Dino Rossi is again getting plenty of attention with the aid of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The committee wants everyone to hear about how Eastside Commercial Bank, which he helped found, is facing financial challenges and getting federal attention as a result.
Glenn Thrush writes about it on Politico.com. Here is a link to the December 2009 directive from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Department of Treasury outlining steps the bank needs to take to improve its fiscal health.
Meanwhile, the Democratic group is involved in a much quieter effort in Everett regarding the Republican who they think will challenge U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA.
A couple weeks back this group discovered $20,000 in unpaid taxes on an Everett property owned by the real estate investment firm where Rossi works.
Turns out this same property – which Rossi does not have an ownership stake – had been offered by the firm for sale to the city of Everett as a new home for its municipal court.
The Everett City Council decided last week to fix up its existing court building rather than buy the property from Coast Equity Partners.
Even before the council acted, a researcher hired by the committee began looking for possible links between the city’s elected leaders and Rossi.
Geoffrey Potter of NewPartners.com of Washington, D.C., submitted a request for public records dated May 3 seeking correspondences between city council members and Rossi. He also requested correspondences between council members and Tom Hoban, Shawn Hoban and Michael Harmon – the other leaders of Coast Equity Partners.
Potter also wants telephone logs for Councilman Drew Nielsen who was one of three dissenting votes last week.
This public records request is all part of the effort to collect, analyze and disperse information they think tells a story about Rossi and may help discourage him from entering the race.
“We know that Dino Rossi has a history of cutting corners to maximize personal profits, but after his firm failed to pay their taxes on time there is reason to wonder why the taxpayers of Everett should buy one of their buildings,” said DSCC spokeswoman Deirdre Murphy.
Rossi’s defenders say he’s the subject of a Murray-backed smear campaign. Rossi has called on Murray to order her supporters to stop — to no avail.
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