Things are looking grim for Christine Gregoire.
On Friday, September 26, a King County Superior Court judge ruled
against the state Democratic Party, which had sought to force Dino
Rossi to identify himself as a Republican on the November ballot.
Instead, Rossi will be listed as “Dino Rossi, Prefers GOP Party.” The
distinction is more than just semantic; in June, a survey by pollster
Stuart Elway revealed that fully 25 percent of likely voters didn’t
know that “GOP” meant Republican and that 7 percent thought it referred
to the Democratic Party. Calling himself a member of the “GOP Party”
boosts Rossi’s poll numbers by around 3 percent—a substantial
margin in a race that, last time around, was decided by just 133
votes.
In the years since she eked out that victory in 2004, Gregoire has
been a cautious governor in the Gary Locke mold—taking solidly
progressive positions on safe-bet Democratic issues like stem-cell
research and global warming, but hedging her bets on shakier ground
like gay marriage and the fate of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Gregoire is
tough, but she comes across as brittle under pressure—unlike
Rossi, whose dodges are so artful you hardly notice when he fails to
answer a question. In last week’s debate, for example, Rossi dodged a
question about Gregoire’s budget with a story about his daughter
“little Jillian,” and couched a call for reducing workers’ compensation
in an anecdote about starting out in business with “$200 in the bank
and a $200 car and nowhere to go but up.”
Perhaps more importantly, Rossi is proving himself to be a far more
robust, adaptive, and compelling candidate than the Rossi of 2004. Dino
2.0 is as smooth and soothing as a shot of Ovaltine, in stark contrast
to his slick real-estate-
huckster persona four years ago. Despite
winning statewide election four times—three times as attorney
general, in addition to her narrow 2004 win—Gregoire has always
had trouble connecting with voters on a personal level and motivating
Democratic voters to turn out for her. Although Washington State went
heavily for John Kerry in 2004, hundreds of thousands of Democratic
voters failed to support Gregoire, leading to two recounts and
Gregoire’s subsequent razor-thin margin of victory.
Could history repeat itself—this time, putting Rossi in the
governor’s mansion? While Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama
(whom Gregoire, presciently, endorsed in early February) is polling
well ahead of his Republican opponent, John McCain, in Washington State
(according to one recent poll, Obama’s lead has widened to 11 points),
Gregoire and Rossi remain locked in a statistical dead heat. One recent
poll had Rossi leading Gregoire, 49 to 48 percent; another had Gregoire
leading, 50 to 48. In the August 19 primary election, with 10
candidates on the ballot, she beat Rossi by less than 2 percent. All of
that could be a sign that a significant number of voters plan to vote
for Obama and skip the down-
ticket races, or that there are lots
of voters who, for whatever reason, are backing a Democrat to lead the
nation—and a Republican, with exactly the opposite values, to
lead the state.
So what if Rossi wins—should we worry? Hell, yes. Here are a
few reasons why.
1: Your Body, His Choice.
When it comes to abortion rights, Rossi has one response: “I’m not
running on that issue.”
That’s cool. John McCain probably isn’t running on the issue of
whether his vice-
presidential candidate is an idiot, either. In
any case, voters need to know that Rossi supports additional
restrictions on abortion rights, up to supporting a ban on abortion
with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save a woman’s
life—which puts him just a hair to the left of Sarah Palin. In
1991, Rossi campaigned against Initiative 120, a measure that
guarantees a woman’s right to abortion in Washington State. In 2000, he
addressed a “right to life” rally in Olympia, where he memorialized
“the deaths of 38 million preborn babies nationally.” If any
abortion-related legislation came before him as governor, he has said,
“I’ll vote [sic] my conscience”—not the Constitution.
No, Dino Rossi can’t overturn Roe v. Wade. But he can push
for legislation restricting abortion rights and limiting the
circumstances in which the state covers abortion care for
low-
income women. And he can make sure that, once they’re born,
unwanted children have as little chance in life as possible. In fact,
he already has. In 1999, then–state senator Rossi voted against
creating the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which
insures low-income kids. In 2003, the budget he wrote removed 46,000
children from the program. And just last year, he supported George W.
Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill, which would have extended health-care
benefits to 10 million children.
Rossi may not be “running on that issue” now, but he knows as well
as any ambitious politician that governor’s mansions are frequently
springboards to higher office. In 10 years, Governor Rossi may be
Congressman Rossi or Health and Human Services Secretary Rossi. You can
bet he won’t be saying he “isn’t running on” the issue of reproductive
freedom then.
2: Good-bye to Any
Reproductive Choice at
All.
Rossi doesn’t just oppose abortion rights. He opposes all reproductive rights—from students’ right to learn the facts about
pregnancy, STDs, and birth control, to women’s right to buy
contraceptives with a prescription. Rossi opposes requiring pharmacies
to stock emergency contraception, which works by preventing
fertilization, because some pharmacists assert, falsely, that it causes
abortions. How trivial does Rossi consider women’s right to emergency
contraception? On one occasion, he compared requiring pharmacies to
dispense the medication to “forcing Safeway to carry my favorite brand
of sport drink”; on another, he likened it to forcing hardware-store
owners to carry “certain types of tools.” And in the late 1990s, as a
state senator, Rossi voted against requiring prescription drug plans to
cover regular oral contraceptives. Gregoire, in contrast,
believes that dispensing legally prescribed medications is part of a
pharmacist’s job description—and that if a drug plan pays for
boner pills for men, it ought to pay for contraception for women.
3:
The Company He Keeps.
Rossi’s two biggest supporters are the Building Industry Association
of Washington (BIAW) and the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA),
which have spent millions in direct and indirect contributions to
Rossi’s campaign. (The state Public Disclosure Commission just ruled
that the BIAW failed to properly report contributions it directed to
Rossi’s campaign.) Although the BIAW’s handiwork is largely invisible
in Seattle, the group has funded billboards across Eastern Washington
urging voters, “Don’t Let Seattle Steal This Election”—a
reference to the two recounts in 2004’s Rossi-Gregoire matchup. The
RGA, meanwhile, has been running misleading (and arguably racist) ads
portraying Gregoire as a corrupt tool of Native-American
tribes—represented, in the ad, by two long-haired men in braided
pigtails and bolo ties. The ad does not note that the Republican
Governors Association is itself heavily funded by gambling
interests—in the RGA’s case, Las Vegas casinos, which have given
the group a cool $1.6 million.
In addition to accusing Gregoire, falsely, of “stealing” the 2004
election, BIAW has likened environmentalists to “Hitler’s Nazi Party”;
referred to the Department of Ecology as “communistic”; declared that
Gregoire was a “heartless, power-hungry she-wolf who would eat her own
young to get ahead”; and referred to
Gregoire’s supporters as
“witches.” (All quotes are from the BIAW’s official newsletter.)
On policy issues, the BIAW has bragged that, as a state senator,
Rossi voted with the organization 99 percent of the time. Those votes
include efforts to block legislation regulating greenhouse-gas
emissions, to weaken the Growth Management Act, and to weaken
home-owner protections against negligent contractors. Rossi supports
the BIAW’s legislative agenda—hardly surprising coming from
someone who has said there is “still a lot of debate” about whether
humans are causing global warming.
And speaking of making the environment worse…
4: More Roads,
No Transit.
Rossi’s transportation “choices” plan can be summed up in four
words: more roads, no transit. Not only would Rossi’s proposal build
road projects—like a tunnel on Seattle’s waterfront—that
voters have already rejected, it would leech $800 million a year from
the state’s general fund, which pays for education, health care, and
prisons. Although Rossi says he’ll pay for his entire plan by cutting
from other spending and charging tolls of $1.50 on a new SR 520 bridge,
that’s hardly a credible claim in a year when the state faces a $3.2
billion budget deficit thanks to a tanking national economy.
