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A call to terminate the Guvernator ads

Washington’s effort to attract tourists is paying off.

California’s self-promotion is another matter completely. Those commercials with their guvernator are kind of bugging our governor.

It all came out this morning as Gov. Chris Gregoire, her senior advisers and folks like me and The Olympian's Adam Wilson weathered a GMAP meeting. . (That’s short for Government Management Accountability and Performance for the unindoctrinated.)

Tourism was the subject of the moment.

Washington is earning about $14 in state and local taxes for every $1 it spends on advertising, according to Juli Wilkerson, director of the Community Trade and Economic Development Department.

Gregoire praised the effort then asked, if she “could just do something about that California ad on television. As in getting it off.”

This incited a lot of laughter. Gregoire pointed out that she and her husband, Mike, could sit at a table sipping Washington wine – a reference to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria, who are seen imbibing in the California ad.

“I can say Washington by the way,” Gregoire added.