GOP cash hits Wash. gov's race after close primary

Dino Rossi's tight primary race with Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire has turned some heads. Looks like it's also opened plenty of wallets.

Just two days after the Aug. 19 primary, with Rossi nipping at Gregoire's heels, the national Republican Governors Association set up a dedicated fundraising committee for the Washington governor's race.

Its first contribution: A cool $1 million.

That shot of cash immediately put the Republican group's 2008 spending in the contest on par with its counterpart, the Democratic Governors Association, and further reflected the heavy national interest in a governor's race expected to be the country's most competitive.

The two national governors' groups each have donated more than $1.3 million to the race this year, with more money surely on the way as the closely watched rematch enters the stretch run.

A nip-and-tuck re-election run was expected for Gregoire, who survived two recounts and a Republican court challenge to beat Rossi by just 133 votes in 2004. Allies have even ribbed Gregoire over the close call, affectionately dubbing her "Landslide Chris."

But the rematch shaping up with Rossi is no joke. As an incumbent, Gregoire certainly would prefer to have at least 50 percent of the primary vote, if only as a psychological marker to show her record resonates with voters.

Nationally, the Democratic and Republican governors' groups have been raising record amounts of campaign cash for their candidates, with dual hopes of capturing more states and helping stoke turnout for the their respective presidential candidates in November.

Before its recent million-dollar infusion in Washington, the Republican Governors Association had given $370,000 to the state GOP. The Democratic Governors Association likewise donated $310,000 to the state Democratic Party, with another $1 million to Evergreen Progress, a third-party campaign group also supported by labor unions.

Republicans were buoyed by news of the RGA's major spending.

"One thing this means is for Republicans, for once we're probably not going to get outspent," said consultant Chris Vance. "It just shows that they're very serious about winning this race."

In response, the DGA said its Republican competitors are late to the party. The bulk of the Democratic group's spending this year came in months ago, and Gregoire remains the DGA's top priority among 11 governor's races nationwide this year.

The DGA also helped the state Democrats pay off massive debt from the 2004 election and court challenge, and gave $500,000 to the state party last year in early efforts to prepare for Gregoire's re-election campaign.

Even though Rossi has stayed close to Gregoire in the primary, DGA spokesman Brian Namey said national Republicans are now spending more on the race because "Dino Rossi did not knock this one out of the park."

"When the going gets tough, Republican Rossi's going to go to his Bush-bankrolled friends in Washington (D.C.) for help," Namey said. In February, President Bush headlined a fundraiser that earned about $10.6 million for the RGA.

Republican Governors Association director Nick Ayers dismissed that argument. Instead, Ayers said the DGA's early spending in Washington just shows the group has been worried for some time about Gregoire's re-election.

"It's an example of them having to bail a governor out a year and a half early," Ayers said. "I'm sure Gov. Gregoire has hit the big red panic button," he added.

Donors closer to home also apparently have liked what they saw from Rossi's early performance.

State records show that since Aug. 20 - the day after the primary - Rossi's campaign account has collected more than $134,000. That's more than four times the size of Gregoire's haul in the same period, which stood at less than $31,000 as of Thursday.

As the cash rolls in, the continuing trickle of vote tallies in a typically slow, mostly vote-by-mail Washington election has shown a tight race.

Gregoire's early primary-night lead of about 5 percentage points quickly dwindled to about 2 percentage points. Late-arriving ballots have kept Rossi close, and early Thursday he was behind by about 25,000 votes - a difference of about 1.8 percentage points.

Nevertheless, Democrats say they're not terribly.

Turnout in strongly Democratic King County was relatively low, Democratic consultant Christian Sinderman said, and it's presumed that Barack Obama atop the party's ticket will bring out voters who will help Gregoire in November.

"None of this is a surprise," Sinderman said. "The fact is, the Republicans don't have a lot of states where they are competitive this year, and so they're certainly going to put their resources here."

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On the Net:

RGA: http://www.rga.org

DGA: http://www.democraticgovernors.org

Gregoire: http://www.chrisgregoire.com

Rossi: http://www.dinorossi.com