And that’s assuming Rossi’s wildly optimistic cost estimates prove
accurate—unlikely, as Rossi’s numbers have been denounced as
laughable by transportation experts around the state. For example,
Rossi estimates that building a new 520 bridge with pontoons to
accommodate eight lanes would cost $3.3 billion, or less than a
proposed six-lane 520 bridge replacement. Rossi came up with
that number by taking Gregoire’s estimate for a
six-lane bridge
and just assuming construction would happen faster. Rossi also predicts
that a cut-and-cover tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way
Viaduct—identical to the so-called “surface/hybrid” tunnel
proposed by Seattle mayor Greg Nickels in early 2007—would cost
just $2.7 billion. That’s $700 million less than Nickels’s own
estimate, which was widely regarded as optimistic. The rest of his
estimates are similarly lowballed—from expanding U.S. Highway 2
(down to $600 million in Rossi’s plan, from as much as $1.8 billion in
the state’s own estimate) to extending SR 167 (down, in Rossi’s plan,
to $1 billion—just half of the state’s own estimate). Rossi’s
plan includes no explanation of why he would be able to build road
projects so much more cheaply than anybody else.
In Rossi’s campaign literature and during the gubernatorial debates,
the Republican candidate has frequently brought up the “green” aspects
of his road-building program—like converting the state vehicle
fleet to hybrids and plug-ins, getting rid of the sales tax on
high-mileage cars, and fixing culverts that block salmon runs. The
problem with those proposals (in addition to the fact that Rossi,
again, lowballs their cost, estimating that $200 million will be enough
to clear nearly 1,700 culverts for salmon, when the state’s own
estimates are four times higher) is that the $767 million Rossi
proposes spending on “green” initiatives isn’t enough to make up for
the billions he wants to spend expanding roads.
As for the claim that his transportation plan provides voters with
“choices,” Rossi’s plan provides just one: roads for
single-
occupancy vehicles. His plan would not only fund roads to
the exclusion of all other forms of transportation, it would
effectively kill Sound Transit (handing transit governance over to a
new regional transportation authority, which would also oversee roads)
and eliminate funding for light rail to Bellevue. Under Rossi’s plan
(and a Tim Eyman–backed initiative that is likely to pass in
November), HOV lanes would be open to traffic during all but a few
“peak” hours in the morning and afternoon—condemning bus riders,
as well as people who carpool to work, to sit in the same crappy
traffic jams as everyone else.
5: Oh, and About Those “Choices”…
So let’s say you live in Eastern Washington. You hate Seattle and
its communistic transit; you aren’t taking some faggoty bus to get from
Walla Walla to Ephrata or whatever. You’re celebrating
freedom—the freedom to drive! And Dino Rossi is going to make it
easier for you—right?
Sorry, Bubba. The state Dems crunched Rossi’s numbers and found that
his transportation “choices” plan is actually a giant handout to the
Puget Sound. The proposal would spend just $2.3 billion, or 15 percent
of the total, east of the mountains—a sum that would be divvied
up between just eight projects. Take out the north-south freeway in
Spokane, and that goes down to $129 million—an average of less
than $20 million per project. Fourteen Eastern Washington counties
would receive no money at all. Rossi’s plan, in other words, would
divert money from Eastern Washington to pay for road projects on this
side of the mountains—where voters rejected a roads-heavy
transportation plan just last November.
6: Rossi “Isn’t Running On” Gay Rights, Either—But
He Opposes Them.
Let’s be clear: Christine Gregoire, like Barack Obama (and pretty
much every Democrat running for a high-profile office in America right
now), has said she supports civil unions but thinks Washington State
“isn’t ready” for gay marriage. But Gregoire’s opponent doesn’t just
oppose gay marriage—he’s promised to veto it if it ever passes
the state legislature. He also supports rolling back a provision in the
state’s domestic-partner law that allows partners to inherit each
other’s assets without a will, saying it would open the door for people
to falsely claim a relationship where none existed. Apparently Dino
Rossi thinks gay people will sign domestic-partner agreements under
false pretenses, or in ignorance of what they entail, simply to steal
from each other.
And gay marriage is, again, just another issue Rossi “isn’t running
on” now—but which he’ll have plenty to say about if he goes on to
higher office in the future.
7: Pro-Life—For Some.
