Rossi says he wants to help pull U.S. back from a 'fiscal cliff'

Everyone knew if Dino Rossi entered the race against Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, it'd change the dynamics of the election.

He did and it has.

Murray is no longer presumed a lock to win a fourth term and politicalphiles across the country are anticipating a rugged campaign between them.

Rossi's high-priced and high-profile runs for governor in 2004 and 2008 made him one of the state's most recognized Republican names and favorite among GOP challengers to advance from the Aug. 17 primary.

But it took awhile to get the 50-year-old Sammamish resident into the race. As Republican leaders courted, he continued working for Coast Equity Partners in Everett, making money off property sales and rentals.

He entered in late May and now spends time on the stump explaining why, after never showing inclination or aspiration, he wants to work in a place he calls a "snakepit of a town."

"This was not what I planned on doing eight months ago," he says. "Our country is in trouble."

Rising debt, climbing deficit and excessive federal spending has put the United States on a "fiscal cliff," he says. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have not shown discipline needed to pull the nation back from the edge, he said.

"If we don't have a course correction this year, 24 months from now we're going to wake up in a country we don't even recognize," he said

Passage of the national health care bill got him thinking hard about the race, he said. Conversations with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma convinced him his party had the "guts to put the fiscal train back on the tracks" if it regains control of Congress.

His wife, Terry, helped seal the decision by giving her blessing to run his third campaign in six years.

Though Rossi's outward focus is on the Democratic incumbent, he's got to be mindful of conservative Republican and tea party favorite Clint Didier in the primary. Didier casts Rossi as the hand-picked candidate of the Republican Party establishment who would not bring the change to Washington, D.C., sought by conservatives.

Rossi told a Didier-friendly crowd at the state party convention in June that he believed the political environment will enable Republicans to win the Senate seat this year as long as they stick together.

"It is not about me. It is not about other candidates. This is about removing Patty Murray from the U.S. Senate," he told them. "It isn't what I was planning to do, but it certainly is what needs to be done. There is a lot at stake here. It's just the future of the free world at stake."

Back on the campaign trail, Rossi plays to his strength: fiscal matters.

The former state senator compares his role in writing a balanced state budget seven years ago with what he terms Murray's "indefensible" 18-year record on spending and taxes.

Rossi backs amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget and giving line item veto power to presidents.

He's called for repealing the health care bill and the recently passed legislation regulating financial institutions, better known as the Wall Street reform bill. Though repeal is a politically irrelevant option while Barack Obama is president, it's not stopping Rossi from saying it.

Getting the economy back on track requires a "predictable environment" for owners of small business to operate, he said. That means there must be "modest taxation and fair and predictable regulations," though Rossi did not specify a single existing tax or regulation he considers excessive.

Tax cuts approved in 2001 and 2003 that will expire at the end of the year should be extended, he said.

And Rossi criticizes Murray for pursuing earmarks and vows he will seek none until the federal budget is balanced. He may vote against legislation with earmarks, as worthy requests will survive an open debate in Congress, he said.

He won't make exceptions for Washington powerhouses like the Boeing Co., a firm for which he helped secure a multibillion-dollar tax break from the state in 2003.

"There is nothing in the Constitution that says the senator's job is to drag home pork," he said.