Dino Rossi at a fashion show to raise money for Rise n' Shine last night? His campaign confirms he was, indeed, there, and Slog tipper P offers this account:

hi —

don't know if anyone from the Stranger was at the Fashion First fund-raiser last night to see Dino Rossi on the catwalk, but it was really, really weird. The event was a totally great idea that raised money for Rise and Shine but came to a grinding halt when they brought a bunch of hot policeman out, gave this long speech about how much Seattle loves cops, and how we would do anything for our cops, and aren't cops great, please clap forever for cops, and then had a minute of silence for all the cops lost in the line of duty in the past year or two. I'm definitely pro-cop, but in light of the recent killings, rallying a crowd of fashion plates and hipsters for cops was super weird and wildly inappropriate. People in the crowd were gaping at each other.

Then the fashion show resumes with cops modeling clothes and the big finale: Dino Rossi comes out to do his turn on the catwalk, and the MCs—two guys from some radio station—go completely batshit, yelling at us to vote for Dino and how awesome Dino is and don't forget to vote for Dino, before making a crack about Christine Gregoire. Dino must have padded the audience, because the front rows of rich people go apeshit, too, leaping to their feet and clapping and yelling and Dino is just grinning away, looking like a perfect ass. I've been to a ton of fund-raisers and I love Rise and Shine, but this is the first one I've been to so blatantly mixed politics with a charity event. I get that Republicans are rich and so it makes sense to get them in the audience if you want to raise money, but I felt really steamrolled and disgusted. I'll never, ever attend another event by that organization again.