A bit of advice for those living in Dino Rossi’s Washington: Don’t
get sick. (Especially if you’re a low-income child; see point number 1,
above.) And if you do get sick, don’t get so sick you want to
die—because Dino Rossi wants to keep you alive at any cost. Rossi
opposes Initiative 1000, the “death with dignity” measure on the
November ballot, because he “always errs on the side of life.” He has
said he’s glad his mother didn’t have the option of physician-assisted
suicide when she was sick with breast cancer, because she went on to
live for two more years. If I-1000 had been law, he told the Seattle
Times, his mother would have probably opted to die, when all she
really needed was a better nurse and a change of medication.
That’s a heart-warming anecdote. And it includes a grain of truth:
We’d all like to be able to access the very best health care and to die
with as little suffering as possible. But for people who aren’t as
fortunate as Rossi’s mother—people who don’t have the money to
pay for health-care or who do have health-care but are in so much pain
that just living is unbearable—I-1000 offers an alternative.
Rossi and others who oppose physician-
assisted suicide want to win
the “pro-life” argument at the expense of thousands of Washington
residents who will be forced to die in pain if physician-assisted
suicide remains illegal.
On the other hand, if you have a genetic disease that could be cured
by embryonic stem-cell research: tough shit. While Rossi does support
research on adult stem cells, he opposes embryonic stem-cell research,
because embryos “have promise.”
This election matters—and not just because Barack Obama may
defeat John McCain and start reversing the awful legacy of the last
eight years. Down-ticket races like Gregoire versus Rossi (and I-1000
and light-rail expansion and Tim Eyman’s proposal to make traffic
worse) affect people’s everyday lives. (For more on these races, see
“Your Vote Matters! Really!” in the special voter-registration section.
Gregoire hasn’t been a perfect governor—far from it. But the
differences between her and her opponent are vast. Gregoire’s constant
parroting of the “George W. Bush Republican” line is irritating, but
it’s true: It would make no sense for Washington to go for
Obama—and simultaneously elect a Bush clone to the state’s
highest elected office. 
I blame Gregiore for running a shitty campaign and being a lousy governor. This was Gregiores to win or loose and she made her choice.
UGH!!!!
I’m moving to Utah… oh wait, DOH!!
I agree that Rossi has slimeball written all over him.
But why do people seem to forget that Hitler was a big proponent of assisted suicide? His program progressed from killing the terminally ill to later include chronic and mental illnesses, deafness, epilepsy, even sick children – non of whom actually wanted to die. I realize the planet is overpopulated, but this is not a solution. Why repeat history? It was bad enough the first time.
Anyone who thinks any elected official will over turn abortion laws is just as fucking stupid as Palin. Traffic has been a talking point in this city for 30, yet no one ever talks about how fucked up sound transit is. Both Rossi and Gregoire have the same view of gay-marriage but say if different. Can someone please just write a good middle of the road article about a candidate. Both of our choices fucking suck, why are we not asking questions of the candidates instead of busting one sides balls. Traffic still sucks, school cost more, teachers are still paid shit, and the cost of doing business in Washington is the highest ever. But lets not focus on that, lets focus on how to scare the stupid’s.
only in bloody washington would a Republican get extra votes by attempting to fool some people into thinking he is a demcorat.
Does this concept not sound entirely preposterous to… um… everyone???
I’m with Andrew and The_Joshua here… Gregoire has done Rossi’s campaigning for him.
I’m abstaining on voting for governor.
It’s a fact, complaint in hand on either side of the aisle, that it is easier to be a fence sitter in a bar-room brawl and duck the punch coming, than get in there and risk bodily harm.
Hard to argue that on a chicken sandwhich and soda right?
Well, who out there really thinks it’s easier to run on the “play it safe and smile routine” over “defend the last 4 years of squandered civil rights and economic downturn?”
Mr. Rossi would be absolutely correct in a commenting that this commentator is “unqualified to lead in the Governor’s seat”, but… and that’s a big if… you don’t disqualify the simple proposition that “we (the people),have the right to comment on elected, and aspiring elected officials intentions and methodologies.”
I’ll stress to the point of {yawn..} the ease with which it observable to write ( or speak ), think (or not think ) and say absolutely nothing for days and days and days and days.
It is also easily descriptive to point out the necessity of grouping together commonalities of suggestions leaning more so to the “make me feel good rhetorics” of “play it safe meandering”.
