Chris Gregoire

John LadenburgAt his official campaign kickoff last Monday, Democratic candidate for Attorney General John Ladenburg began his speech by talking about opening his first office as a trial lawyer in South Tacoma. He mentioned how he worked with tribes and blue collar folks from the neighborhood and boasted that he was one of the first lawyers around to work on behalf of battered women. 

Ladenburg still lives in blue collar South Tacoma, the neighborhood where he grew up. He even gets his haircut at the same barber shop on 56th and South Tacoma Way that he has been going to for thirty-odd years. It's just one of the ways that he keeps up with the local issues, and the gossip around town.

"I represented people in the neighborhood," he said.

Washington's superdelegate count stands at five for Obama, five for Clinton and seven undecided. State Republican deciders may know something the Democrats don't know, since they've been campaigning against Obama, without a single mention on Clinton in recent letters. The Republican decidee is coming to town, and you can meet him for dinner for only $33,100.

In his latest campaign video, Republican candidate Dino Rossi is, OMG, not wearing a seatbelt! Which is illegal, and dangerous, but also about as interesting as the fact that Governor Gregoire’s campaign bus had Oregon plates.

Despite the ground game advantages, the time when a union could swing an election has long passed, although the historical party split remains. Democrats get endorsements in exchange for sending their campaign work to union shops, and Republicans get to rail against unions.

Governor Chris Gregoire's campaign sent out an e-mail today announcing an updated estimate on their April fundraising total. Last week they suggested that they had brought in roughly a million dollars.

After a second recount, the Gregoire campaign has updated the actual total. Now they are stating that they have earned more than $1.3 million dollars for the month from 6,352 contributors.

This is more than double the Rossi campaign's estimate of $625,000 for April, and potentially gives the Gregoire camp a large cash on hand boost after Rossi had erased  Gregoire's financial advantage during her legislative session contribution freeze.

Gov. Chris GregoireGovernor Chris Gregoire received the endorsement of the Washington State Labor Council over the weekend. The Council is the state federation of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest and most influential labor unions in the country.

This comes one week after Gregoire received the endorsement of another major union in the state, the SEIU. The Governor won the WSLC endorsement with a unanimous vote.

A new Elway poll has Gov. Chris Gregoire leading Republican challenger Dino Rossi by a 5-point margin, 43% to 38%, the P-I is reporting. The last Elway poll, taken in January, showed Gregoire with a 48-35 lead.

Some of the crosstabs show the same findings are recent poll. Rossi has slightly stronger support among Republicans (78%) than Gregoire does with Democrats (71%). Gregoire would win Seattle handily (54%-28%), and Rossi would win Eastern Washington by a similar margin (54%-27%). Gregoire leads in King County as a whole (41%-35%), but Rossi leads the way in neighboring Pierce and Kitsap Counties, both at 45%-35%.

Dino RossiThe Dino Rossi campaign has told PolitickerWA.com that they are estimating a take of $625,000 for the month of April. This is less than the $920,000 Rossi brough in for March but still puts his total contribution level at an impressive $4.4 million for the cycle.

His opponent, Gov. Chris Gregoire, is rumored to have raised a million dollars last month after a long fundraising freeze.

Expenditures for both campaigns are still unknown, so cash on hand levels will have to wait a week.

Washington Gov. Chris GregoireGov. Chris Gregoire, who closed out the month of April with a last minute call to supporters in an e-mail asking them to cap off the month on a strong note.

"The media, undecided voters and my Republican opponent are all lining up to see how much support we have after our first 30 days," Gregoire said in the e-mail. "A donation before midnight tonight sends a message they can't ignore: We want to continue taking on challenges and getting results."

It seems to have worked. A source at the campaign told PolitickerWA.com that they are expecting about a million dollars for the month of April. Much of that came during the fundraiser with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. That even brought in more than $300,000. Not a bad way to formally kick off a campaign.

SEATTLE - In what was dubbed the formal campaign kickoff for Governor Chris Gregoire's re-election, likely the final piece ofGov. Gregoire greets supporters in Seattle the ignition that begin on a bus tour in Auburn earlier this month, more than 1300 people ate lunch and contributed to the campaign at Seattle's Westin Hotel. The event, which doubled as a fundraiser, charged between $100 for a "Silver Level" ticket up to $2800 to be a "Chris' Crew Member". Free tickets were also available to supporters unable to donate at the silver level.

But yesterday's fundraiser luncheon was very different from any of the bus tour kickoff events, highlighted by local dignitaries and a short stump speech by Gregoire before hopping back on the bus and on to the next town. This time the speech was revamped, video screens flanked the stage with images of Gregoire with the Dalai Lama and a new campaign video, and the dignitary came from out of state in the form of New Mexico Governor and former Presidential candidate, U.N. Ambassador and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.