Email This   Larger Font      Print This   Smaller Font Advertisement   Governor Christine Gregoire is making a state-wide swing to announce her re-election campaign, including a stop in Vancouver today. (AP photo)

Monday, April 07, 2008
By KATHIE DURBIN, Columbian staff writer

Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire kicks off her 2008 re-election campaign against Republican challenger Dino Rossi today with a 14-city tour that includes stops in Vancouver this afternoon.

Rossi’s next visit to Vancouver will be April 19, when he addresses the Clark County Republican Party convention.

With a probable gubernatorial rematch that has been heating up for months, and with new candidate filings for several legislative seats, 2008 promises a passel of interesting state contests in Clark County.

And that’s not even counting the presidential election, several other statewide contests, the 3rd Congressional District race and a local election to fill two county commission seats.

With two months to go until filing deadlines, new candidates could still emerge — and there’s a new twist for voters.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding Washington’s Top 2 primary will make the Aug. 19 primary a winnowing process in races with three or more candidates. The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 4 general election regardless of their party affiliation.

At this point, only one local legislative race — for the 17th District seat held by Republican Rep. Jim Dunn — could fall into that category. Dunn, who was stripped of his committee assignments this year for making a politically incorrect remark to a legislative staff member at a social gathering, told The Columbian he will decide whether to run for another term by tax day, April 15. 

In the three weeks since the Legislature adjourned March 13, candidates have been greasing up their fundraising machinery, which sat unused during the 60-day session. By law, Gregoire and state lawmakers were prohibited from raising campaign money during the session, and the governor voluntarily held off soliciting campaign contributions until after she finished signing bills passed by the Legislature.  She signed the last of them, including the $33.4 billion 2008-09 supplemental budget, on April 1.

The next day, she sent out a fundraising letter asking contributors to help her raise $30,000 by April 10.

“I’ve spend the last four months getting results for Washington families, unable to ask for support because of the legislative fundraising freeze,” she wrote in a letter obtained by The Columbian. “Meanwhile, Dino Rossi has raised nearly $2 million.”

As of Feb. 29, Gregoire reported $4.8 million in contributions and $1.73 million in expenditures. Rossi reported $2.88 million in contributions and expenditures of $883,756.  Since then, Rossi has raised an additional $900,000, according to his campaign. Long-shot Democratic candidate James A. White reported $2,439 in contributions and $3,365 in expenditures.

The next reports, due April 10, will provide an updated look at the governor’s contest and legislative races statewide.

An analysis by Congressional Quarterly published last week concluded that Gregoire has shored up her base and is better positioned to win than in the bitterly contested 2004 race. Gregoire won that race by just 129 votes out of more than 2.7 million cast after two recounts and a lawsuit. In Olympia this year, “Re-elect Rossi” bumper stickers were a familiar sight in the parking lot outside the Senate Republicans’ office building.

A nonpartisan poll conducted by the University of Washington in February showed Gregoire with a 12-point lead; the Rasmussen Poll, released March 5, showed the contest as a statistical dead heat.

Legislative contests

In Clark County, state senators and state representatives are up for re-election this year in the 17th, 18th and 49th districts. State senators serve four-year terms; representatives run every two years.

17th District

In the 17th District, which covers Vancouver east of I-205 and unincorporated Clark County north to 199th Street, all three incumbents face contests. 

* Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, holds Clark County’s legislative fundraising record so far this year. As of Feb. 29, Benton reported raising $113,050. Benton, who serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, has received contributions from major lobbyists in Olympia, including the Service Employees International Union; Regence Blue Shield; Puget Sound Energy; the Washington Restaurant and Washington Beverage associations; and Michael and Phylis Dunmire, chief financial backers of initiative king Tim Eyman. Local contributors include Camas philanthropists David and Patricia Nierenberg, the Dick Hannah auto dealerships, and Broughton Lumber Co.

His numbers are likely to rise. Four years ago, Benton and Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, each spent more than a quarter-million dollars to retain their seats.

Democrat Martin Hash of Vancouver announced in February that he will run to unseat Benton this year. Hash, an animation software developer and former owner of the city’s beleaguered Columbia Arts Center, has retired and plans to lend his campaign $100,000 of his own money. 

* Dunn will face two opponents in the Aug. 19 primary — if he runs. He has filed no campaign contribution report for 2008 but has about $1,300 left over from his 2006 campaign.  

On the Republican side, Joseph James, the owner of a dog-boarding business, is running to unseat Dunn. A political newcomer, he has been endorsed by Clark County Commissioner and former state legislator Marc Boldt. As of Feb. 29, James had raised $24,025 in cash and had made $22,018 in in-kind contributions to his own campaign.