Just what the hell is the point of this comment anyway…?
If I could sit back and let the record speak for itself… it would take a whole lot of money to remain quiet.
That’s why I applaud the people out there in TV land to keep the pedal to the meddle, and reach for the facts and figures ( and personal contrivances) that those seeking power, influence and civic duty grasp while seeing their stars written in the skies.
I, like so many of the Americans in today’s potential voter pool, recognize that it surely won’t be easy being dragged back into the haze of a “rematch” with such a close tally at a margin of 133 votes… yet here again we are, wide eyes rolling in terror at the circumstances facing the economy blasting us in the face with just 30 days until show time.
So thank you again for the facts and opinions that make it easy to recognize not only the favoritisms of being “basically forced into a two party system that takes HUGE amounts of money to win and election in”, but also the mind numbingly sober fact that no matter how you slice up the pie…. there are only so many pieces to go around.
With that said…(please save the applause and criticism until later…. much much later… as a matter of fact the later the better?), what is it about the term GOP that is so frightening?
Would it be a guitar shaped elephant dressed up in battle gear of the oppressed… or is that just mindless egotism on my part?
A shameless hussy I am then for instigating a nod to my own accumen…surely.
On the other hand… I have all day with which to toy with your thoughts, should you choose to forge ahead with me and continue the inquiry.
Admittedly, an easy target, the Republican party… for those who remember their childhood homes around the dinner table if grown from a BLUE collar dinette, and that is the little truth I would share about “our house”.
Of course, that is my reminissant recollections fogging up the misty beauty of fearful images viewed to young… much to much to young.
Burned out bodies and blood splattered on the nightly news as if… ” and mind you that’s an easily contentious if…. you discount the fact of Leave It To Beaver and Marcus Welby M.D. and Laugh In were only the tip of our 60’s metaphorical choice with which to be reminded of the generation now inspired to lead.”
This world has changed and again it has not, because the simple truth is that the establishment is set upon the continuation of propelling itself forward… kind of like the theory of reltivity.
Matters in and matters out.
Being out of touch with reality is in a choice of perspective, one of the few choices we have remaining to our individuality with which to remain in view of our right to live our lives in or out of protest.
You plagiarize Joni Balter:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20041014&slug=joni14
Abstaining from voting is half a vote for Rossi. Why don’t you just go out into the street and spit on the poor, the gay, and the female right now.
Gregoire isn’t doing herself any favors, and neither was John Kerry four years ago.
But the damage that has been done in the interim should really open up your eyes to what happens when your apathetic about a lame democrat.
Better system – rather than not vote, push for a green party candidate.
Or vote for Gregoire so we have some remnants of reason in this state. There’s not too many other places I’d feel safe moving.
I’ve never been particularly inspired by Gregoire–whenever I’ve seen her speak, she comes off as another bland, generic, play-it-safe politician without extraordinary insight or passion or… anything. But I think I may have been wrong. After talking with my mother, who works in the state government, about Gregoire, I learned that she’s actually been doing a rather good job at administering the state. Who knew? Apparently, at least in my mother’s experience, Gregoire has brought much more accountability and competence to the DoT and Liquor Board, among other state agencies. So yeah, maybe all this time she’s been quietly competent, even if she lacks a certain charisma. And, of course, Rossi is a giant douche so she already had my vote, anyway.
Anybody who votes for Rossi, let alone anyone @#$%ing REPUBLICAN is either too stupid, too fucking rich, or unscrupulously crooked to vote, and needs a good psychiatric evaluation.
If that grinning egg-suck dog slimes his way into the governor’s mansion, we can kiss everything good about Washington State goodbye.
danielbennettkieneker please don’t ever waste that much of my time with your retarded, spelling-error-riddled, hey-everyone-notice-me-i-think-i’m-a-writer ramblings ever again. did you use some sort of random word generator for that post?
I watched the debate and concluded Gregoire stomped Rossi into oblivion. It was a laugh riot. Rossi showed himself under pressure as a snide weasel with little to show for his campaign platform.
