Sound Politics: It's in the P-I

October 11, 2004

It's in the P-I

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Joel Connelly writes today that "National GOP has pulled the plug on ads for Rossi"

The Republican Governors' Association has planned a negative blitz against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Christine Gregoire in a bid to end the 20-year Democratic dominance of Washington's statehouse.

The TV campaign was set to begin Oct. 2. An announcement came Friday that the ads were "going up today," but none was seen.

The GOP effort has seemed hesitant and slow to start ...
"I wonder whether they are reconsidering whether to spend money here or put it into Montana," said Frank Greer, Gregoire's strategist.

Connelly wants to believe that

the evidence is that Republicans' once-promising state ticket seems to be (using a phrase made famous by George H.W. Bush) in "deep doo-doo."

But it's Connelly's credibility that is in "deep doo-doo". The Rossi campaign e-mails:

Joel Connelly's column today is totally wrong (surprise, surprise!). actually, the Republican governors' ads ran all weekend and are running today!

Go figure!

We also note that the Vancouver Columbian endorsed Dino Rossi today. I wonder whom the P-I is going to endorse. Please, no wagering.

UPDATE: A reader informs me that Connelly was a guest on this afternoon's John Carlson show. He blamed a "copy editor" for what was obviously his own mistake and even called the copy editor a "doofus". But shouldn't it have been Connelly's own responsibility to contact the Rossi campaign and/or local TV stations to confirm whether or not the ads actually ran? Who's the real doofus here?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 11, 2004 04:14 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Just noticed this quote from the Columbian article:

"His hopes...reminiscent of Gov. Dan Evans' successful "Blueprint for Progress" of 40 years ago."

Under what category of praise should that be filed? Faint, damming, mixed...?

In any case, I think Rossi's a winner.

Posted by: Mike Christianson on October 11, 2004 05:37 PM

2. Glad to hear the ads are actually running. I haven't seen them (no TV) but I do appreciate the fact the the Gregoire campaign is wasting money advertising on KVI...

Posted by: Kirk Parker on October 11, 2004 10:26 PM

3. I did actually see one of the ads while flipping through channels this evening. I don't remember which station it was on (KIRO, I think.)

Posted by: Brian Lutz on October 12, 2004 01:00 AM

4. Connelly is just a mouthpiece for the Gregoire campaign. This is the 2nd time he "goofed" about TV ads. Changepac ran TV Ads criticizing Gregoire for her role in the demise of the blanket primary. When Gregoire called Comcast and asked them to pull the ad, Comcast obliged for one day until the sponsor fully substantiated the ads. Then the ads continued to run for another 1 1/2 weeks. But based on Gregoire's press release, Connelly wrote an article that the ads had been pulled because they were false. Obviously, had Connelly turned on his TV, he would have seen that the ads were still running.

Posted by: Tim Ford on October 12, 2004 09:53 AM