Ron Judd / Times staff columnist
Trail Mix: Did greenies cost Gregoire the election?

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Post-holiday leftovers in the Big Gore-Tex Northwest Mailbag, this batch with a distinctly political aftertaste:

Q: Are all the Evergreenies and state enviros blanching with fear that Dino Rossi appears to have been elected governor?

A: You might be surprised by this one: Yes and no.

Yes, because Democrat Chris Gregoire, the former Ecology Department head, is a darling of the enviro movement.

A new gang of Olympic Republicans likely would conduct a thorough housecleaning of bureaucrats in regulatory agencies dear to greenies' hearts. Many, fairly or not, fear a Bush-style, foxes-guarding-the-henhouse approach to state environmental policy under a Gov. Rossi, whose campaign was fueled by development interests and other business donors.

Rossi largely conceded the battle to win over the most fervent green types, actually bailing on a debate with Gregoire in October — much to the delight of enthusiastically pro-Gregoire Sierra Club members in attendance. It has thus been assumed Gregoire cornered the green vote.

She might have taken that too much for granted.

It's our belief that a critical number of more moderate, enviro-leaning voters who traditionally vote "D" just might have punched the "R" ticket on the governor's ballot this year for a simple reason: State Parks funding.

Rossi, conceding the larger battle for endorsements from large, politically active green groups, was savvy enough to promise a plum to other, slightly less vocal nature lovers who have their own quietly effective political organization.
 
He pledged to alleviate Washington's chronic park-funding gap — which has worsened dramatically under two decades of Democratic "leadership" in Olympia — by pumping an additional $125 million per biennium into the overused, underfinanced park system.

"We're wasting money in some parts of government, and making up for that waste by cutting funding for parks," Rossi said in a September speech. "That's not right."

His plan would be expensive but worth it, he insisted, offering his support for a bipartisan plan to get the park system healthy for its 100th birthday in 2013. "The plan will cost $500 million over the next 10 years, and as governor I'll make sure it is funded," Rossi said.

This didn't get huge press, but it did catch the eye of some sharp Olympia types, including Jim King, a lobbyist for Citizens for Parks and Recreation, a die-hard activist group that formed years ago after pleas in this very space for a permanent-offense parks lobby in the state capitol.

King, through press releases, letters to the editor and other beneath-the-radar stuff lobbyists do so well, twisted the arms of many of his own undoubtedly torn "D"-leaning constituents, as well as the public at large, to support the first gubernatorial candidate in memory who not only acknowledged the parks dilemma but promised to fix it.

How many parks-loving traditional Demos held their noses and switched teams Nov. 2? King acknowledges it's hard to say. But he has heard from some constituents who confess the parks issue was a clincher.

With a margin of only 42 votes in a 3-million-vote election, it certainly makes for interesting speculation. Especially given that Gregoire, oddly, failed to respond to Rossi's parks-funding challenge — a puzzlement to park supporters who wanted to back her.

Crucial oversight? Perhaps. For candidates, the agony of a race this close is that you can point to a million of them.

Still, we're guessing at least 42 state parks lovers — they're a passionate bunch — put open park gates ahead of old party loyalty on Nov. 2.

If the recount holds, their next task is simple: Hold Rossi's feet to the fire on his pledge.

It'll be tough for him to argue that support from state-parks fans was less than critical.

Q: We heard a rumor that that 17-ton federal Omnibus Appropriations Bill that caused so much furor recently also made the National Forest user-fee program permanent. True?

A: Alas, true. Close inspection of the Omnibus Bill — the latest "must-pass" bill to keep the government operating, laden with all sorts of pork spending and non-debated law changes — reveals a "Recreation Enhancement Act" that institutionalizes user fees.

The rider, attached by Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, who has no public lands in his own district, extends the fees for another decade, and likely beyond. It becomes the law of the land if left in the bill, expected to be approved by the House on Monday, then signed by President Bush.

This in spite of the fact that the bill could not garner enough support, even in a Republican-controlled Congress, to get a floor vote and public debate in that quaint, old-fashioned way the founding fathers intended laws to be made.

The Western Slope No Fee Coalition says the measure, solidly opposed by key Republican senators from Western states, got new life when Regula went over their heads and agreed to buy off Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee — with funding for a new road in rural Alaska.

"Ralph Regula is responsible for the first tax increase of the Bush administration," said Robert Funkhouser, the group's president. "He and Sen. Stevens have sold out America's heritage of public lands for the price of a road."

Is anybody really surprised? This kind of under-the-table lawmaking — championed for years by the likes of our own former Sen. Slade Gorton — is the way government business gets done in modern America.

And as long as people blindly accept it, it will continue to be.

Ron Judd's Trail Mix column appears here every Thursday. To contact him: 206-464-8280 or rjudd@seattletimes.com.