Joni Balter / Seattle Times editorial columnist
Gregoire takes a hit and keeps on rollin'

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Last summer, when Attorney General Christine Gregoire announced she was running for governor, she was the untouchablefrontrunner on top of the political world. One insider noted that babies are born with higher poll negatives than Gregoire had.

The state attorney general took a hit last week when Seattle Times reporters revealed her staff had tried to sanitize a supposedly independent report analyzing what went wrong in a bungled case that cost the state nearly $19 million. Gregoire describes the case of the missed legal deadline, which occurred four years ago, as the low point of her career.

The revelations were a hit, yes, but nowhere near the full body slam the Ron Sims campaign might have hoped for. Campaign aides to King County Executive Sims, Gregoire's Democratic primary opponent, provided reporters much of the information.

Voters have special dirty-tricks radar that detects campaign shenanigans. They factor it into their decision. The sting of the information is reduced.

Sims' tactics were similar to Senate Republicans' push for hearings on the role of Gregoire's top deputies in the investigation. That idea is so late and lame it can only be viewed as cheesy politics.

But these are not the only reasons voters probably will not consider the latest episode a deal breaker. Gregoire is more than one colossal mistake. She has run statewide three times and won three times. She is widely respected as a tough-minded attorney general who can negotiate multibillion-dollar settlements against tobacco companies.

And more to the point, she did at least try to get to the bottom of things after an attorney in her office missed a key deadline.

In the aftermath, Gregoire commissioned three reviews of what went wrong and what should be done to fix it. In the first review by former federal prosecutor Susan Barnes, Gregoire's deputy did appear chummy or seemed to lean on the investigator.

In one e-mail, the attorney general's staffer asked Barnes, "Can we soften it just a tad," a reference to a personnel matter. The same staff member asked: "Are you able to say we are within the bounds of the standards of practice for most government practices?" The latter referred to a new computer software system subsequently deployed to improve case management.

In a written statement, Barnes said her report is her own unvarnished assessment. She says she put nothing in and took nothing out that wasn't needed for a fair assessment.

If Gregoire really sought a whitewash, she would not have selected Barnes, who by then was working at a law firm with strong Republican Party connections.

Gregoire convened two more reviews, the second to consider changes in the tort division where the trouble occurred. A third review two years after the fact looked more broadly at office management and operation. That review was led by Robert Dowdy, general counsel for the Weyerhaeuser Co.

Dowdy said he had full access to everyone and no one from the Attorney General's Office interfered with his analysis or tried to sway the report.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag, who conducts financial audits of state agencies, said: "This is a lot of self-reflection. That kind of reflection on your office and practice is healthy."

All politicians look good when things are going well. Voters need to know what candidates are like when a mistake has been made and backs are against the wall. In that light, Gregoire looks like she was at least trying to face the trouble.

Sims, too, has a costly mistake to answer for: $38 million lost when a new county financial computer system failed. Two consultants' reports followed. I understand Sims was open and forthright about the criticism.

It is too early to endorse anyone in this race. Republicans finally are offering a credible candidate, state Sen. Dino Rossi. The latest news about Gregoire's office would have been more advantageous to him had it landed more noisily in the fall when voters are paying attention.

In the Democratic primary, Sims remains a contender; former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge is not raising enough campaign cash to be viable.

Gregoire must drive Sims, Talmadge and Rossi crazy. She has so much credibility and respect built up around the state after nearly 12 years as attorney general that she remains a very compelling candidate.

If the goal is to knock her out or severely weaken public confidence, her frustrated challengers still have many miles to go.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com