Gregoire ad is off-base on Rossi v. Roe v. Wade

Excerpts from his blog,

Postman on Politics

Gov. Christine Gregoire is airing a radio ad that tries to draw an ideological connection between her opponent, Republican Dino Rossi, and President George W. Bush.

But the ad pushes Rossi a bit further to the right than facts support. Rossi doesn't help himself much on this front, given that when it comes to the issue of abortion, he refuses to clearly state his position.

The ad runs one minute and is airing statewide. It opens with a narrator who asks: "When you hear the name Dino Rossi, what other name comes to mind?"

Gregoire's answer is Bush, of course. The ad lists several issues, including children's health insurance, stem-cell research, global warming and abortion, where Rossi and Bush are on the other side from Gregoire.

On abortion, the ad says Rossi "wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned to make abortion illegal."

I can't find anything that backs up that claim. It is clear that Rossi opposes abortion. But the evidence provided by the Gregoire campaign is less than convincing on the point of Roe v. Wade.

The campaign says Rossi's opposition to Initiative 120, which voters approved in 1991 to codify the U.S. Supreme Court case in state law, shows he wants the landmark act overthrown. Gregoire offers as evidence this quote from a 1992 speech by Rossi: "I believe in the sanctity of innocent human life, and that's one of the reasons I worked against Initiative 120."

The other piece of evidence is a line from a 2004 Washington Law & Politics story that says Rossi is "opposed to legal abortion."

I don't doubt that. Rossi's record is in opposition to legal abortion. But that is not the same as saying he wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned. There are conservatives who oppose abortion, but have accepted Roe as the law of the land.

Rossi could clear up any ambiguity. But he won't. His spokeswoman, Jill Strait, told me that abortion has "absolutely nothing to do with the governor's job description.

"If Dino were running for a position that had anything to do with the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, he'd talk about the court's decisions," she said. "Since he's not, he's going to focus on fixing problems in Washington rather than talk about red herrings."

"Don't Let Seattle

Steal This Election"

Billboards promoting Dino Rossi's gubernatorial campaign and telling voters "Don't Let Seattle Steal This Election!" are going up in Eastern Washington, thanks to the Republican's biggest backers.

The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) is paying $168,000 for 61 of the billboards, according a story by Spokane TV station KXLY.

I wrote about the signs last month when they started popping up in Eastern Washington. At the time, the Rossi campaign said it had no connection with the signs and didn't know who was erecting them. The BIAW has also led an effort to air radio commercials attacking Gov. Christine Gregoire.

The billboards are meant to remind Eastern Washington voters about the troubled 2004 vote count in the race between Gregoire and Rossi. That fight ended more than six months after the election, when a judge ruled against Republican claims that the ballot count was flawed and corrupt.

Rossi has said he thinks the election problems have been fixed and his campaign is on the record saying it does not fear this year's election can be stolen. Now that we know the billboards are coming from Rossi's most powerful ally, I wonder what he and others will say about the effort.

On the blog Sound Politics, Eric Earling wrote last month that the signs were counterproductive for Rossi backers because they convey "a message Rossi seems clearly trying to avoid." Earling understands the sentiment behind the signs, though.

"Folks on the west side of the Cascades, even many Republicans, sometimes fail to grasp the annoyance and resentment those east of the mountains have with politics and policy in our state that at times seem dominated by King County liberals. This frustration runs deeper than many west-siders care to acknowledge or admit. The professional-looking signs, however, inevitably receive attention on the other side of the state where huge chunks of the population don't grasp the root of the resentment."

This material has been edited for print publication.

David Postman is The Seattle Times' chief political reporter. Reach him at 360-236-8267 or at dpostman@seattletimes.com.