Democrats roll out Web sites attacking Rossi and McKenna

OLYMPIA — You can tell Republicans Dino Rossi and Rob McKenna make Democrats nervous.

Prospects of Rossi running for U.S. Senate this year and McKenna for governor in 2012 have Democrats on the offensive with Web sites to rough up the two pols and maybe scare them off their political course.

“It is surprising how early they are terrified,” state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser said Tuesday. “They have their attack Web sites. That to me is good news that Democrats are already terrified.”

Rossi is targeted by the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which views him as a likely — and most formidable — foe for incumbent Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. He has made no decision on whether he’ll run against Murray.

Last week, the committee launched the “Dirty Dino Deals” site insinuating shadiness in Rossi’s various business relationships in the last two decades. The site also portrays Rossi as a political opportunist who tries to further his professional career though political connections he’s made.

Rossi fended off similar insinuations in his unsuccessful runs for governor in 2004 and 2008.

Tuesday, Rossi released a letter he sent Murray asking her to use her power to shut down the site.

“You can put an end to these scurrilous attacks immediately,” Rossi wrote. “This is sleazy politics. This is what turns people off to the political system.”

Continuing, he wrote, “Do you have any evidence that I’m currently engaged in ‘shady’ transactions? If you have any evidence, I will certainly be surprised to hear it, because I have conducted myself ethically and legally in my business dealings.”

Murray, who ran the campaign committee in 2002, won’t be responding.

“Sen. Murray is aware of the letter,” said Jeff Bjornstad, her chief of staff. “This is an issue between Mr. Rossi and the DSCC.”

The Democratic committee uses any political means necessary to protect incumbents and elect Democrats, and it won’t be backing down.

DSCC executive director J.B. Poersch wrote Rossi on Tuesday to tell him so.

“Significant questions remain unanswered surrounding your business deals, associates and what you have been doing since you last waged a campaign for public office,” Poersch wrote.

The Web site is clearly a bit of psychological warfare aimed at keeping Rossi out of the race by showing him it will be fought more fiercely than either run for governor.

“Given your decision to associate yourself with questionable associates and investors — including a jailed criminal — voters will likely question your judgment and ability to best represent their interests in the U.S. Senate,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, in a separate effort, the state Democratic Party launched a “Rob McKenna for Governor” Web site on Monday casting the second-term attorney general as an ambitious and covertly conservative politician. It also blasts him for suing to overturn the federal health care law and his views on issues from light rail to abortion.

The state party doesn’t expect to derail the attorney general. They want to put chinks in the armor of a man who could win the governor’s mansion back for Republicans.

“It helps people define who Rob McKenna is,” said state party chairman Dwight Pelz.

“The right thinks he is left. The left thinks he is right. Independents thought he was a moderate and now they see him as a Tea Party Republican,” Pelz said in an earlier statement. “People are confused, so we are providing this Web site as a public service, a one-stop shop where you can go to learn the facts about Rob McKenna.”

Pelz and McKenna know each other well, having served together on the King County Council in the 1990s.

“It’s symptomatic of Dwight Pelz’s strategy to be absolutely as negative and nasty as possible to personally attack people he considers as opponents,” McKenna said Tuesday.

The attorney general had not viewed the site and said it won’t affect any present or future political plans of his.

When asked if he thought it a compliment he could already attract such attention, he said: “If it is a compliment, I could live without it.”

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-823; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.