Gregoire touts record in Vancouver

Governor Chris Gregoire talked with attendees during a town hall hosted at Clark College Monday morning. (The Columbian/ N. Scott Trimble)

Governor Chris Gregoire meets attendees during a town hall meeting hosted at Clark College Monday morning. (The Columbian/ N. Scott Trimble)

With no opponent to debate, Gov. Chris Gregoire used an hourlong town hall meeting in Vancouver on Monday to tout her record, answer questions from a friendly audience of about 250 and campaign for re-election.

Democrat Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi had earlier agreed to debate in Vancouver from 11 a.m. to noon Monday. When Rossi pulled out of that time slot last month because of a previously scheduled fundraising event and asked for an earlier start time, the governor declined. Instead, she showed up at Clark College’s Gaiser Hall solo.

“I think Southwest Washington deserves a chance to hear from the candidates,” Gregoire said, speaking from an elevated stage. “I wanted to at least make sure you heard from me.”

A contingent of about 40 demonstrators from the Clark County Central Labor Council showed up at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay, where the Rossi fundraiser was taking place, to protest his decision to not debate here.

The public’s reaction? “There were some that waved and some that gave us thumbs down,” said labor council secretary-treasurer Mike Carnahan.

The Rossi campaign declined a Columbian request to attend his fundraiser on the grounds it was a private event.

The Gregoire-Rossi contest is a rematch of the candidates’ 2004 campaign, which ended in a near tie and was ultimately decided by a court. It has turned acrimonious on several fronts recently, with charges and countercharges over Rossi’s fundraising ties to a building industry group and Gregoire’s connections to public employee unions.

But Gregoire was among supporters Monday as she fielded questions submitted by audience members and read aloud by Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver.

Several asked about her support for education programs, including all-day kindergarten, college financial aid, improved teacher quality and the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

She said she needs four more years to complete the reform initiatives she has begun on all those fronts.

“We’re on our way,” she said. “I need another term to get it done.”

Gregoire acknowledged that the state faces a projected $3.2 billion budget deficit by 2011, but she said measures she has put in place, including 1 percent across-the-board spending cuts for some state agencies, will whittle that deficit by $1 billion.

“Rossi has offered not one idea of where he would cut,” Gregoire said. Instead, she said, her opponent’s proposals to eliminate the estate tax, cut school spending and tap the general fund for transportation projects would balloon the deficit to $4.5 billion.

In fact, Rossi has offered at least one specific. He told The Columbian editorial board that he would save “tens of millions of dollars” by replacing the WASL with a national standardized test.

Touting the future

Gregoire said the economic woes besetting the state and the nation mean it’s even more important to invest in forward-looking initiatives like early childhood education and green energy. “I will never turn my back on the future,” she declared.

Asked what state ­government will do “to make taxes more fair for all,” the governor said that on her watch the state has not raised the sales tax, the property tax or the business and occupation tax, and has approved more than $900 million in tax
incentives.

“That’s why we have been able to create 250,0000 jobs,” she said.

She repeated her promise not to propose new taxes in a second term. Rossi also has pledged not to raise taxes.

Gregoire defended her efforts to address health care reform and said Rossi is on the wrong track in calling for getting rid of state health insurance mandates.

A breast cancer survivor, she said it was one of those mandates, requiring health insurers to cover mammograms, that saved her life. “I’m five years clean because of that mandate,” she said.

Gregoire decried what she called the negative tone of Rossi’s television campaign ads, especially an ad that accuses her of failing to get tough on sex predators.

“I hate the ads on TV,” she said. “Let’s talk about the issues straight up. The darkest hour I’ve seen as a candidate is when those sex predator ads went up.”

The former state attorney general said she’s proud to have the support of prosecutors and police organizations. “They are saying I’ve been the best friend that law enforcement has ever had.”

Minimum wage

On another issue, Gregoire has been running two ads that say Rossi favors cutting the state minimum wage by $1.50 per hour. One shows an 80-year-old man who says he is “outraged” at the proposal. A large campaign sign outside Gaiser Hall Monday made the same claim.

But the Rossi campaign says the ads “flatly lie” about Rossi’s position.

“Dino does not support cutting the minimum wage of any adult in Washington state. Period,” said campaign spokeswoman Jill Strait. Instead, she said, he supports a “training wage” $1.50 lower than the current minimum wage of $8.07 per hour only for workers younger than 18.