Pulled anti-Gregoire ads back on air in revised form

By Ralph Thomas
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

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Comcast pulled the ad off the air Friday after Gregoire, a Democratic candidate for governor, complained about its veracity. But Comcast agreed to resume airing the ad Monday.

The ad's sponsor is a new political-action committee formed recently by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), which is supporting Republican Dino Rossi for governor.

The BIAW's original television advertisement said, "Christine Gregoire fought against our tradition of open primaries and signed the court order to end it." The new version that passed muster with Comcast just says that Gregoire signed a court order "that found our open primary was unconstitutional."

"The message is still there," said Tom McCabe, BIAW's executive director.

The Gregoire campaign said the new ad still gives the false impression that she played a role in killing the state's 70-year-old blanket-primary system. The campaign pointed out that she fought in court to protect the blanket primary.

"Next they'll be blaming her for Hurricane Ivan," said campaign spokesman Morton Brilliant.

McCabe said the original version of the ad is still airing on other cable networks, but he refused to say which. If that's true, Brilliant replied, "We'll get it taken off the air there, too."

Meanwhile yesterday, one of the state's largest labor unions launched a television-ad campaign in Seattle and Spokane areas supporting Gregoire. Sponsored by the Service Employees International Union, the ad features a montage of nurses who praise Gregoire's track record on health care.

The ad doesn't mention Rossi by name, but says, "On the issue of health care, there's a real difference."

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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