So yes it is only a primary and yes both Gregoire and Rossi move on but if Rossi wins tonight knock on wood it would give him momentum for the General Election and perhaps McCain would put more money in WA as well. Here are the current results. Results come from the WA Secretary of State website.

Link

Here in Washington Primary Day is almost upon us which means the first run of the Top 2 Primary System. Now I am wary of this new primary system but I guess I have to live with it for the time being. For those of you not familiar with the system it puts all the candidates for an office in one pool and voters vote for their choice. The two candidates with highest number of votes move on to the general. Oh and in Washington candidates are not part of a political party on the ballot but say what party they prefer if any. So for our current Governor, Christine Gregoire, she lists herself as prefers Democratic Party. Her main challenger Dino Rossi lists himself as prefers G.O.P. Party. Now this is a clear attempt for Dino to hide the fact that he is a Republican but it won’t work. As Governor Gregoire brilliantly put it G.O.P stands for Grossly Outdated Politician. I am hoping that the people of Washington soon realize what a disaster the Top 2 Primary System is and move for a change. Why is it so bad you ask? Let me tell you.

Dearest Fellow Kossacks:

Tonight, after a long, boring day at work and a glass of wine, I realized something of vital importance.

I suck.

My husband, the amazing man who tolerates my obsession with Markos (trust me....Markos hugged me during a book tour event for CTG and I don't even remember it, I was such a groupie!), bought me a signed copy of the new book by spending the $125 that was advertised earlier today in the FP.

You'd think by now candidates would have figured out that you prevent having "Macaca Moments" by not showing your true colors in front of video cameras, but some of them are slow learners, I guess. In Washington, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi tried to avoid having the opposition record him by having his goons rough up a cameraman--which was all captured on video. Oops.

Apparently, a "press conference" in Dino Rossi's world is not a public event. He's a mini-Bush in the making, his race fueled by bitterness and sour grapes from his narrow loss in 2004. It's encouraging that the Seattle Times (one of the least confrontational, most milque-toast major dailies in the nation when it comes to covering politics) actually covered this story. Hopefully they'll make a habit of it. Dino Rossi has skated far too long on his nice guy, harmless image.

I just received my copy of the State of Washington Voters' Pamphlet for the August 19, 2008 Primary now called the Top 2 Primary.  This change from a party primary to a "Top 2" primary is based on a 2004 Initiative which was upheld by the Supreme Court in March, 2008.  What's the difference?  The top two vote getters go to the November election, regardless of party designation or the lack thereof.   Per the pamphlet, candidates self-designate their party preference. Some Republicans are playing the system.

It seems we are having similar fundraising issues across this country. Have we democrats become a little complacent or are we just hitting our financial limits?

Rossi tops '04 fundraising
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's campaign reported Tuesday that it has topped its fundraising total from the 2004 campaign, having now raised more than $6,254,035.80.

Rossi is again challenging Gov. Chris Gregoire, the Democrat who prevailed in '04 by 133 votes out of almost 3 million cast after two recounts and a court fight.

As of May 31 Gregoire had reported raising about $6.8 million.

I am not suggesting that Gov. Chris Gregoire is not raising money. I am suggesting that she should be doing better, much better! I do not see this as just a fault of her or her campaign, because in my opinion, this is also partly the fault of all of us.

More below...

Everyone has probably heard the horrific story. Darcy Burner the congressional candidate for Washington States WA-08 lost her house in a fire.  I’m putting my money where my mouth is and  giving her my $99.99.  Why $99.99?  Because my wife and I have an agreement that if anything costs $100 we have to talk to each other. ;)  She doesn't get my passion for politics. Shhhh, don't tell her. :)

You can donate here: Orange to Blue candidate Darcy Burner

En Tequila Es Verdad got an email from Washington State Democrats (h/t frostokovich):

You may have heard that [gubernatorial candidate Dino] Rossi and 27 other Republican candidates in our state will not allow the word "Republican" to appear next to their name on the ballot.

You aren't going to believe this one. I am having a hard time believing it, myself. But when our legislative district Democrats' chair sends out an official email with this information, I have to believe it. Come to our next meeting if you want to really have some fun: Dino Rossi is coming. I need some good suggestions for questions I can ask him.

I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve spent with you Kossacks, and I want to thank you for your comments.

Democratic candidates – from Sen. Barack Obama to governors to state legislators – are fighting a two-front battle in this election.  One is with our Republican opponents.  The other is with 527s and special-interest PACs.

Another Republican failure of leadership on renewable energy and climate change happened yesterday in the U.S. Senate. The "drill first and ask questions later" policy of Big Oil and Republicans has not served citizens paying at the pump and won’t in the future. We need to think bigger. What’s wrong with investing some of those wind-fall profits into renewable energy? Energy independence and a cleaner environment sound like things we should be trying to achieve.

Dino Rossi, loser of the '04 Governor's race to our fantastic Chris Gregoire, gave a speech at the CPO's office at NAS Whidbey Island.  Navy rules prohibit campaign events on their grounds, but apparently this can be looked the other way for Rossi.

If there's any governor's mansion in the country the Republicans want to gain in November, it's Washington's. This year's race is a rematch of 2004, with poor loser Dino Rossi trying to capitalize on the sour grapes the state and national Republicans still feel over their 133 vote loss that came after three vote tallies and a failed Republican court challenge. That election was also probably the reason for the firing of USA John McKay, who refused to open a federal criminal investigation into voter fraud allegations.

