 9 percent undecided.

Bob Moore of Moore Information in Oregon released the poll as Rossi heads to Houston for a fund-raiser led by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, chairman of the Republican Governors Association. A close race might help Rossi collect more donations.

The polling is in dispute, though, and it shows the race as closer than other polls show. The Rasmussen Reports poll issued last week found Gregoire’s 11-point advantage in May had dwindled to 7 percent in June and 6 percent this month. Other recent polling: The Elway Poll in late June showed Gregoire still up 47-39, and the SurveyUSA poll in early June showed Gregoire up 50-47.

The Rossi poll tighter results come at a time advocates on both sides have gone on the attack, with Rossi aided by heavy radio and television attacks paid by the Building Industry Association of Washington. Meanwhile, the Evergreen Progress group funded by the Democratic Governors Association and labor unions has raised $1.3 million for what are likely attacks on Rossi’s record.

To hear Gregoire’s campaign tell it, there is nothing to worry about for the Democrat. “I consider the source,” Gregoire campaign spokesman Aaron Toso said, describing Moore accurately as a Rossi pollster. “A million dollars of negative BIAW ads didn’t move the polls for Rasmussen.’’

But Jill Strait of Rossi’s campaign said the numbers are not surprising after recent “bad news coming to light” about Gregoire’s administration.

“From allegations involving ethically questionable deals with her special interest campaign donors, the investigation showing that she passively watched as 400 jobs went to Idaho instead of the Tri-Cities, to the loss of the Sonics, and the growing $2.7 billion deficit — she hasn’t had a lot of good news to talk about recently. This is why her first campaign ads are attacks on Dino. She realizes that she is dropping in the polls and she’s starting to get worried,” Strait wrote in an email. “If Gregoire is so confident, why are her ads so relentlessly negative?”

The BIAW-backed political committee, It’s Time for a Change, has raised some $1 million for its attacks that questioned Gregoire’s veto of money for foster care programs, her acceptance of donations from tribes for whom she approved lucrative gambling compacts and so on.

Evergreen Progress has received $495,000 from the Service Employees International Union and $250,000 each from the DGA and the National Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education.

If there is any doubt about the direction this campaign is headed, have a look at the press release Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele put out about Rossi’s Houston trip. Here’s the headline:

“A Bush Republican to the Core, Rossi Visits the Motherland … Republican Dino Rossi heads to Texas to build his bankroll with Bush/RGA money.”

It goes on to say: “Even as he tries to mislead Washingtonians about his party affiliation, Republican Dino Rossi is headed to the motherland — George Bush’s Texas — with his hand out and his national party establishment ready to open their wallets to install a Bush Republican in Olympia … As much as Rossi tries to obscure the fact he’s a Republican in the mold of George Bush, there’s no escaping his roots and the powerful special interests that are bankrolling his campaign.”