UPDATE III: BIAW adds $4 million to pro-Rossi PAC; Gregoire backers also loaded

• Published October 14, 2008

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The Building Industry Association of Washington poured $4.1 million into its ChangePAC political committee on Friday, just ahead of Monday's deadline for making campaign contributions greater than $5,000.

The move gave Republican Dino Rossi's biggest backer $5.2 million in available cash to spend down the stretch in Rossi's campaign to unseat Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire. ChangePAC has raised $7.25 million and spent a little over $2 million.

The Republican Governor's Association also plugged its local PAC with another $3.5 million in the past week, giving it $2.5 million to spend [figure corrected Oct. 16 based on amended RGA report] ahead of the Nov. 4 election. Ballots go in the mail this week.

The other major PAC in the governor's race, Evergreen Progress, is backing Gregoire and has about $3 million available for the stretch run to the Nov. 4 election. Evergreen’s total $5.1 million raised to date has come from the Democratic Governors Association, labor groups and others.

"Thank goodness BIAW is spending this money. Otherwise there would be a vacuum," BIAW spokeswoman Erin Shannon said this morning. "We're just trying to level the playing field.’"

She contended BIAW was "making sure small business have the same voice" as labor unions, environmental groups, trial lawyer and tribes supporting Gregoire. "There's a lot at stake right now,’" she said. Click here to see a statement BIAW issued jointly with other Rossi supporters, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Washington State Farm Bureau about the decision to spend $4 million in the last weeks of the campaign.

Shannon also said the decision to spend such a large sum was prompted by opponents' recent attacks on BIAW’s political use of profits from its insurance-rebate program: