The Spokesman-Review's Richard Roesler has a good rundown on the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He saw all five candidate speak Tuesday, and gives a rundown of each person.

Read the full story here.

Yesterday while most of the political news in the state was focused on John McCain's visit, two new candidates for state Representative emerged. Mulick's Olympia Dispatch has the word on a couple of entries in Western Washington.

In Seattle's 36th, where Democrats Reuven Carlyle and John Burbank are engaged in a high profile battle for retiring Rep. Helen Sommers' seat, Republican Leslie Bloss has joined the fray. She is a former Boeing employee and a real estate agent, not to mention one of the very few Republicans in the 36th LD.

Then in Pierce County's 25th LD Fife City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Robert Cerqui, a Democrat, has filed to run for the seat of retiring Rep. Joyce McDonald (R-Puyallup). He joins Republican Bruce Dammeier and Progressive Laurence Pratt, both of Puyallup.

NORTH BEND -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain participated in a roundtable discussion on environmental issues today at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center in Eastern King County. McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, was joined by a wide slate of interested parties, ranging from Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland to REI CEO Sally Jewel, former Gov. Dan Evans and Mercer Island City Councilman Steve Litzow along with a handful of local business and non-profit group leaders.

Local Republicans in attendance at the event included Attorney General Rob McKenna, who is McCain's state chair, former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, state Sen. Cheryl Pflug and party Chairman Luke Esser. The first thing off their tongues was their excitement at having such a prominent national figure in town.

Sen. John McCain leads a roundtable discussion

On the day that Republican presidential candidate John McCain comes to Washington for the first time since becoming the GOP's presumptive nominee, the state Democratic Party is doing its best to run interference on his visit. Today they released a video highlighting Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's reference to McCain as "my guy" in an Aberdeen Daily World article earlier this year along with the Air Force tanker contract that McCain helped guide to a foreign competitor of Boeing.

"Republican Dino Rossi has demonstrated that his partisan GOP allies in Washington DC are more important than standing up for thousands of jobs here in Washington state," said Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz in a statement. "While Gov. Gregoire has sharply criticized the contract that shipped our jobs overseas and supported an appeal of the decision, Rossi stands by his man - further evidence that Washingtonians simply can't trust Rossi with our future."

Don't expect Washington's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Democrats Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray respond?

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain  will be in the Evergreen State today to continue his discussion on environmental issues and climate change. He will participate in a roundtable discussion in North Bend this morning before heading into Bellevue later on for a high dollar fundraiser.

The Seattle Times' David Postman has a rundown of the roundtable here.

Check out PolitickerOR.com's coverage of McCain's major climate change speech in Portland, Ore. yesterday here.

Monday was the deadline for reporting April contributions and expenditures for campaigns here in Washington. Now that six months remain until election day, PolitickerWA.com will begin a monthly rundown of the financial status of the state's top races.

Here is how things stand as of April 30, 2008. The first number listed is contributions, the second number is expenditures and the third number is the difference between the two. Precluding any unusual circumstances, that third number is equal to cash on hand. The candidate with the most cash on hand is listed at the top of each section.

Republican Skip Novakovich, a Kennewick businessman, has said that he will formally announce his candidacy for retiring Rep. Shirley Hankins' seat in the 8th District in the coming weeks.  

He joins Rick Jansons, Brad Klippert and Steve Simmons in the race. Novakoviach, who had worked on many of Hankins' campaigns in the past, was critical of their decision to  toss their hats in before she officially decided to retire last week.

“I’m kind of surprised, really,” Novakovich said. “It’s almost like a slap in the face to her. She’s making a tough decision.”

Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald got the story and has more details here. 

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire: Photo by Getty ImagesOn the eve of Tuesday's visit from presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Chris Gregoire's gubernatorial campaign is hoping that ill feelings toward the Arizona senator will help its own electoral chances. They are hitting McCain on the state Democrats' main talking point: that he let down the Evergreen State economy by shepherding a large Air Force tanker contract to Boeing rival Airbus.

"Tomorrow, presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain comes to Washington for a $33,100/plate Republican fundraiser. Ironically, his plane lands at Boeing Field," Gregoire finance director Tracy Newman said in an e-mail to supporters. "Senator McCain led the fight in Washington D.C. to rescind a major contract awarded to Boeing to build tanker planes. Recently, a ‘new' contract worth over 9,000 Washington jobs and $40 billion dollars was awarded to a European company."

Rep. Jim McCune, the 2nd District Republican from Graham, is telling supporters that he is the target of a ruthless left-wing attack spearheaded by Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) according the TNT's Political Buzz. He calls Chopp's tactics " slashing" and "slanderous".

McCune, who says in a fundraising letter that he is one of two remaining Pierce County Republicans in the House, has three Democratic opponents in his race. They are Jean Marie Christiansen, who ran in 2006, former Orting Councilman Raymond Harper, and recent entry Chuck Collins, who the TNT reported was recruited by state Democrats and is likely the impetus for McCune's worries.