Rossi is still in the race because of his TV spots which paint him as an All-American good guy fighting bad government. Republicans put up this ‘false front’ and mislead voters about who they are and what they intend to do in office. Rossi’s real self showed clearly during his devastating loss in the debate.
WB, you mean over priced real estate, a nanny state that refuses to address true issues on crime and poverty and an over the top “I’m better than you because I listen to NPR” attitude? Yeah that’s the state I want. This whole situation is a joke, but strictly dismissing a person’s views because of their party preference is just as ignorant as a pro-right extremist. You’re the reason why this city needs change, and most likely why Rossi will be our next gov, enjoy it chump.
I didn’t know that abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research were issues in Washington state. And how much is being spent on embryonic stem cell research by the state? Thats why its a NON ISSUE!
Oh Erica? It’s the ECONOMY STUPID!
Some reasons to vote for Chris Gregoire:
–Since 2005, Gregoire has provided health care coverage to more than 84,000 children with the goal of covering all kids by 2010.
–She has increased education funding by $900 per student at the K-12 level for smaller class sizes, higher teacher pay and to meet math and science standards.
–Gregoire passed the gay anti-discrimination bill after almost 30 years of trying and signed domestic partner legislation.
–Gov. Gregoire created the Puget Sound Partnership to clean up the Puget Sound. The Partnership works with businesses, communities, local elected officials and Tribes.
–Gregoire championed and passed the “Climate Change, Green Jobs bill” to cut greenhouse gas emissions and provide more “green economy” jobs.
–Forbes Magazine recently ranked Washington as one of the Top 3 states to do business.
–During Gregoire’s tenure the local economy added 200,000 jobs and WA exports doubled to $66 billion.
–With state funding and Gregoire’s support, community colleges and vocation skill centers are expanding and improving buildings.
I don’t get it – people don’t like the way she campaigns so they’re not going to vote for her? As if you like most of her positions and dislike Rossi’s, but you’re going to abstain because her re-election campaign isn’t up to your ideals?
That’s one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever heard.
Stupid is as stupid does. You like Bush and the Republican Way? You’ll vote Republican.
From my perspective, we as a people must stop the rape of American by big business and the moral “right.”
I’d rather vote for a Democrat who at least shares more of my views than the Republican’s who never share any of my view.
Save your INDIVIDUAL rights and vote Democratic.
My Republican Eastern, WA Farmer step father told me this weekend that Christine Gregoire has done more for famers and eastern WA than any other govenor in the past 30 years. He will be voting for a democrat for one of the few times in his life.
I don’t care if Sasquatch were running against Gregoire, I’d be voting Sasquatch. Anything has got to be better than her at this point.
Oh God! I’m so fucking tired of fighting against the Republican machine and now you’re telling me that I’m going to have this heinous crap in my own back yard! I’m definitely moving!
Gary Locke… he was a Lieberman Democrat (a republican wearing the lapel pin of a democrat, so long as he got elected by doing so).
If the Washington state Democrats are in trouble, it is their own fault – they don’t know what ‘democrat’ means. Locke bent over for the Boeing well-being, even though Boeing offered nothing in return. Gregoire has done the same.
I have been living (disabled) on a fixed income for years, voting religiously a democratic party ticket (often, voting the lesser of two evils). My interests have never been addressed by the State Democratic Office holders any more than by the republicans. No more will I vote ‘the lesser of 2 evils’ since it is merely the label formality.
choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. nuf said.
I’m liking Rossi better already, thanks to all the information. Imagine–someone with opinions of his own, who’s not about to look to the Seattle Times editorial page (or The Stranger, for that matter) for his agenda. And someone who takes the decidedly non-liberal attitude that if you agree with him you can vote for him, and if you don’t, then you don’t, and that’s all there is to it. (As opposed to–if you vote for him, you qualify as a member of the human race, and if you don’t, you’re some kind of mental defective.) I find it rather refreshing.
Technically, it’s not “your” body – it’s the body of the child who has no one to look out for his or her interests. Abortion may be a tragic necessity for some people – far fewer than those who actually get abortions – but let’s not pretend someone is trying to stop you from controlling your body. The doctor that performs an abortion is putting someone to death, with the government’s blessing. There’s nothing liberal about it.
