No big changes in tonight's final debate of the Governor's race, on King 5 (and I believe on cable in some non-Seattle markets).
The core race dynamics remain the same: Dino Rossi is the change agent, hoping to "change the culture of Olympia." Christine Gregoire is the not entirely likable policy wonk who doesn't seem to have a vision for the future of the state.
Credit to the journalist panel of Andrew Garber (Seattle Times), Austin Jenkins (Northwest News Network), and Alan Schauffler (King 5). They had a number of unique questions that were a pleasant change of pace from the previous four debates.
New topics included how the candidates would approach appointing a replacement to state Supreme Court Justice Gerry Alexander, whether or not they would keep pending raises for state employees, response from each candidate on negative ads (after showing one from the RGA and one from Evergreen Progress), and a question about the Sonics leaving town fiasco and the Governor's potential role with Key Arena.
Gregoire continues to earn credit for being well-armed with talking points and detailed facts on every issue. She scores rhetorical points frequently with them. Yet, her delivery remains less than warm...punctuated by another school marm shake-of-her-head when Rossi lamented attacks on his Italian last-name and his kids' dog.
Rossi continues to dominate the messaging of the debates with his theme of change and reform - especially in the opening and closing statements. In this debate's closing statement he even posed a rhetorical question of what would Christine Gregoire do differently in the next four years than she's done in the previous four?
Exactly.
I also note that both candidates brought up attacks from the other unprompted. Rossi mentioned her blatantly false minimum wage attack, pointing out he supports a training wage for teenagers, not changing the minimum wage for adults (she nevertheless repeated the charge later, claiming he would cut wages for "thousands of working men & women"). Gregoire brought up the RGA's ads on sex offenders with a lot of indignation.
Ultimately, this was just one more campaign event that highlighted the change agent versus an entrenched incumbent. Exactly why the race is close.
Posted by Eric Earling at October 15, 2008 09:16 PM | Email ThisWhat an agent of Change!!!
Posted by: Lysander on October 15, 2008 09:30 PMGregoire went negative, willing to outright lie to make a negative point. And while doing so, the camera was particularly unkind to her.
Dino calmly explained how his business experience, fiscal conservatism and background in Education and protecting the weakest members of society would be put to good use shaking up 28 years of complacency in Olympia, trimming excess spending in the state budget while maintaining vital services and encouraging a positive business climate in Washington State.
Rounds 2 and 3 both go to Rossi by large margins.
Posted by: zapporo on October 15, 2008 09:43 PMThe end game for Gregoire to balance the budget?
TAX INCREASES!
I don't blame Rossi for not outlining all his cuts. Rossi is right...it will take 1000's of fiscally conservative decisions.
The main cut??
Eliminate 8,000-10,000 State Jobs.
The big dollars are in Salaries, Benefits and OVERHEAD of all these new State Employees.
I think Rossi needs to publicly say this.
Private employers have been belt-tightening for years now...and are being forced to layoff.
The State has spent like drunken sailors, added staff and given raises!!
It's time for Government to mirror the taxpaying, job-creating businesses...NOW.
I hope Rossi publicly states there will be lay-offs and this reason why....SOON!
It appears that the reporter wasn't truthful in the ad question...When the reporter stated that negative adds from "your" campaign were not true. They both were "negative" ads from each others supporters as you point out above...
Note: Rossi made it a point to explain that it was a third party (supporter) ad and not from His campaign while Gregoire answered the question from the stand point the she thought her campaign put out the ad. Once again she doesn't even know what ads her campaign puts out.
Good question from the reporter, but I don't believe is correct on who sponsored the ad.
Posted by: Glenno on October 16, 2008 04:27 AMOn Rossi side, I was looking for what are his values when it comes to the budget. He talked alot about his work in the past, but to me fell short on where he wants to move forward. The demands are different now. They aren't five or six years ago. The state is faced with declining revenues due to the economy and increasing costs, like energy costs. He focused on the past instead of the future. He could for example state one thing CG is considering, which is four-day work weeks to save energy costs at state facilities. He could go into specific trade initiatives/ideas that he thinks would grow revenue. His saving grace is the fact that CG failed to highlight all she is currently doing to cut the projected deficit. Therefore, for now, he is still winning this battle.
On the "intangibles," they both still need a lot of work. CG comes across as a sour-puss. Rossi still has that cheesy-smile and insincerity look to him when he is talking. Don't tell us we should just trust you or that you know what you are doing and then give us the David Leisure/Joe Isuzu smile. It makes me think he is a used-car salesman.
Posted by: tc on October 16, 2008 07:58 AMRossi scored a knock-out punch in my book with the line that Gregoire had been in his office many times asking for money. That's the difference in a nutshell. Gregoire has ALWAYS been asking for more money, Rossi had been trying to find ways to make government more efficient.
Posted by: TheSenator2012 on October 16, 2008 08:45 AM