OLYMPIA — Dino Rossi didn’t want to wait to rebut what Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire will say tonight in her State of the State address.
So the Republican candidate for governor went online Monday night with his own assessment of the state of affairs in Washington.
In a 13-minute speech, he faulted Gregoire’s leadership on education, transportation, public safety and spending and insisted it would be different if voters make a change by putting him in the job.
“I’ve always said we have everything we need to be successful right here. But I also see a state government that isn’t serving the people,” he said.
“A state government doing things the same old way they’ve always been done; a state government that is spending much more of your money without delivering results.
“So what is the state of the state? There’s nothing wrong with our people, but I believe there’s plenty wrong with our government,” he said in the address posted on his campaign Web site.
State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz issued a statement calling the online appearance a “gimmick” with “zero substance or even variation from his tired stump speech.”
Pelz branded Rossi an “Olympia insider” and said his comments amounted to the “latest in his relentlessly negative, no-new-ideas campaign for governor.”
Tonight, Gregoire will get the spotlight when she delivers her fourth State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature.
She’s expected to recount a string of accomplishments sure to become the backbone of her re-election campaign — a record budget surplus, expanded health care for children, increased college enrollment and aggressive efforts to combat global warming.
Monday night online, Rossi painted Gregoire as a product and protector of the establishment. He said her policies are to blame for students not performing better, congestion getting worse, families feeling less safe and the state spending too much.
He offered few specifics of how he would act differently.
He did pledge not to allow the early release of violent felons. He said he wanted a new Highway 520 floating bridge to be eight lanes wide — two more than Gregoire proposed last week. He wants to have merit pay for public school teachers.
What Rossi focused on at the beginning and end was his pledge to bring change to the government — which was one of the recurring themes of his failed 2004 bid for the office.
In that historic race, Gregoire defeated Rossi by 133 votes following three recounts and a court case.
Gregoire’s State of the State address begins at 4:30 p.m. today and will be televised live on TVW and online at www.tvw.org.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfieldheraldnet.com.
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