Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, September 28, 2008

Stem cell ad causes election firestorm

The TV commercial, featuring an Everett woman, has made the issue a central one in the governor's race.

By Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writer

 EVERETT -- Shanai Cole of Everett ignited a firestorm in the state's hottest political race this week and it's likely to burn right through the election.

It only took 30 seconds.

Cole is the woman in the powerful half-minute television commercial on stem cell research produced by Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire's campaign and airing on stations statewide since Tuesday.

In it, Cole chastises Dino Rossi, Gregoire's Republican challenger, for opposing stem cell research that has the potential for discovery of a cure for juvenile diabetes, a disease that afflicts her son Jackson. He was diagnosed with it at age 2 and is now 6.

Her emotion surges near the end when her voice cracks and she fights back tears as she says, "Who is he to put his personal beliefs ahead of my child's health?"

It may be the single-most discussed commercial thus far in the campaign and pushed the two candidates into a debate on the fractious social issue.

Stem cells are found in tissue of most multi-cellular organisms. The nation is divided on which ones to use. Today, federally funded research is limited to adult stem cells, specifically 21 identified lines of human stem cells that existed prior to Aug. 9, 2001.

Researchers generally consider human embryonic stem cells -- ones taken from the tissue of embryos -- as offering much greater potential for discoveries on the causes and cures of diseases.

Gregoire supports research using embryonic and adult stem cells. Rossi is opposed to the former and supportive of the latter.

The governor said her ad is intended to point out what she views as a fundamental difference in values between the candidates.

"I don't believe Washingtonians think we should limit ourselves in terms of finding cures to the most dreaded diseases. To the contrary, to the absolute contrary," she said.

Rossi said the ad wrongly implies he opposes all stem cell research. He responded with a commercial in which he calls the Gregoire ad "deceptive." In his commercial, he looks into the camera and says, "I support stem cell research."

Jill Strait, Rossi's spokesperson, denied that the Rossi ad is deceptive for not telling the whole truth, just as they accuse Gregoire of doing.

"No, I don't think so," she said.

Cole said given the reaction she would have written embryonic into the script and then Rossi "wouldn't have had a leg to stand on," she said.

Even leaving it out does not make what she said wrong, Cole argued.

"I don't care if he agrees with one part of it. With stem cell research, you have to view it as a whole," she said, noting any cures for her son's disease will come from research using embryonic stem cells.

Cole also found it flattering Rossi's ad included a few seconds of the one she is in.

"It means I really affected him. It means it was a pretty effective commercial," she said.

Rossi's ad also calls Gregoire a liar for not keeping a pledge to invest in stem cell research. In 2004, the governor talked of establishing an institute for stem cell research but did not set up a state-run entity.

"She hasn't done a single thing about stem cell research while in office," Strait said. "They're trying to distract people from the most serious problems facing the state."

Gregoire pointed out she proposed The Life Sciences Discovery Fund and worked to get it passed by the state Legislature in 2005. It cleared the Senate on a single vote after a heated debate on Gregoire's insistence that funding be available for stem-cell research.

Her 2006 budget provided $900,000 in start-up funding. Beginning this year it is slated to receive $35 million annually through 2017 with the money coming from the state's settlement with the tobacco industry a decade ago. Grants are made for all types of basic research.

She said while the state did not set up an institute, the University of Washington did establish an Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine in March 2006.

For Cole, who is married, a mother of two children and a former owner of a small carpet-cleaning business, this is more politics than she's ever experienced.

She said she is a Democrat who voted for Gregoire in 2004 and plans to do so again this year.

She learned through her diabetes support group of the governor's intention to do a commercial on stem cell research. She contacted the campaign.

"I didn't think it was going to be that big a deal," she said.

It has been. Reaction, she said, has mostly been positive though she's read some "nasty things" online from folks ignorant about the disease.

"One woman wrote that I probably drank and did meth to cause my son's problem," she said.

"There is no cure. No one knows how children get it," she said.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA