Rossi run for governor? All signs point to yes

(Note: This story has been changed since it was originally published. It now includes a state Republican party assertion that minutes of a Pierce County Republican Central Committee discussion of a Rossi poll were inaccurate. The state GOP says no poll was conducted on Rossi's prospects in 2008.)

He doesn't admit it, but Dino Rossi seems to have made up his mind to run again for governor.

Even as the 2004 Republican nominee faces an investigation of whether he illegally used his public policy foundation as a front for a 2008 campaign, he reportedly is moving toward an announcement of his candidacy sooner than he has indicated. Some of his 2004 campaign operatives have been touting his 2008 prospects.

		Karen Ducey / P-I file (2004)
	Despite Republicans' worries over Dino Rossi's protracted pondering, one active party member says key advisers "feel 100 percent confident that he is in."

Rossi's announcement is considered likely before Thanksgiving and possibly as soon as mid-October. On Sunday during an interview, he repeated what he's said for months: He will decide before the end of the year whether to challenge Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, who defeated him by 133 votes in 2004.

"Like I said before, before the end of the year," he said.

Rossi's protracted pondering has worried many Republicans because the party has no backup gubernatorial candidate. But an active party member who has talked with key Rossi advisers, and spoke on condition of anonymity, said those advisers "feel 100 percent confident that he is in. ... They talk about him running as a sure thing."

Other party insiders, too, say they no longer worry that Rossi won't run. Some top Republicans have prodded him for months to declare his candidacy and build a campaign -- and a war chest.

Gregoire's re-election campaign has raised nearly $2.7 million and had more than $1.7 million in the bank by the end of August. Rossi can't start soliciting campaign money until he registers as a candidate.

"I think people are getting tired of him waiting to say yes or no," said a party strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity.

However, an investigation by the state Public Disclosure Commission of a complaint by the state Democratic Party looms over Rossi. The complaint says he violated state campaign laws by using his non-profit Forward Washington Foundation to finance an ongoing campaign, and keep his name and his political views before the public.

The foundation, started by Rossi, pays him $75,000 for serving as its president; the foundation's records describe it as a half-time position. Unlike political candidates, the foundation isn't required to publicly disclose who gives it money. He has no other job, but owns a number of income properties.

The complaint is "a high priority, I can tell you that," said Doug Ellis, the disclosure commission's assistant director.

Rossi has called the Democrats' complaint baseless and trumped up by Gregoire's supporters. If Rossi indicated he is building a campaign, it could undercut his defense against the Democrats' allegations that his non-partisan cover is slipping and his activities are those of a candidate.

These, however, seem to be signs of a budding candidacy:

Rossi spent months addressing civic and business groups on behalf of his foundation, which promotes conservative fiscal and other policies he advocated as a 2004 candidate for governor. But recently he cut back on those events while stepping up his partisan speeches to Republican Party audiences -- three within three days last week, for example, in Everett, Colville and Pullman.

"I'm kind of peeling back my time a little bit" with the foundation, he admitted. But he said the political engagements were scheduled months ago.

Rossi's 2004 polling consultant, Moore Insight of Portland, sent news media and others the results of a July public opinion poll with encouraging news for Rossi supporters. It said a Gregoire-Rossi matchup at that time was a statistical dead heat, with Gregoire favored by 47 percent and Rossi by 43 percent of voters surveyed, and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Rossi's 2004 fundraising consultant, Amy Barnes of Fundraising Partners Northwest, then e-mailed the results to some of Rossi's 2004 contributors.

"The poll is broadcast to a thousand people by (Moore Insight's) Bob Moore" to drum up business for him, Rossi said.

Rossi went to Las Vegas Sept. 6 to address the Republican Governors Association, the national campaign arm of the party's governors, which wants him to run again. He said the association "wanted me to come talk about the '04 race ... I told them I haven't decided whether to run again or not."

Asked if the association has polled on his potential 2008 candidacy, he said, "Not that I've seen. ... If they did, they haven't shown it to me."

However, the Pierce County Republican Party discussed just such a poll at a meeting July 28. According to minutes of the meeting, a report from the Republican State Committee said: "Republican Governors Assoc. poll looking good for Dino Rossi should he choose to become a candidate in 2008."

The state Republican Party says those minutes were inaccurate and that no such poll was taken.

The state GOP's annual fall dinner in SeaTac Oct. 10 is designed to demonstrate the party's support for a Rossi candidacy, with a theme of "Run Dino Run," possibly to build public and party-base momentum for an announcement of his candidacy shortly thereafter.

The banquet invitation says, "Help us convince Dino Rossi to run for governor." The keynote speaker will be the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, with whom Rossi met in Las Vegas.

According to a Tacoma News Tribune editorial page blog, state Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Rossi confidant, spoke with the paper's editorial staff Aug. 30. Paraphrasing McKenna, editorial page editor David Seago wrote, "McKenna said there's no doubt Rossi's going for it."

Rossi said, "I called (McKenna) immediately" after reading the editorial blog. "I said, 'Rob, do you know something I don't know?' "

McKenna implied in a Friday interview that he was handed a script, in effect, by Rossi and that, "what we agreed for public consumption ... (was that) Dino has told me that he has not decided whether to run." As for saying he was certain that Rossi is running, McKenna now says: "I didn't say that. What I said was, I hope he does run, and I might have said ... that if he finds enough support, he will run."

Rossi "wanted me to be very clear on his approach to this," McKenna added, "and he was very clear to me regarding what I should understand about that and what I should say publicly."