Gregoire rallies support in Everett

Published 11:16 pm Thursday, April 10, 2008

EVERETT — The chant began before Gov. Chris Gregoire entered the packed Labor Temple on Thursday afternoon.

“Four more years, four more years.”

It inspired a smile on the face of the incumbent Democrat as she strode onto stage to make her case for a second term to about 150 people who didn’t need much convincing.

Afterward Gregoire posed for photos with several people and then boarded her campaign bus for Seattle and the last stop of a four-day trip around the state formally launching her bid for re-election.

Gregoire is facing a rematch with Republican Dino Rossi, the man she defeated by 133 votes in the state’s narrowest gubernatorial race ever.

Part of the reason for the tight race was Gregoire lost to Rossi in Snohomish County — a point of history that she didn’t raise but most of the crowd remembered all too well.

“People at ground zero are concentrating on this race more this time around,” said Democratic Snohomish County Councilman Brian Sullivan.

In 2004, Rossi won the popular vote in Snohomish County, outpolling Gregoire by 6,439 votes. He was the first Republican candidate for governor in 20 years to accomplish that feat.

Everett resident John Flowers said “there’s no reason she can’t win it this time. But she can’t get overconfident. She has to work for it.”

In an interview before her speech, Gregoire vowed to do just that.

She said she will increase her visibility, acknowledging voters didn’t get to know her well enough the last election.

This time around, she said she will talk about where the state was four years ago and where it is now. Snohomish County is a good example because it’s experienced gains in jobs and business plus investments in education and transportation, she said.

“It’s just a matter of us getting the word out,” she said.

Thursday she trumpeted what she views as a long list of achievements for the entire state in an “amazing four years.”

She cited an economic rebound from a $2.2 billion deficit to an $850 million reserve — the product of a roaring state economy.

She said there’s been 230,000 new jobs created since she took office and she boasted of Fortune and Forbes magazines rating Washington as one of the nation’s more friendly states for business.

She spoke proudly of funding voter-approved initiatives for smaller class sizes and higher teacher pay and providing health care to thousands more children in low-income families.

On transportation, she said the state is building new ferries and making safety improvements on U.S. 2.

Rossi, meanwhile, is discussing what he views as her first-term shortcomings.

“I’m comparing and contrasting what the incumbent has done and what we plan to do,” he said Thursday.

He’s focused a lot of his attention on the state’s spending under Gregoire.

Rossi said the rate of spending is rising at twice the rate of revenue growth and he said the state faces a potential $2.4 billion deficit in the next budget.

“Christine Gregoire has the taxpayer credit card, and we are getting stuck with the bill,” he said in a statement issued Monday.

“We have heard a lot of promises, seen lots of studies and read many task force reports. But what we haven’t seen are real results,” he said.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.