Gregoire touts record, praises Obama on visit to Vancouver

STEVEN LANE/The Columbian

Gov. Chris Gregoire exhorts supporters at a Wednesday night rally at the Clark County Democratic headquarters in Orchards.

Just six days before the election, Gov. Chris Gregoire held an upbeat pep rally for about 100 volunteers during a Vancouver stop Wednesday on her whirlwind circuit of the state.

Capping her cliffhanger campaign for a second term against Republican challenger Dino Rossi, the governor touted her record, praised Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and asked for a favor: No replay, please, of the 2004 Gregoire-Rossi race, which she won by 133 votes after three recounts and a court ruling.

“I don’t want a recount. I want a landslide!” she said.

For weeks, most polls have shown the race deadlocked. But the university-based Washington Poll, released Monday, showed Gregoire leading Rossi by 6 percentage points. The same poll showed Obama with a decisive 55 to 34 percent lead over Republican John McCain among Washington voters.

Gregoire surprised many Hillary Clinton supporters in February when she endorsed Obama.

“I’m ready for that cold day in January in Washington, D.C., when we inaugurate Barack Obama,” she said, to boisterous applause.

This year’s governor’s race has featured a flood of negative television ads paid for with money raised independently by groups outside the two campaigns. Gregoire said Clark County residents, who live in the Portland media market, should “count your blessings” because they have been spared the worst of the attack ads placed on behalf of her opponent.

After one TV ad accused her of being soft on sex predators, she said, a little girl came up to her at a campaign event and asked, “Is it safe for me to go outside?”

Noting that outside interests have spent $7.5 million on behalf of the Rossi campaign, she said, “This state and this governor’s office is not for sale.”

Gregoire’s campaign has its own ad running on Portland TV stations that claims Rossi wants to cut the state minimum wage by $1.50 an hour. Rossi’s campaign has strenuously objected, saying the candidate favors a reduced “training wage” only for young people starting out in the work force.

Nonetheless, Gregoire repeated the accusation Wednesday as she spoke of the economic challenges facing Washington residents.

“We have people who are struggling,” she said. “We are not an island. Come out and see the thousands of people who are working for minimum wage” and trying to support families, she said.

Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard gave Gregoire a rousing introduction, saying she has been responsive to the community’s needs, even picking up the phone to woo a Japanese executive whose company was prepared to invest in Clark County in exchange for a tax break.

“She has spent more time in this county than the last two governors combined,” Pollard said.

Asked after the rally whether she agrees with a King County Superior Court ruling that required Rossi to submit to a deposition Wednesday in a campaign finance lawsuit, Gregoire said, “I have nothing to do with it. A court made the decision.”

The lawsuit was brought by two retired state Supreme Court justices who support Gregoire’s re-election.

“There are very serious questions” raised in the lawsuit over whether Rossi acted improperly in asking the Building Industry Association of Washington for campaign funds, she said.

Vicki Work, a volunteer for Gregoire and Obama, said she’s not ready to predict how the governor’s race will turn out because she spends all her time with like-minded people.

“I don’t want to go there yet,” she said. “We’re not in the real world.”

Before the rally, Gregoire took a quick tour of Southwest Washington Medical Center, where she met a set of newborn twins. And as Gregoire was escorted by hospital administrators to some of their newest facilities, she also had a chance to address a couple of twin concerns in health care: management efficiencies and career paths.

“I’ve been looking at the career ladder” of health care workers, Gregoire said. “People come in at the lowest rung who have a passion for health care work, and we’re looking at ways to help them move up the ladder.”

Joe Kortum, Southwest Washington’s president and chief executive officer, told Gregoire how the hospital has been helping its certified nursing assistants move into more advanced positions.

Kortum also told Gregoire about a system that has knocked a nine-hour management chore down to about five minutes. “It’s a sweet piece of technology for us,” he said.

That piqued the governor’s interest.

“We’re looking for efficiencies that can drive down medical costs,” Gregoire said.