On the Democratic side, Tim Probst, chief executive officer of the Washington Workforce Association and a party activist, is running to wrest the 17th District seat from the Republican column. Probst has been endorsed by every Democratic legislator in Clark County. He had raised $25,355 in cash and $2,260 in in-kind contributions by Feb. 29.

* Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, will face Republican activist Micheline Doan in the other 17th District House contest. Wallace, who is running for a fourth term, serves on the House Transportation Committee and is chairwoman of the House Higher Education Committee. As of Feb. 29, she had raised $8,500.

Doan, who is active in the Clark County Republican Women’s Club, filed for the seat last week. She has loaned her campaign $2,250 in start-up funds.

18th District

The sprawling 18th District  encompasses parts of Salmon Creek and Felida; the cities of Ridgefield, Battle Ground, La Center, Woodland, Yacolt, Camas and Washougal; as well as most of Cowlitz County. It’s represented by three Republican incumbents, all of whom  face challenges from Democrats.

* Sen. Zarelli is one of the most influential Republicans in the Democratic-controlled state Senate. He has served three four-year terms and is his caucus’s point man on budget and fiscal issues. As of Feb. 29, he had raised $73,140 in cash.

He faces a challenge from Democrat Jon T. Haugen, an airline captain from Felida. Haugen plans to make a campaign issue of several incidents from Zarelli’s past, including his failure to report his $32,800 annual income as a state senator when he filed for unemployment in 2002.

Haugen has reported $5,115 in cash, including $1,450 from his wife, and $15 in in-kind contributions.

* On the House side, appointed incumbent Jaime Herrera, a Republican, will face Republican VaNessa Duplessie of Ridgefield, who telecommutes to her job as public relations manager for a Bellevue software company.

Herrera was appointed by the Clark and Cowlitz county commissioners in November to replace Rep. Richard Curtis, who resigned in the midst of a sex scandal.  A former policy adviser to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Herrera returned from Washington, D.C., to her family home in Ridgefield to run for the open seat. She served on the House Transportation, Technology and Education Appropriations committees during the 2008 session. As of Feb. 29, she had raised $22,704.

Duplessie, the 2006 recipient of the George C. Marshall Award for her work in youth advocacy, plans to challenge Herrera’s understanding of the 18th District. “While Jaime Herrera was living on the East Coast, our district has changed,” she told The Columbian last month.

Duplessie had raised $12,090 in cash and $1,477 in in-kind contributions by Feb. 29. She has the backing of the 18th District Democrats, which gave her $1,000, and the Democratic Central Committee, which provided a $756 in-kind contribution.

* Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, is running for a fifth term in the 18th. A consulting forester and ranking Republican on the House Finance Committee, he has solid backing from the timber industry and other major donors. Orcutt had raised $21,915 in cash and $319 in in-kind contributions as of Feb. 29.

Democrat Jonathan Fant, an electrical engineer who lives in La Center, has filed paperwork with the state to run against Orcutt but reported no campaign contributions as of Feb. 29. Fant ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Curtis in 2006.

49th District

The 49th District includes Vancouver west of I-205, Hazel Dell and other urban unincorporated areas to the north. The district has been represented by three Vancouver Democrats since Sen. Craig Pridemore defeated Republican Sen. Don Carlson in 2004.  .

* Pridemore, who is running for his second term, is vice chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee and has overseen the preparation of the Senate operating budget for the past two years. On policy issues, he has shepherded through landmark legislation requiring recycling of electronic wastes and implementing a sweeping climate-change agenda for Washington.

As of Friday, Pridemore was unopposed. He reported $32,790 in cash contributions and $300 in in-kind contributions as of Feb. 29. 

* Rep. Bill Fromhold’s announcement in January that he will leave the Legislature after four terms created an open seat in the heavily Democratic 49th. During his eight years in Olympia, Fromhold played key roles on pension policy and education. In his last term, he was chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, which writes the budget to fund construction projects statewide.

Jim Jacks, until recently Gregoire’s liaison to Southwest Washington, announced his candidacy for the open seat last week. He has not yet submitted a campaign finance report.

Also seeking the open seat in the 49th is Republican Debra Peterson, a teacher at a Vancouver private school. Peterson had raised $585 as of Feb. 29.

* Rep. Jim Moeller, the other 49th District representative, became a member of the House Democratic leadership team this year when he was appointed deputy House speaker pro tem to preside over House floor sessions. Moeller had raised $25,444 in cash and $260 in kind-contributions as of  Feb. 29. As of Friday, he had no announced opposition.