Thursday, May 01, 2008

Talk About Chutzpah...

It's a good thing the Washington Supreme Court ruled several years ago that lying in a political campaign was an acceptable form of free speech. I received the following as part of a campaign donation solictitaton press release from our esteemed governor...

"In 2005, when I was elected, Washington had the highest unemployment rate in the country, a government with too much red tape and a $2.2 billion deficit. But I entered office ready to take on challenges and get results."

Excuse me??? Dino Rossi — NOT Governor Gregoire — was the architect of the budget that solved that nasty little $2.2 billion deficit problem. To try and take credit for what Rossi accomplished shows an enormous amount of chutzpah, if for no other reason, than because it's a outright lie.

In fact, in the four years she's been governor, state spending has ballooned over 33 percent and we are projected by Gregoire's own budget office to have an even BIGGER budget deficit next year. And she'll solve that problem how??? Most likely, by new and increased taxes (Say, "Goodbye one percent property tax increase"). That's because she isn't about to anger the education and state employee unions, which along with the environmental lobby, are the backbone of her financial support, by making any meaningful spending cuts.

On the other hand, Rossi's campaign continues humming along, attracting people new to the political process — or at least new to donating to candidates anyway — which should worry Gregoire.
Many are moderate Democrats, which Rossi calls "Dinocrats." In fact, over 40 percent of Rossi's donors have never donated to a candidate before, and his campaign logged its 30,000th campaign donor yesterday.

Meanwhile, independent polls continue to show the race as a dead heat that's too close to call. That too, at this point in the campaign, should be a major concern to Gregoire — who has never polled 50 percent in the entire time she has been governor.

2 comments:

  1. You are mistaken.

    Rossi was chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee in 2003 when a significant deficit was erased and the state budget balanced without tax increases.

    However, with that budget in place, by 2005 another multi-billion dollar deficit had emerged. There's no way Rossi solved that problem: he'd resigned from the Senate to run for governor, and Democrats won control of the Senate after the 2004 election.

    So, when Gregoire took office, there was a large deficit, and a balanced budget resulted, partly through tax increases.

    Clearly the two would have taken different approaches to the situation. But the language in the governor's campaign solicitation is not a lie; there was a large deficit in 2005, the budget was subsequently balanced, and Rossi was on the sidelines by then.

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  2. You are correct — to a point. As Senate Ways and Means Chair in 2003, Rossi's committee was writing a two-year budget that didn't take effect until 2004 and covered the years 2004 & 2005.

    Either way, as you said Gregoire increased taxes — but did it in a supplemental budget — also bringing us the largest tax increase in the state's history

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