Rossi Surrogates Cross the Line

The Republican Governors Association recently spent $1 million on a TV ad in support of Dino Rossi's candidacy. "Called 'Casino Chris,'" the Stranger reports, "the ad shows a group of white guys in suits negotiating over a table with two long-haired men (of dubious native heritage) in bolo ties and... pigtails. In the ad, Gregoire’s representatives negotiate the tribes’ contributions to the state down to nothing—the implication being that Gregoire gave the 'Indian tribes,' as the ad refers to them, a sweetheart deal in exchange for campaign contributions."

Setting aside the racial overtones (if possible), the ads distort the facts so badly that two major daily newspapers have written editorials blasting the Rossi camp for participating in such a sleazy advertising campaign.

The Seattle P-I Editorial Board writes, "[The ad is] almost fact free, and especially in all the relevant detail they ignore to gleefully bash the governor... [W]e don't in any way like the feel of a campaign being waged so heavily on fears of people we thought were less marginalized than in the state's past."

The News Tribune Editorial Board writes, "[T]his business about whether the state was right to forgo revenue sharing is a dead-end argument. No one can legitimately say that he or she opposes the expansion of gambling while on the other hand supporting an arrangement for government to get a cut of the misery."

If disseminating racially-tinged lies wasn't enough, now it's being reported that "the RGA has taken in over a million and a half dollars from national casino interests and [Democrats] suggest they are using Las Vegas casino money to 'distort' the record of Gov. Gregoire."

Now the Democratic Party has released the following video in response:



Keep your seatbelt fastened. It's going to be a pretty rough ride over the next seven weeks. -- Dennis