RSSRossi hopes to be regarded as 'a local
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By PAT MUIR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Yakima will be seeing more of Dino Rossi, the gubernatorial candidate promised Thursday during a campaign swing through town.
The Republican who fell about 130 votes short of Chris Gregoire in the 2004 governor's race knows he needs Yakima's vote if he's going to beat her in this fall's rematch. That's why the former state senator from Sammamish chose Yakima as the site from where he would formalize his candidacy Thursday. He did so by filing with the state Secretary of State's Office from a laptop computer in a Yakima business park.
"We can win this election right here in this county. ... It's all available to us," Rossi told a roomful of supporters that included state Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches, and state Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima.
Rossi, who earlier in the day spoke to a Disabled American Veterans group and stopped by the Yakima Herald-Republic for a meeting with the newspaper's editorial board, promised he'd be around so often, "you'll think I'm a local."
Despite taking 63 percent of the Yakima County vote in 2004, to Gregoire's 35 percent, Rossi said he needs more from local voters this year.
"I guarantee you there were more than 129 people who didn't vote in the last election," he told supporters, referring to Gregoire's margin of victory. "And I want you, your help, to help me find those folks."
Though the two differ drastically on issues, Rossi's campaign message that he wants to be governor "of the whole state of Washington," is not far off from the "one-Washington" mantra Gregoire repeated during an April visit to Yakima. Rossi talks of getting the "Seattle chip off our shoulder," and Gregoire talks about tearing down "the Cascade curtain."
That rhetoric from both sides may indicate Central Washington's value as a
campaign battleground. That Yakima is such a big
part of Rossi's early cam-paign strategy -- he came through here in October during his kickoff tour -- illustrates that, Ross said.
"It's significant, to say the least," Ross said of Rossi's Thursday visit. "I think he's depending on our part of the state."
Republican candidates for statewide office know they can rely on Central and Eastern Washington to line up behind them, but that support rarely is enough to tip the scales against Democrats with support from more-populous Western Washington. In fact, despite consistently lopsided results in Yakima County and other parts of Eastern Washington, no Republican has been elected governor since John Spellman in 1981.
There is also the specter of the presidential elect-
ion to deal with. Record numbers of Democrats showed up at Yakima Coun-
ty's Democratic presiden-tial caucuses in January, and the governor's election -- on the same ballot as the presidential election -- could be affected if there is increased Democratic participation. Also, by all accounts Gregoire has visited Central Washington more than any governor in recent memory, often to receptive audiences. Last month she got two standing ovations from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs convention in Yakima.
Yakima County, however, remains solidly behind Rossi, county Republican Party Chairman Jim Keightley said.
"There's no question in my mind that Dino still has his base here," Keightley said at Thursday's event.
* Pat Muir can be reached at 577-7693, or at pmuir@yakimaherald.com.
