Apparently, the dozen or so declared candidates in the Republican contest to get one’s ass kicked by Sen. Patty Murray this November are just as much in the dark about Dino Rossi’s intentions as everybody else. Though a quick read between the lines sure does suggest that a Rossi v. Murray matchup is not likely to happen…
Among the people Republican Don Benton consulted before announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in early February was Dino Rossi.
Rossi, a friend of Benton’s and arguably Washington’s most prominent Republican, gave no hint that he might have designs on running himself.
Chris Widener, a Preston motivational speaker and author, said he would drop his bid for the Senate if Rossi were to run. […] Widener and his wife, Lisa, have been friends with Rossi since they joined the same baby-sitting co-op as new parents in 1992. The two men have remained close, and Widener said he speaks to Rossi regularly.
Yet, Widener said, he’s just as much in suspense as anyone about Rossi’s intentions.
These are folks who know Rossi, who are friendly with him, and who are already in the race. So you’d think if Rossi really intended to run, he’d have the courtesy to give them a heads up.
And then there’s Clint Didier, who hopes to ride a mediocre pro-football career and teabagger anger through the August primary. His campaign offers a different kinda hint as to what the Republican rainmakers expect from Rossi:
“I am a true conservative Republican,” said Didier, who has recruited Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman Jr. as his finance chair.
Freeman and his wife gave $8,600 to Rossi for his two gubernatorial campaigns, and now he’s the finance chair for a candidate destined to be an also-also-ran? Doesn’t really sound like Freeman expects Rossi to run, and as a nutty as he might be, he’s pretty much a consummate GOP insider.
So, yeah, once again, I just don’t see it.
Not really a team player, is he? Rossi’s ego continues to split the GOP party.
And Didier’s a Teeper, so after he loses out in the primary he’ll run third-party as a Teeper and drain votes away from whatever R that advances to the general election. Thank god he’s got his coaching career in Connell to fall back on.
He gets free publicity and keeps his profile up in the media all the while screwing up his friend’s fundraising efforts.
Financially if he does jump in then you will see a lot of money from the National Republican Committee so I don’t the money part scares him. He’ll probably tout this grass root momentum for him to declare when, in reality, it will be fully orchestrated.
What he fears is losing and there is a strong possibility that will happen. This would make him a three strike candidate and even more difficult to run for governor, the job he covets the most.
boeing war machines forever. $8 m tennis shoes, bitchez!
Who holds Rossi’s old state legislature seat these days?
If he keeps everyone in the dark, he can claim that he still hasn’t made up his mind. He can do everything a candidate does in the early days of the campaign – raise money for his PAC, form a campaign network, give speaches, keep his name in the headlines, etc., without being subject to the rules pertaining to candidates.
But once he says he’s running for office, he is subject to the contributor disclosure laws and fundraising limits.
Last time he was a bit too open about his intentions even though he hadn’t declared his candidacy yet, and it resulted in him being caught up in a lawsuit right as his campaign was entering the home stretch. Don’t expect him to make that same mistake again, I’m sure he’s got at leat one team of lawyers going over his schedule and telling him exactly what to say and do.
But even so, it shows that yes, he’s not a team player. He could just go ahead and declare his candidacy, but he doesn’t feel it’s in his own best interests yet to do so. By his calculations, his own self-interests are paramount, and those of his fellow Republicans are a distant second.
But that doesn’t mean that he will run. The one thing which would be absolutely fatal to his political career would be to be a three-time loser in a run for a statewide seat. I expect he knows that. The risks to him are a lot higher than they were in the previous elections. If he doesn’t hit this one out of the ballpark, he’ll be sent back down the the minors (obligatory baseball analogy inserted here).
@3
You would see the money if they had it, which they don’t.
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Seems to me the only way the Republican’s can keep this race in the news is by trotting out Rossi’s name.
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Don’t forget, you can see all 10 of the folks that want to lose to Patty Murray live and in person this Wednesday @ Peninsula High School (I’m a PHS grad, btw).
@5
Cheryl Pflug, 5th LD.
Rossi ran his first race in ’92, to the best of my recollection, from ’92 to 2010 Rossi has won exactly 1 race.
And he didn’t finish his one term in the state senate.
@2) It doesn’t work that way in Washington. Third party candidates can only be on the general election ballot if they make the top two in the primary. There will be only two candidates in November. That’s the way our system works now (and I’m starting to like it).
Not at all, once you recognize this for the partisan ploy that it is. None of these clowns have the slightest chance of taking Murray and they all know it. So why are Benton and Widener in the race? This is how you build a resume. And putting themselves squarely in the same spotlight as Dino can’t hurt. Dino is doing them and himself a huge favor by pretending to be in this race. But more importantly, the media willingly playing along when they certainly ought to know better are doing the GOP a huge favor.