What a difference a year makes -- and a campaign for governor.

A little over a year ago, then-State Senator Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish) unveiled a Senate Republican budget that remains his single claim to legislative fame.  He did so at a news conference featuring a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Following the Governor's Lead." 

As the Senate GOP budget writer, Rossi had merely tweaked Gov. Gary Locke's no-new-taxes all-cuts budget proposal -- restoring some nursing home funds here, cutting more than 40,000 low-income kids off health care there.  Rossi devoted much of the news conference to praising Gov. Locke and his Priorities of Government approach and urging House Democrats to follow Locke's lead, just as he had.

Flash forward to yesterday.  Now-candidate for governor Dino Rossi on Thursday unveiled his agenda and his campaign's new tone-setting negative attack ad, the theme of which is to end the status quo of 20 straight years of failed Democratic gubernatorial leadership.  So in the span of a year, Rossi has gone from "Following the Governor's Lead" to "Condemning the Governor's Leadership."

It may come as no surprise that a politician pulls a talking-point U-turn when it suits his political ambitions, but some observers continue to be stunned at the ease with which Rossi has taken credit for balancing the state's books in 2003. (Well, at least one observer anyway.)

Make no mistake, the Washington State Labor Council opposed both Gov. Locke's and Dino Rossi's all-cuts budgets given the retention and expansion of more than 430 special-interest tax breaks that cost the state more than $45 billion per budget cycle. Neither budget considered closing a single one of those loopholes, and instead balanced the books on the backs of public employees, their families and the people who rely on their services. In fact, neither budget even considered analyzing those tax loopholes to see which ones have any public benefit.

That said, Gov. Locke clearly did all the heavy political lifting in 2003 with his session-opening Priorities of Government proposal to defy voter-mandated teacher pay raises, freeze state employee salaries and make the other social-service cuts necessary to resolve a projected $2.6 billion revenue shortfall.  Dino Rossi merely rode in his political wake, virtually copy-and-pasting Locke's budget other than restoring a few social-service cuts (Look, Ma, I'm a "compassionate conservative") and creating a few new cuts.

Until he resigned his Senate seat to seek campaign contributions full time, while his opponent Attorney General Christine Gregoire honored the state-imposed fundraising blackout on public officials, Dino Rossi was very much a part of the Olympia establishment he now condemns. 

Candidate Rossi is trying to portray himself as an outsider who'll end the status quo in Olympia. But riding the coattails of that "status quo" of Democratic fiscal leadership is the reason he's the Republican nominee for Governor (albeit their 4th choice).

Got irony?

Bob Hasegawa, a Teamsters union leader and labor's endorsed candidate for State House of Representatives in the Renton-area's 11th District, widened his razor-thin lead from a single vote to about 50 votes in the latest primary tally. But there are still many King County ballots to count. (Check out Bob's profile at the national AFL-CIO's website.)

Following are the results as of Friday morning (click here for up-to-the-minute results) in contested Democratic primaries for state legislature where Labor Neighbor activities were conducted for WSLC-endorsed candidates. These are all races in strongly Democratic districts where the primary victors are very likely to win the general election. Pre-primary Labor Neighbor activities also were conducted -- and will continue to be -- in several other targeted districts that didn't have contested primaries and are not listed here.  Endorsed candidates in bold; * indicates incumbents.

New results in King and several other counties will be available tonight.  We'll keep you posted.

Attention union volunteers: There will be no Labor Neighbor activities this weekend, Sept. 18-19, as we gear up for the new post-primary election schedule.  Neighborhood walks will resume next weekend, Sept. 25-26.  The new schedule, adding legislative districts around the state, will be available shortly at this web site.

So take the weekend off for a well-earned rest.  Thousands of volunteer shifts have already been logged, and we plan to pick up the pace each weekend until the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 2.  So go ahead, mark your calendars and make plans to volunteer a few weekends between Sept. 25 and then to participate in this important -- and successful (see below) -- program.

A new party-restricted Washington primary election debuted Tuesday, highlighted by a decisive win in the contested Democratic race for governor by Attorney General Christine Gregoire over King County Executive Ron Sims.  Labor-endorsed candidates fared well and posted particularly strong results in the districts where the Washington State Labor Council's Labor Neighbor program was in place.

Reports indicate that counting of the new ballots was slow, especially in urban areas. King County, in particular, reports that absentee ballot counting proceeded last night at a rate less than half of the normal speed in past primaries; the election director expected only 40% of returned absentee ballots to have been counted by the end of the night. That means there are still plenty of votes to be counted which could sway some of the races that remain close. King County will release an updated ballot count at 4 p.m. today.

That said, following are the results as of 7 a.m. Wednesday morning (click here for up-to-the-minute results) in contested Democratic primaries for state legislature where Labor Neighbor activities were conducted for WSLC-endorsed candidates. These are all races in strongly Democratic districts where the primary victors are very likely to win the general election. Pre-primary Labor Neighbor activities also were conducted -- and will continue to be -- in several other targeted districts that didn't have contested primaries and are not listed here.  Endorsed candidates in bold; * indicates incumbents.

