Stick to the election, get past stem cells

Enough of stem cells. The job of governor has nothing to do with stem cells. Gov. Christine Gregoire should use her re-election money to talk about things the governor actually does, starting with budgets and taxes.

She should end the TV ads of people who fret that Dino Rossi is standing between them and medical salvation.

In one of the governor's ads, a man with Parkinson's disease says he might be saved by research on embryonic stem cells, that Rossi is against it, and that the Republican challenger is therefore "not the kind of governor I want in Washington."

In another ad, a woman says her son has juvenile diabetes and, holding back tears, says, "I get upset when a politician like Dino Rossi says he's against stem-cell research."

Rossi is Catholic. He opposes one kind of stem-cell research, the kind that uses human embryos. Gregoire favors that kind, and also the kind Rossi favors, adult stem-cell research.

There is, however, no state program for embryonic stem-cell research. In four years, Gregoire has not started one, and she is not proposing to start one. Rossi is not proposing to block one.

In our view the issue is not real — not for this race, this year.

Let the governor talk about taxes and budgets, roads and ferries, school funding and a dozen other things.

Forget stem cells.