SEATTLE — With unconcealed annoyance, Republican Dino Rossi began the final week of his campaign for governor in his lawyer’s office Wednesday, answering questions for a lawsuit brought by supporters of his Democratic opponent, Gov. Chris Gregoire.
“Let’s talk a little bit about what I should be doing today,” Rossi told reporters before beginning his deposition. He went on to list missed radio and television interviews as well as a luncheon appearance at the Rotary Club of Seattle. “I won’t have that opportunity in the last days of this campaign.”
A King County Superior Court judge said Monday that the public interest demanded Rossi answer questions before Election Day about the lawsuit, which alleges illegal campaign spending by his biggest backer, the Building Industry Association of Washington. Two former Supreme Court justices, Faith Ireland and Robert Utter, both of whom support Gregoire, brought the case.
The questioning was being conducted by Democratic lawyers Knoll Lowney and Mike Withey, who said they would hone in on whether Rossi helped coordinate a political fundraising drive by the BIAW last year. If so, they argue, BIAW should be constrained by state limits on direct campaign contributions — $3,200 per election cycle — rather than the more than $6 million it has spent so far to back Rossi with independent expenditures.
Their claim centers on calls Rossi made to officers of a BIAW affiliate group, the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, in spring 2007, at a time when that group was balking at contributing to the BIAW’s war chest.
Rossi didn’t take questions at his brief, pre-deposition news conference. He said that when he made the calls, he was still months away from deciding whether to run again, after his 129-vote loss to Gregoire four years ago in the closest gubernatorial election in U.S. history.
Withey and Lowney argue that Rossi became a candidate when he consented to the BIAW raising money on his behalf.
“That is really what this is going to be all about,” Rossi said. “I’m going to go submit myself once again to four hours worth of questions when I should be out campaigning. That time that we’ve lost today, well, hopefully that won’t be the 129 votes we need.”
Rossi has previously acknowledged the topic involved political spending, but said he didn’t specifically tell the BIAW affiliate how to spend its money.
“He’s under oath this time,” Withey said as he entered the conference room.
Both sides were ready to spin the results of the questioning, promising to immediately release a transcript and hold competing news conferences.
Rossi described the lawsuit and deposition as the type of “nonsense” that made him question whether he should run again, with Democratic operatives and lawyers “sending people to my doorstep, pounding on my door at 9:30 at night, showing up and serving subpoenas to my teenage daughter.”
“This is the kind of thing that makes people worry about running for office,” he said.
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