Rossi, McKenna Speak to the Base in Lewis County at Annual Lincoln Dinner

Chehalis, WA -

The Lewis County Republican Party held their annual Lincoln Day Dinner tonight at Chehalis' Hotel Washington, whose exposed brick walls and collection of Indian motorcycles provided a classy and historic-looking venue for the night's program of food, networking and political speeches from some of the state's top Republican elected officials.

"A good Lincoln day in the past has been a hundred, a hundred and fifty people" Lewis County Republican Party Chairman Mark Anders told the crowd in his opening remarks. "We've got 250 seats tonight and we've been sold out for a while."

Lewis County Lincoln Day Dinner Crowd

Anders continued by calling for a round of applause for all the young Republicans in the room, calling them the future of the party. He also thanked everyone not just in the room, but in the county, before contrasting the recent Lewis County flooding disaster with that of Hurricane Katrina.

There, he said you saw people "sitting on curbs holding up signs saying ‘George Bush, please save me.'" But in Lewis County he continued, "we rolled up our sleeves and we did it ourselves."

Following Ansons' introduction, the Lewis County Republicans held an auction, expertly called by Wade Samuelson, which offered up everything from certified "Republican" beef and eggs to homemade quilts, apple pies and an autographed photo of Seattle Seahawks receiver Bobby Engram. The auction netted over two thousand dollars.

Among those in the packed audience were Gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, Attorney General Rob McKenna, both of whom addressed the gathering.

Rossi spoke for twenty-five minutes to the Republican activists. His stump speech touched on a mix of personal stories, motivation, issues, reminders of 2004 and appeals for citizen help in his campaign and beyond.

"We are going to finish what we started, aren't we?"

The crowd erupted in applause.

He then touched on what he said was an unexpected amount of support for his campaign, comparing his decision to run with the flipping of a light switch, and he "had absolutely no idea how much voltage was gonna be on the other side of that switch."

The GOP candidate cited his $1.7M raised in 2007 compared to his expected take of eight hundred thousand. He did not mention that Gregoire has raised more than double that amount, but did make a veiled swipe at her wide-ranging donor base by claiming that he had not called a single lobbyist to give to his campaign.

"Which is why this is turning into a citizen's movement," he asserted. "Everybody can be part of this, that is why so many people are showing up."

Education, transportation, public safety and "fiscal sanity" were the issues Rossi cited as the most pressing this cycle while highlighting what he said would be a government based on customer service to the citizens.

"If you were a customer," Rossi repeatedly posed as he listed what he considered to be the failings of the Gregoire government, "would you be treated that way?"

This led Rossi to suggest that there is a significant choice to be made between two candidates, and to ask the Lewis County Republicans for their help in electing him, and also in lending their expertise to his office once he was elected.

Rossi predicted that the odds would be against him against an incumbent in a blue state, highlighted by a chorus of naysayers. He juxtaposed this argument with his own family's rise from poverty before finally emphasizing Gregoire's lack of success against him in her career.

"She's never polled over 50% against us in any poll ever," he defiantly crowed before closing with some philosophy.

"Rarely in life do we get a second chance at the things that are truly important," Rossi pondered. "With this election for Governor, Washington State has a second chance."

The candidate was followed by state Attorney General Rob McKenna, who spoke more topically about the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and America's founding Fathers on the current political landscape and like Anson spent time praising the young Republicans.

Still, he managed to get in a comparison of the Lewis County floods to those resulting from Hurricane Katrina. He recalled being in New Orleans a year and half after the Hurricane and told the audience that one in ten homes affected by the floods had not yet been repaired. But in Lewis County, "home after home, farm after farm is being rebuilt with the help of neighbors."

"Together we win," he continued, evoking the night's slogan in the process, "together we also rebuild."

McKenna then returned for most of his speech to the rhetorical, uplifting style with which he began, touting his commitment to fighting meth, gangs and identity theft within the wider challenge of fighting apathy and government largesse.

It being a partisan event, he even managed to get in a dig on the Democrats.

"They mean well," he mocked the majority party, "as they chip away at our rights."

Yet, he suggested, they forget the spirit of the individual and the entrepreneur with their repressive policies. It was a popular theme tonight among Republicans, and the crowd consistently and quietly nodded along.