Another newspaper has denounced the Gregoire team’s efforts to create a legal scandal in the final days of a neck-and-neck race for Governor. The Chronicle (Centralia/Chehalis) points out that the “connection between this case and Gregoire is direct and says: “Voters should be repulsed that the Gregoire campaign allows such activity.”

Click here to read the entire editorial.

The Editorial Board of the state’s largest newspaper this morning denounced the legal stunts of pro-Gregoire, activist attorneys aimed at wasting Dino Rossi’s time during the final days of the campaign. From the editorial: “THE deposition of Dino Rossi was a farce. For four hours in Seattle Tuesday, two pro-Democratic lawyers took turns jabbing the Republican candidate for governor with questions mostly irrelevant to the legal matter for which he was required to be there.” Read the rest here.

WSU’s student newspaper endorses Dino Rossi with this headline: It’s the economy, stupid: Vote for Dino Rossi.

The college writers argue that “Dino Rossi, coming from a business background, is better equipped to face our economic troubles. If he runs Washington state like a business, perhaps we can crawl out of this hole – to the benefit of all Washingtonians.”

Read the entire endorsement here.

Yesterday, Christine Gregoire made the statement that hard hitting ads accusing her of losing track of 1,300 sex offenders have marked the “worst day of her political career.”

Really? Does Gregoire really mean that?

For most people, the worst day of their political career might be realizing that three law enforcement officers had been killed by offenders they neglected to track. According to Gregoire’s prisons chief, “mistakes were made.”

Or maybe this day, last year, which marked another tragic loss of life resulting from the Gregoire administration’s inability to keep track of violent criminals.

What about this day, in 1995, when it was revealed that Gregoire’s office improperly withheld documents about boys abused at the O.K. Boys Ranch group home in Olympia. The scandal resulted in lawsuits and legislative hearings in which Gregoire was held accountable – and the state was ultimately fined a record of $417,500 concealing these documents.

Also at the top of the “worst day” list – one would think – was this day, when Gregoire finally settled the case of Linda David, acknowledging that her office made shocking mistakes — mistakes that included waiting 18 months to transfer to prosecutors the abuse file of Ms. David, who was battered for years by her husband who had her locked up on a sailboat — while the state was paying him to care for her.

Does Gregoire want to re-think her comment?

As sparks fly back and forth over the budget deficit, now might be a great time to read this story from early 2005 where the Seattle Times compares what Gregoire did after being elected with the promises she made during the campaign. She says now, just like she did during the 2004 campaign, “Now is not the time to talk about raising taxes.” But Gregoire broke her promise immediately after getting elected last time. How can voters trust her word this time around?

As Election Day nears, newspapers’ editorial pages are filled with letters to the editor for and against various candidates — some letters more creative than others, of course. This one, from Lyn Allen in Spokane, ran recently in the Spokesman-Review, and deserves a read for its thoughtfulness.

It starts:

“My husband and I are retired with limited monthly income. We are watching the stock market plummet along with Wall Street and mortgage bailouts. Our investments, which we need to supplement our income, have gone down the toilet.

We can’t afford more taxes. Now that the election is near . . . continue reading here.

Click here if you’d like more information on submitting your own letter to the editor!

Today the Editor of a non-political website about the Seattle area housing market (Seattle Bubble) issued a scathing commentary on the egregious claims being made by Christine Gregoire about her role in creating the massive budget deficit projected for our state. This well-documented report demonstrates that Gregoire ignored repeated warnings about state spending from Washington’s Chief Economist ChangMook Sohn, and continued to increase spending by $8 billion.

Gregoire, the report states, now faces the consequences of her failed economic policies, despite her best efforts to blame George Bush. In November, 2005, Sohn indicated that the housing market was peaking. He cautioned Gregoire again in June, 2006. In November, 2006, Sohn and others called for budget restraint.  And in September, 2007 he cautioned budget leaders to be fiscally responsible. Gregoire ignored the advice of Sohn and other economic experts and continued to spend wildly beyond our state treasury’s means. Now that she faces the consequences of her spending spree, she’ll apparently say almost anything to avoid taking responsibility. Is this the kind of leadership Washington deserves?

A high-ranking member of the Gregoire administration admitted that the state is failing to track dangerous criminals.

In a P-I story about a repeat violent offender under state supervision who murdered a woman in Seattle last New Year’s Eve, Department of Corrections official Cheryl Strange said, “What we do know is it is possible many times for offenders to be totally off our radar.”

This is just the last in a long line of stories about criminals under state supervision who have killed innocent people. Gregoire’s answer: more studies and task forces.

In the Seattle P-I this week, a vocational rehab counselor for the state Department of Labor & Industries got an opportunity to tell his story about the state providing benefits to illegal workers.  Mr. Harvey — who has worked for the state for 18 years — claims that Labor & Industries management and supervisors have intentionally thwarted efforts to develop a clear policy, stating:

“It is so important to L & I to not have an official policy on that issue that when management and supervisors met in 2007 to discuss it, they were told to not even record the discussion in meeting minutes.”

Comments responding to the article confirm the author’s statements that L & I staff has been directed “from the highest levels of the agency” to violate federal laws regarding job placement for illegal workers:

“A responsible state agency complies with the law, takes responsibility for its work and lets the sun shine on its actions. On the issue of job placement to illegal immigrants, L & I has not acted as a responsible state agency.”

The Department of Labor & Industries has enough problems as it is. See this, this, this, and this. Why would Christine Gregoire direct L & I managers to intentionally create more?

After the beating she has taken in the press and on the campaign trail for her steadfast denial of the state’s projected $3.2 billion budget shortfall (the 6-year outlook reveals a staggering $6.3 billion in the red), Christine Gregoire has finally started tackling the state’s budget crisis.  Oddly, while announcing her new cost-cutting measures, Gregoire still sidesteps acknowledging with certainty that the state is facing a looming $3.2 billion deficit—rather only admitting, “we will likely face a deficit in the next two years.”

In response to this “likely” deficit, Gregoire has announced a 1 percent, across-the-board spending cut for state agencies.  The 1 percent cut is expected to save $45.6 million.  Added to her previous measures of saving $90 million via a hiring freeze and 5 percent reduction in state travel and gas consumption, along with the projected couple of million for moving some state workers to a 4-day work week, the state will still be significantly in the hole.

Of course, the 1 percent cut comes on the heels of Gregoire negotiating with her labor union supporters to give state workers a 2 percent pay raise.  No cuts there.)

Responding to Gregoire’s new cuts, ranking minority member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee Joe Zarelli asked, “…where are the sizable spending decreases that are going to make the difference?”

Excellent question.