Some Republicans believe former gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi entering the U.S. Senate race Wednesday will help their side win the election.
Democrats believe the same.
Rossi joins a field of 16 candidates running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
“The best thing about it is it helps shine a spotlight nationally on this U.S. Senate race,” said Luke Esser, chairman of the state Republican party. “It’s a bad thing for Patty Murray and a good thing for all the Republican candidates.”
But the competition could help Democrats by splitting allegiances among Republicans in the Aug. 17 primary, said Cathy Allen, a Seattle Democratic political consultant. Under Washington’s system, only the top two finishers will advance to the November general election.
“It can’t hurt that there are Republicans that are going elsewhere other than Dino Rossi, both in terms of money and votes,” she said.
Though Rossi wavered about entering the race, his candidacy was not unexpected. After polls earlier this year showed he would be competitive, national Republicans courted Rossi aggressively.
Rossi announced his entry into the race with a five-minute video posted to his website early Wednesday morning, citing concerns over the national debt, the health care reform bill and the stimulus package as reasons he decided to enter the race.
“I know I won’t be able to look my children, and someday their children, in the eye if I do nothing while this fundamental redefinition of America continues unchecked,” he said in the video. “I believe the policies being passed in Washington, D.C., have put us on the edge of a fiscal cliff.”
A University of Washington poll released Tuesday showed Murray with only a narrow lead over Rossi. In the poll, 44 percent favored or leaned toward Murray, 40 percent favored or leaned toward Rossi, 12 percent were undecided and 3 percent favored other candidates.
One of the other Republican candidates, former National Football League tight end Clint Didier, received a statement of support from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on May 20.
In a statement Wednesday, Didier said he welcomed the competition from Rossi.
In an earlier statement regarding the possibility of Rossi entering the race, however, Didier referred to Rossi as part of the “Republican establishment” that was fired by voters in 2008.
“I don’t believe he’s the conservative people think he is,” he said.
Didier will have trouble matching Rossi’s fundraising ability, however. A former real estate agent and state senator, Rossi has name familiarity and broad support despite his losses to Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2004 and 2008.
Didier now runs an alfalfa farm in Eltopia, located in a sparsely populated part of Eastern Washington. Rossi grew up in Seattle and lives in the city’s affluent and vote-rich eastern suburbs.
“It is anticipated that this guy, from the minute that he gets in, will have several million (dollars),” Allen, the Democratic consultant, said of Rossi.
Didier said on his website he raised $351,518 as of March 31.
Murray has raised about $6 million, according to Allen.
Allen said she’s more concerned about Rossi’s potential effect on state legislative races than about the chance that Murray could lose the seat she’s held for nearly 18 years. Initiative 1098, which calls for a state income tax on some higher-income residents, could bring out some conservative voters who would oppose it, she said.
“Patty’s the hardest worker I’ve ever known,” said Allen, adding she hasn’t changed since being elected to the senate in 1992.
Esser said the state GOP hasn’t taken a position among the Senate candidates. Still, he noted Rossi’s power to draw publicity and dollars.
“We will be able to attract more resources to ultimately defeat Patty Murray,” he said. “We’re on the radar screen now.”
Rachel La Corte of the Associated Press contributed to this story.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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