To give such a ridiculously bias article is completely irresponsible. Not everyone in the great city of Seattle is a left wing, hippie nut job. No one really buys into this crap that Rossi is evil do they? Does trying to be fair to people in the entire state of Washington and having respect for human life really make him as evil as this article makes him out to be? By the way, if you’re not educated enough to know that GOP meant Republican, you should not even be allowed to vote.
25 years ago in WA State (you weren’t born yet, punk) D’s & R’s could co-exist.
Now, if I go into Seattle to a social gathering and tell anyone I’m a Republican, within 10 minutes nobody will look or talk to me except a couple of strident ABB types who literally try to make me leave.
Sadly for all you punk ass closed-minded liberals who think everyone else is ‘rich’ and should ‘pay’, the other 90% of the state thinks you are retarded.
Governor Rossi. Get used to saying it.
Rossi made a comment during the debates stating that, as governor, the only transportation issues he would be responsible for were those involving the state highway system, since busses, light rail trains, etc. are issues for city and county government. The only possible exception to this I can think of (and please correct me if you have another) is Sound Transit, since it connects three different counties. Is Sound Transit under the Washington State Department of Transportation, or is it a joint venture between the transportation departments of King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties?
Second, on the pharmacy issue, it looks like we have two radically different viewpoints in the nature of pharmacies. Gregoire seems to see them as a branch of the health care system, and thus feels that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that they carry certain medications (like contraceptives, both emergency and regular). Rossi seems to view them as independent businesses, and thus feels that it is not government’s place to decide what products they should carry. I guess that leaves it up to the voters to decide (among all the other issues in this election that we don’t get to pick and choose on, but must take a package deal) the de facto classification of pharmacies in the eyes of the state government.
Third and finally, I’m tired of seeing articles in which journalists underestimate, patronize, or outrightly insult the state and country’s rural population. Comments like “you aren’t taking some faggoty bus to get from Walla Walla to Ephrata […]” and referring to this imaginary Eastern Washingtonian as “Bubba” only serve to re-enforce the stereotype of the pompous and self-righteous “liberal media” urban journalist.
So . . . in other words, if he doesn’t fit your Socialst (oh I’m sorry to offend you; you Socalists prefer to hide behind the term ‘Progressive’) ideals, he’s to be feared?
How do you think 90% of normal-thinking Washingtonians feel about Gregoire?
And, what’s with instilling fear in people anyway? Are you further trying to drive a wedge beteween different ideologies? What ever happened to the party of inclusion and love?
Upmod on reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/Washington/comments/75t6p/so_what_if_rossi_winsshould_we_worry_hell_yes_wa/
Response to G:
Hitler was also a great advocate for animal rights. Saying that anything in connection to Hitler is automatically evil is ignorant and misleading.
–Laura
we’re all fucked. regardless of who gets in and who doesnt, everyone is out for their own agenda. so long as we continue to let this game of democracy go on, its an easy hand for someone to play god with the fate of our respective cities, states, nations and the world itself.
im not having any of it. i am a gay female that believes pro-choice and fuck that if i cant get around by bus. im only 20 years old and scared for the fate in which i am supposed to live.
on this level, neither Rossi or Gregoire are going to do anything useful. i dont support mccain at all. palin is the dumbest motherfucker that has ever existed and makes me want to cut off my pinky and use it to make a dick from some plastic surgeon up on james st.
we’re all fucked. regardless of what happens.
we need a revolution, not empty promises.
You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Your first two concerns have to do with Pro-Choice? OMFG, there are sooooo many other important issues and your stuck there? No wonder there is so much shit going on today.
I think we’re ignoring other issues major issues. Christine Gregoire, in her first debate with Dino Rossi, bragged that she had built 4,000 new prison cells in Washington State; more new jail cells than any other state, including Texas. Is this something to brag about? She also bragged that she’s supported by the entire law enforcement lobby. Many of us see a dangerous alliance that is turning Washington State into a police state.
There’s another voting block that Christine Gregoire’s handlers have totally dismissed. There are an estimated 25,000 medical marijuana patients in the state of Washington. These patients have been raided and robbed by state funded drug task forces for the last ten years. These are the same law enforcement organizations that are supporting the incumbent governor.
Recently Gregoire stepped in and stopped the release of a reasonable “60-day supply” by the Department of Health. She stated that the DOH needed to “get more input from law enforcement”, though they had the same opportunity as everyone else to participate in the rule-making process. But that was, apparently, only if the DOH came up with a very low limit that would law enforcement to continue to arrest and prosecute the sickest and most disabled citizens in Washington State. When the DOH came up with a reasonable rule, Gregoire sent her appointee, Secretary of Health Mary Selecky, back to the drawing board to arrive at a limit that would please her supporters in law enforcement.
Selecky did just what she was asked and the DOH came up with a limit that will make patients, like myself, instant felons on November 2nd when the law goes into effect. Even those hardcore Democrats in the medical marijuana community will no longer support Gregoire who obviously has no problem filling her 4,000 new jail cells with patients who suffer from cancer, MS, epilepsy, AIDS and countless other disabling and terminal diseases. I suppose she’ll have to have handicap equipped prisons to hold all of us.
Christine Gregoire has a message coming from our community. You can’t continue to talk about your compassion and your support for medical marijuana patients and then consistently sell us out to your supporters in the law enforcement lobby. Will Rossi be any better? Who knows? But it’s doubtful that he can be any worse.
Brad Owen will also be getting an “October surprise”. Owen, who has continually, and even illegally, opposed medical marijuana for the last 15 years is going to find that the entire medical marijuana community will be supporting Marcia McCraw for Lt. Governor (R) in this election. McCraw is a fiscal conservative, but a social liberal. Owen has proven to be a George Bush-Dick Cheney democrat and it’s time to retire this bigoted life-long bureaucrat.
The democratic party in Washington State needs to wake up and smell the coffee. We are no longer going to put up with democrats like Brad Owen and Rick Larsen. We will no longer support democrats who continually ignore the will of the voters simply because the have a (D) after their names.
Steve Sarich
CannaCare
steve@cannacare.org
“But why do people seem to forget that Hitler was a big proponent of assisted suicide?”
This is as pointless and idiotic a comment as, “Why do people seem to forget that Hitler was a big proponent of building more roads?”
Hitler also believed the world was round. I guess it must be flat then.
grammar lessons – $15/hr.
http://www.grammarlessons.com
Heres the real deal. Ihoep that everyone else is as tired of the deception and misleading of the American people as I am. There are many people out there that cannot make the distinction of GOP vs republican. It is an obvious attempt at deception. It is a true insight of honesty and character. It is the dirty politics that we had to swallow from the the BUSH administration for 8 years. Please dont let ROSSI, tell you the sky is green and believe it.
Sounds like 7 good reasons to vote for him to me!
Rossi is a liar. His latest attack ad makes the 2009-11 labor contract Gregoire negotiated with the Washington Federation of State Employees, which is not even approved at this point, sound like it’s packed with generous benefits when in fact it’s a fair contract that will ensure the state keeps it’s hard working employees who serve the public like myself from leaving for private sector jobs where you don’t have someone like Rossi demeaning you and portraying all state workers as handsomely paid lazy bureaucrats.
The Native community in Seattle is holding a rally for Gov. Gregoire. So many don’t know that Dino is an enrolled Alaska Native – on the Sealaska roll! He only advertises his ‘Italian’ heritage. He appears afraid to acknowledge his full idenity – not wanting ‘them’ to latch onto him with their REAL economic and public issues. As an Alaska Native – I’m voting for Gregoire – at least she speaks up for us!
The one thing I found interesting was “The Company He Keeps”. How can you hold Rossi accountable for the “company he keeps” but you can endorse Obama whose company is equally bad if not worse? Obama is linked to William Ayers…a former terrorist and member of Weather Underground who was responsible for bombing in the 70’s. He also sat under Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright for 20 years. Then you have his cousin Raila Odinga whom Obama, himself, endorsed. Odinga is a man whose followers burned people alive trapped in churches.
Seriously? Doesn’t that seem a little hypicritical for you paper to include #3?