Mrs. Gregoire is ratcheting up her re-election campaign -- at taxpayer expense:
Gregoire, who is expected to run for a second term next year, soon will embark on a six-city "listening tour," a reprise to her statewide series of community town halls last year.One surmises that the Elway focus groups are less about discovering what citizens really want, and more about developing a strategy to best communicate a pre-determined agenda to targeted voters. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 26, 2007 10:34 AM | Email This
...
Gregoire, assisted by independent pollster Stuart Elway, will barnstorm the state in October. Her cabinet will meet with local civic leaders, Elway will conduct focus groups to get a scientific sampling of voter concerns, and [Gregoire] will hold open-invitation community meetings.
...
Elway has a $100,000 contract to do focus groups with about 50 randomly selected voters in the towns the governor visits."We'll ask the citizens what they want from government and how they will know if government is delivering those things..." Elway said
Don't you people ever tire of one sided attacks?
Got any actual issues worth raising here, or just more of the same, one sided ranting by sore losers whose own party said the election in 2004 was fair, yet they can not let it rest.
Good luck in 08, and if you win, I'm sure you'll apply absolutely the same standard of scrutiny to Rossi as you do now to Gregoire.
// sarcasm detector on full
Posted by: DaveD on September 26, 2007 12:05 PMYour argument has no merit. Most liberals I know are totally and completely one-sided, and love to make love to themselves on how they are so correct and have all the solutions, while in the end they offer few and always do nothing constructive other than conservative-bash. If you truly believe that the Queen got in legitimately in 2004, then your lack of intelligence designates you not worth arguing with anyway. Next please....
Posted by: Mark1 on September 26, 2007 12:13 PMShouldn't the old girl have been doing this tour about twice a year for the last 4 years? But she hasn't, so I call it campaigning.
Posted by: swatter on September 26, 2007 12:18 PMIt's not that this TYPE of thing is illegitimate, it's that it is so nakedly obvious that it is campaigning. Far moreso, incidentally, than anything Dino's done ...
Posted by: pudge on September 26, 2007 12:41 PMI agree with you Swatter, but it's hardly news she's running for re-election. Hard to see why this is so shocking.
Yeah, right!
Posted by: MJC on September 26, 2007 01:18 PMThe more you bash her, the more ridiculous you look, and the voters are catching wise. Your votes are counted, and you're not gaining any support.
Year One:
Stole Election
Charged Fee to Visit State Parks
Year Two:
Did Nothing
Year Three:
Made comment on Viaduct. Retracted. Changed opinion. Then said let others decide.
Got rid of state parks fee.
Year Four:
Runs for re-election
And what would have Dino have accomplished in his 4 years that would have been so great?
Rossi would either stick to his guns and be a lousy Governor or he'd have to sell out his ideals in order to work with the super-majority of Dem's that control the state legislature. Either way it's would be a win-win for the Dem's.
And ole duffer, we will see. We will see. They both have one year to get their shriek aka a laugh down.
Posted by: swatter on September 26, 2007 02:39 PMThat would be too easy. I'd rather make MEGABRAD explain what Rossi would have done differently. Everyone here bitches about Gregoire, no one here has even pointed out what Rossi would have done differently especially when he faced an opposition controlled Legislature that would shut him down in a second should he try to pass a bill/budget they didn't agree with.
She says she won't announce because then everything she does in the legislature next year will be politicized. Can you believe it? A poor woman's Clinton. Totally unchallenged by the press- both of them and that includes are two existing non-Senators.
Posted by: swatter on September 26, 2007 04:12 PMYour comments here is warmly welcomed. But since you're commenting on public time on a topic relevant to your employer, it would be appropriate to identify yourself.
More importantly, please point us to the law that you're talking about.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on September 26, 2007 04:46 PMYes, the Republican candidate probably will have access to the results. And you too. If the opinion research is paid for by the state then it's public information. Just ask for it when the work is completed.
BTW, why does Stefan so sarcastically refer to Gregoire's '08 run as a re-election campaign? At least Rossi and the state Republicans got a full airing of their claims in court while Gore's claims following the 2000 elections were shut down by a summary judgment of the US Supreme Court.
Posted by: BillL on September 26, 2007 04:49 PMActually Cato, you've got it back-asswards. It's the executive that can 'shut down' the legislation passed by the Legislature. The governor can't pass any laws. But he/she can certainly veto those passed by the Leg.
Usually the governor's suggested budget in December is barely worth the paper it's written on.
And if the Legislature refused to pass the governor's request legislation ... and in turn the governor refused to sign any legislation passed by the opposition party ... well, I'd be happy with that.
Posted by: jimg on September 26, 2007 05:13 PMNot only is she going to use 120k of our hard earned money to campaign, and she also wants to use more of our hard earned money to sue the Federal government, if Bush veto's the massive and I do mean massive new democraps tax on tabacco products.
This withch should work in the private sector for a while to learn that money like she spends doesn't grow on trees.
Posted by: GS on September 26, 2007 08:52 PM"Given the controversy in the last election regarding the re and the re-recount what steps have you take (Crissie) to make sure voting is not only uniform but legitimate?"
Without legitimate voting how can we vote out the people we do not want?
Re-elect Dino 2008!
-Wes
Posted by: Wes on September 26, 2007 09:19 PM"Relect Rossi in 2008"
Posted by: GS on September 26, 2007 10:44 PMJust type in that phrase on the search key and it will come up. I'm sporting one on two cars just now.
Posted by: Michele on September 26, 2007 11:35 PMI'll start by stating that Governor Rossi would never have forced all Washington State employees to pay dues to unions they do not support, under threat of termination of employment.
Next......
Posted by: Saltherring on September 27, 2007 06:45 AMDaniel, what is your fascination with Darcy Burner? If she were a man, I'd call her an empty suit. There is nothing there.
Daniel, apparently you didn't read the postman article I referred to. He challenged the duplicity of Gregoire having a $3 million campaign chest, but she is not a candidate because she would appear partisan if she announced. Absolute ridiculous and even you can admit that.
Posted by: swatter on September 27, 2007 07:20 AMMore of the same, except this time, more people are going to be even more angry at the Dems. They don't feel it in KC, but it is palpable everywhere else.
Posted by: pudge on September 27, 2007 10:21 AMMrs. Gregoire governs at the expense of taxpayers
How much have taxes increased?
How large has the budget grown?
High much of an increase has there been in fees?
How many people lost their government jobs for not wanting to join a Union?
How many laws did she sign that implemented programs but failed to provide funding?
She's just too expensive to keep around.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on September 27, 2007 12:29 PMBut whatever. Rossi was in a statistical dead heat with Gregoire in 2004 (and arguably had more legal votes), and he has only grown in popularity since, while Gregoire has been amassing a terrible record of massively increasing spending, fighting against improving our sex offender laws, and more.
If Rossi runs a decent campaign, he will win (again ;-).
Posted by: pudge on September 29, 2007 10:28 PM