Dino Rossi - a great candidate

Dino Rossi has always been a dedicated fiscal conservative even before it became so fashionable in the 2010 elections.


Rossi is steady as a rock as he doesn't seem to change much, and his campaign promises and strategies are much the same today as they were when running for governor. He often points to his past work to balance the 2003 state budget--not a small feat. Once elected, he plans to tackle the deficit exactly the way he did in Olympia but on a much grander scale. He knows he can do it.


Former Sen. Slade Gorton believes Rossi would, for example, look carefully at the suggestions of Obama’s bipartisan commission trying to reduce the more than $13 trillion national debt.


“His relatively short time in Olympia,” Gorton said, “was on exactly the subject that is the most important and emergent in Washington, D.C.: How to cause a governmental body to live within its means.”


When Rossi bucked up against “the most radical union on the face of the planet,” which wanted him to raise taxes so he could give raises to “state employees that have no chance of losing their jobs,” they (500 SEIU members) dressed in purple and gathered outside his office window to chant "Dino Rossi, cheap and mean."

He supported freezing the state’s minimum wage in years when the state’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average, and in 2003 backed a measure that limited benefits for laid-off workers.


Democrats target those positions now, but at the time, Senate Democrats joined in supporting the unemployment-benefits overhaul. It was part of a series of reforms and tax breaks designed to persuade Boeing to build its 787 Dreamliner aircraft in Washington.


Asked if he ever stood up to powerful pro-business interest groups the way he did unions, Rossi said he didn’t need to; the powerful interests in Olympia are mostly anti-business, he said.


Democrats have criticized Rossi for voting with the Building Industry Association of Washington. As evidence that he was too cozy with lobbyists in Olympia, the state Democratic Party points to a business deal early in his seven-year Senate career, buying an apartment complex in Federal Way with investors that included two BIAW lobbyists.


Rossi has maintained there was nothing improper about the investment.  Those apartments were plagued by drugs and violence before Rossi cleaned it up and booted most of the tenants and sold it at a profit.


BUDGET CUTTING
In a budget that hit state workers hard, he protected the most vulnerable state residents from cuts. For his work, he was applauded by the AARP and groups advocating for the developmentally disabled.


Democrats criticize his budget’s tightened eligibility requirements for children’s medical coverage. The budget plan would have made 40,000 fewer children eligible for medical coverage, if that cut hadn’t been rejected in negotiations. Republicans say that even with the change, the budget would have covered 4,000 more children than had been covered in previous years.


Though Republicans had gained control of the Senate in the 2002 elections, it was only a 25-24 majority.  Democrats had an equally narrow majority in the House. The parties would have to work together.


Newly installed as budget chairman, Rossi worked with moderate Senate Democrats whose votes he would need.


Former Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen can attest to Rossi's honor and effectiveness.

Rossi worked also with liberals like Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle on a slate of legislation to crack down on drunken drivers, including a law Rossi authored to require ignition interlock devices for drivers stopped with a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 or higher.


Rossi’s low-key demeanor helped him. “He’s not a grandstander,” Kline said.

On issues in the Senate campaign, Rossi, generally toes his party’s line.

He said he can’t think of any issue facing the country now where he departs from his party. Had he been in Congress in 2008, though, he says he would have opposed the bank bailout that passed with help from both Republicans and Democrats including Murray and at the urging of President George W. Bush.


He is opposed to the stimulus, the health care overhaul, new Wall Street rules.


A self-made millionaire, Rossi brings a business background to politics – an understanding of what it’s like to sign the front of a paycheck, he says.


Murray's lies
True to the mantra of "keep them busy with so many lies and distortions that they can't discover the truth until after the elections," here are three examples of claims against Rossi:


--He supported cutting the minimum wage by a $1.50 an hour


When asked if he would support a stair-step training wage, which would begin at $1.50 less than the minimum wage and then ramp up from there, Rossi said:


“Would I be open to some of these ideas? You bet, especially a training wage. You think about how many young people are being cheated out of their first job. Getting the idea of going to work, fulfilling a task and being paid for it. That’s a very good thing. Work ethic is something very good to instill in our youth and letting them have that opportunity. But when minimum wage gets so high that that job isn’t worth that much to the employer, you don’t get that first job.


“Minimum wage is really your first job. Not many people stay at minimum wage. Not very long. It’s not meant to be a family wage. But it’s meant to be an entry level wage.”


--He authored a budget that cut forty thousand kids off health care


The proposed 2003-05 Senate budget, authored by Dino Rossi, would have covered roughly 4,000 more children than the prior biennium. In 2001-03, the average monthly caseload was 536,101. The Senate budget would have covered 540,000.

The final 2003 budget made changes to eligibility requirements to prevent Medicaid fraud, such as requiring verification of eligibility every 6 months rather than every 12 months. The budget did not kick anyone off of health care, except for those who were committing fraud. This would allow money to be spent where it should be – on the poor and vulnerable who otherwise wouldn’t have access to health care.

--Rossi voted to cut unemployment for laid-off workers


In 2003, the Washington State Legislature reformed the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) program which was one of the most costly in the nation. This reform was approved with support from both the House and Senate and was signed by Democrat Governor Locke. Not only did UI reform maintain benefits for Washingtonians out of work, but it also convinced Boeing to bring the first line of the 787 Dreamliner assembly to Washington State, creating thousands of new jobs.


Seattle Times, click here.  Seattle Times has called the, “Minimum wage attack on Rossi misleading.”