So there's a lot at stake for Republicans in this. And it's not looking too good for Rossi at the moment. On the heels of reports that she doubled Rossi's fundraising in April, raising well over a million dollars (1.3m) to his $641K, comes some very encouraging polling from Rasmussen.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Washington voters shows Gregoire leading her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, by eleven percentage points. It’s Gregoire 52% Rossi 41%.

In late March, Gregoire was up by just a statistically insignificant single percentage point. In February, Rossi had a one point advantage. Four years ago, the 2004 election between the same two candidates was one of the closest elections in the state’s history.

Gregoire is supported by 86% of Democrats and has a has a nine-point lead among unaffiliated voters. Both those figures reflect significant improvement for Gregoire since March. Rossi earns the vote from 88% of Republicans, up slightly from 85% in the previous poll. The incumbent Democrat now leads among both men and women.

One of the factors behind Gregoire's surge is that she's finally able to campaign and fundraise after the "session freeze" which prevents Washington lawmakers from fundraising during the legilslative session. The freeze allowed Rossi to amass $2.7 whlie she was stymied, but given her totals for April, and her polling, she should have no problems on the money front. Another factor to consider is Obama's eleven point lead in the state over McCain.  

The Republicans are going to be hell-bent in getting revenge on Gregoire this year, and shouldn't be taken lightly. But it's definitely going to be an uphill battle for them.

Presidential years are not the most active in terms of gubernatorial races, and 2008 is no exception, with only 11 states holding elections, only 5 of which are not entirely safe for the incumbent party. But there has been some movement within those 5 races, as many of them have gotten considerably (and unexpectedly) more competitive in the past few months.

This is cross-posted on Campaign Diaries.

Other than Obama, tonight's next biggest winner was none other than Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, who faces a tough re-election battle this fall against the guy she beat 1,373,361 to 1,373,232, but only after a recount reversed an initial Rossi victory.

So what does that have to do with tonight? This:

Democrats report record turnout - perhaps 200,000

Washington state Democrats said they experienced record-shattering turnout at Saturday's caucuses, with reports from initial samplings across the state suggesting nearly double the turnout from 2004.

Previous turnout records were set that year when 100,000 Democrats caucused in Washington.

The last thing Washington Republicans need is a revitalized, energized, motivated, and engaged Democratic-leaning electorate.

Gregoire has come out swinging against her upcoming opponent Dino Rossi.  In 2004 Gregoire and Rossi took it down to the wire, with Gregoire winning on the third recount of the election.   One of Rossi's main attack lines was that Democrats are bad for business.  

Hey Dino, back at you buddy, how do you like them apples?

Go Gregoire.

Remember 2004's closest race? The one that took the longest to decide? The one that got Karl Rove so worked up that Alberto Gonzales ended up firing the U.S. Attorney who wouldn't get involved in the recount fight? Well, sore loser and Rove poster boy Dino Rossi is back to challenge incumbent Christine Gregoire.

CQ puts this race in the no clear favorite category on the basis of how close it was in 2004--179 votes. I think that's wrong, on a number of bases. Rossi was very much a stealth candidate in 2004, the Washington press didn't dig into just how extreme this seemingly affable guy was. And an overly complacent Democratic party in Washington state didn't do a whole lot to help in the effort.

Because of the taint of the U.S. Attorney scandal and Rossi's role, many in the media are already a bit skeptical. Consider this mediocre review from the Seattle PI (via Goldy): "the overarching theme of Rossi’s hourlong speech was retreaded from his 2004 campaign."

As Goldy points out, Rossi's really been running for the past year, he's just been lying about it. And also pushing the boundaries of legality. He set up a non-profit called Forward Washington, raised a ton of money off of it, and used it to campaign around the state, delivering the same stump speech with the same policy priorities that he used in his 2004 race. A few reporters have picked up the story, and the bloggers in Washington aren't going to let it go.

Gregoire has been an effective executive. She's not the greatest campaigner, but has done a great deal to restore the state's fiscal health. She's also shepherded legislation through the statehouse to expand children's health coverage in the state by $64 million, adding 38,500 children to state Medicaid coverage. That expansion, unfortunately, will likely disappear because of Bush's refusal to expand SCHIP. That's a connection Dino Rossi doesn't seem to grasp. When a local reporter asked him about SCHIP he said he didn't have a position on whether Congress should override because, "I'm not in Congress."

Gregoire has a $3 million war chest, though she hasn't officially announced her re-election bid. This isn't going to be a cakewalk by any means for Gregoire--her somewhat deficient skills as a candidate and a state GOP out for blood because of 2004 will make it a challenge. But given that Rossi's true colors have been exposed, as have Gregoire's superior skills as an executive, this race should be categorized as at least leaning Dem.

From yesterdays Spokesman Review:

"I won’t deny anything, but it’s Dino’s announcement to make," his campaign spokeswoman Jill Strait said Tuesday. The Associated Press, citing anonymous GOP sources, reported late Monday that Rossi will run.

So today the story is:

Speaking in Issaquah a few minutes ago, former GOP candidate for governor Dino Rossi said, yes, he'll run again against Democratic incumbent Chris Gregoire.