The pro-Gregoire Seattle Times

Here's how the Seattle Times praised Democrat nominee Christine Gregoire to the rafters in its Sep. 15 editorial

Democratic voters cleaved toward the political middle in Washington's gubernatorial race: Attorney General Christine Gregoire's sensible, moderate positions on issues explain why she evidently won the primary last night. ... After so much fuss and fury, Gregoire's nomination reflects her confidence, competence and grasp of worries of average Washingtonians.

On the other hand, the Times Sep. 20 editorial rips into Republican nominee Dino Rossi, planting negative insinuations conforming with the Democrat playbook:

[Rossi] says, "No rules or regulations will go into effect without explicit authority from the Legislature or the governor."

There are political risks here. Anyone who attacks a regulation set up to protect the environment will be labeled an enemy of nature

The Times also wants you to believe that Rossi is an enemy of women:

On the matter of medical insurance, Rossi would leave the insurance companies freer to drop certain coverage, so consumers could buy bare-bones coverage at less cost. The idea is that some people who don't buy coverage now would buy a policy that costs less. That is possible — but which mandates would he drop? Contraceptives? Childbirth coverage?

The conclusion:

What is taking shape here is a center-right alternative to a center-left candidacy. Whether Washington voters want it is another thing: They have not elected a Republican governor in 20 years. Yet in the past eight years, the Republicans did not offer them a reasonable choice. This time, they are trying harder to make a sale.

"Trying harder to make a sale" isn't quite the same thing as "confidence, competence and grasp of worries of average Washingtonians", is it?

In case you haven't figured out yet who the Seattle Times is going to endorse in the governor's race, you can look up all of the campaign contributions made to gubernatorial candidates by Seattle Times employees this season.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 21, 2004 10:27 AM | Email This