Across state, Dino shows his other side

In a one-party state, well-connected consultants and pro-government interest groups often clean up, their appetites spawning misconduct that must be cleaned up by the FBI.

Alaska is going through the agonies of indictments, convictions and damning videos of Republican legislators taking bribes.

In Washington, Democrats have held the Governor's Office for 24 years, with (lately) big margins in the Legislature.

Although our state is the envy of its depressed, deep-in- debt counterparts, lots of moderate voters are tempted to give Dino Rossi a crack at the office he lost by just 133 votes in 2004.

Early returns from Tuesday's primary indicated that Rossi and Gov. Chris Gregoire are in for a tightly contested rematch.

Gregoire held a big lead in King County, and ran stronger in several Western Washington counties than she did in 2004. Rossi piled up big margins in Eastern Washington, and in the GOP bastion of Lewis County.

Rossi is a mellow, appealing guy, a fine salesman, expert at working a room and sizing up an audience.

And while Gregoire has made parts of it work, our state government is still a cumbersome beast. Democrats have taken on the hubris and trappings that go with being a natural governing party.

Want evidence? Just watch the progression of Gregoire fundraisers, as the governor vacuums campaign cash from law firms and public affairs consultants while unions fuel ads by a pro-Gregoire front group.

Heading across the Cascades on summer vacation, however, some readers of this newspaper have witnessed unsettling stuff.

The face of the challenger, as drawn by his favorite lobby, is not as affable as those Rossi TV spots airing during the Olympics.

"Crossing back into Washington on the back road from Priest Lake to Metaline Falls, I was struck by Dino's campaign billboards and the bottom line, 'Don't let Seattle Steal this Election,' " wrote Rod Gleysteen.

"Once across Rainy Pass, Seattle thievery was forgotten in favor of just listing Rossi's GOP affiliation. Is it possible somehow that we have a candidate preaching disdain for Seattle on the dry side but not over here?"

And this missive rolled in from Stephen Green, a Seattle P-I city editor during the 1970s.

"Coming through Pomeroy, there was a billboard for the GOP's candidate for governor," Green wrote. "It said, 'Don't let Seattle Steal this Election.' So much for being a Guv of all the people."

Jill Strait, Rossi's spokeswoman, e-mailed a disclaimer.

"Those are not official Dino Rossi for Governor campaign signs," she wrote. "We had nothing to do with creating them, and we don't agree with their message. We do not believe that Seattle -- or anyone else -- will steal this election."

Why did they not tell the Building Industry Association of Washington, a lobby to which Dino is joined at the hip, "Don't put up the anti-Seattle signs"?

Does this portend well for a guy who pledges on TV to get things done in Olympia? Any governor, to be effective, needs to part the "Cascade Curtain." Gregoire has made a conscientious effort at doing so, whatever her Eastern Washington showing on Tuesday.

Attitude is part of being out of power for so long. The Republican Party once sang the praises of government activism. "A Blueprint for Progress" was Dan Evans' first campaign slogan.

U.S. Rep. Sid Morrison ran for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1992 as a Main Street conservative, believing in keeping down regulation but committed to a constructive problem-solving government.

He came up a few thousand votes short in the primary, with our state being the big loser.

Since then, soured by defeat, the "GOP Party," under whose banner Rossi is running, has turned ceaselessly negative and anti-government.

The 2004 election has added a bitterness toward Gregoire. She was described as "a heartless, power-hungry she-wolf who would eat her own young" in a January column of the BIAW's Building Insight newsletter.

Rossi used a recent speech to the BIAW to claim that "nobody" will buy influence in his administration.

"What (supporters) will buy with their support is a fair hearing I will give to everyone," he said.

Words are appealing, but actions speak louder.

The Rossi campaign seems to be displaying its candidate to invited audiences. And it has shown hostility toward efforts to draw him out or nail him down.

KUOW-FM was told last week that the GOP Party candidate will not appear on its talk programs before the November election. A Democratic Party cameraman was physically ejected from a news conference at which the Seattle Police Officers' Guild was endorsing Rossi.

What are the "new ideas" promised in Rossi's TV spots? One appears to be an eight-lane, 1960s-style replacement for the existing Evergreen Point Bridge.

What about programs already under way? Would Rossi continue the Puget Sound Partnership, directed by a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency boss in two GOP administrations?

We may never hear answers to such questions.

"This is my campaign. I'll talk about the issues I want to," Rossi told David Postman of The Seattle Times after a KING/5 appearance.

Isn't he showing even more hubris, seeking office, than Democrats who have held power all these years?