Labor Neighbor is a grassroots political action program where union volunteers walk neighborhoods to meet other union members and discuss issues that matter to working families, and why certain candidates have earned their union's support. Pioneered by the WSLC in the 2001 special election that broke the tie in the State House of Representatives, this successful program is now being used by the AFL-CIO throughout the nation in the battleground states for this fall's presidential election.

In an Olympian interview today, 22nd District legislative candidate Brendan Williams credited labor volunteers for his win: "We really had a number of passionate volunteers -- particularly state employees and union members willing to get out there and wave signs (and) communicate about the campaign to their friends."

Gregoire scored a decisive victory over Sims in Democratic primary for governor. These two strong advocates for working families both earned considerable labor support, enough so that neither garnered the two-thirds support necessary to win the WSLC endorsement. The WSLC Executive Board will be polled today on an almost-certain post-primary endorsement of Gregoire. Sims immediately threw his support behind Gregoire as last night's results became clear.

Delegates representing WSLC-affiliated unions had already voted unanimously to oppose the gubernatorial candidacy of Republican Dino Rossi. The former state legislator's ultra-conservative voting record belies his attempt to portray himself as a "compassionate" moderate. Rossi's 6% voting record with the Washington State Labor Council ranks among the worst -- and most partisan -- of any legislator during his 1997-2003 tenure. (Union members: click here to learn more about Rossi.)

In the other competitive race for statewide office, labor-endorsed Attorney General candidate Deborah Senn, the target of a vicious last-minute political attack by big corporate interests, is leading fellow Democrat Mark Sidran by almost 22,000 votes. Senn has received 52.67% and Sidran 47.33%. The victor will face Republican King County Council member Rob McKenna.

Two labor-endorsed Democrats advanced to the general election in races for open congressional seats, both vacated by Republicans. In the 8th District, former talk show host Dave Ross won the Democratic primary and received more votes than his Republican challenger, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert. In the 8th District, Don Barbieri ran unopposed as a Democrat and will face former state Rep. Cathy McMorris, a longtime legislator with an atrocious 6% labor voting record.

As expected, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D) will face U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt (R), who had only taken opposition in the primary. The latest numbers show more than 400,000 voted for Murray while 235,000 voted for Nethercutt.

Last week, the Washington State Labor Council bet its website URL that big business interests were behind the nearly $1.5 million in anonymous last-minute political attack ads against labor-endorsed Attorney General candidate Deborah Senn. The good news is we get to keep our URL; the bad news for Washington voters is we were right.

Citing that "a number of our members expressed concerns to us about her record," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has finally revealed itself as having funded the ads, costing about three times more than Senn's entire campaign has raised to date. The Chamber did so only after the State of Washington threatened legal action.

Unfortunately, Washington voters may never find out specifically which "members" sat around the table when it was decided that Senn was such a threat to their bottom lines that they must invest nearly $1 million in members' dues to attack her.  Typically, the local Chambers and the state Chamber -- also known as the Association of Washington Business -- deny any involvement in or knowledge of the campaign.

(For all blathering about union dues being spent on politics, it makes you wonder how it is that the vast majority of Chamber-affiliated businesses not only have no voice in where their money is spent, they don't even KNOW how it's spent. At least unions VOTE on who/what to support and make their advocacy public.)

It's safe to assume that the only "members" with enough power to demand the extraordinary pre-primary election attack ads are the biggest corporations in the state like Microsoft, Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, et corporate al.  Plus, you can bet that every insurance company that does business in Washington was in on the decision given Senn's outstanding advocacy as Insurance Commissioner, when she took on these powerful interests on behalf of consumers.

But once again, these big businesses think they've shielded themselves from criticism. By pooling their resources under the Chamber umbrella, creating a national PAC called the Institute for Legal Reform and then adding another protective layer with a state PAC called the Voter Education Committee, they hope they are far enough removed from this negative political business to accept any responsibility for it. 

They may be right given the newspaper editorials that are heaping blame on the U.S. Chamber or Republican campaign consultant Bruce Boram, but ignore the fact that somebody local must have put Senn on the Chamber's hit list. These editorials should be calling on Washington-based corporations to stand up and defend their "advocacy," if they feel so strongly about Senn.  Either that, or publicly rebuke the Chamber for its untoward, unwelcome and possibly illegal intrusion into our state's election process.

One thing is for sure, Deborah Senn has already proved she is willing to stand up to these powerful interests.  Make no mistake, as Attorney General she would do the same, no matter how many tassel-toed corporate lobbyists march into her office.  That's why Corporate Washington is so desperate to defeat her, and that's why the Washington State Labor Council endorsed her.