Dino Rossi

Dino Rossi for Governor:

Website: http://www.dinorossi.com/

The following is a good summary of talking points comparing Dino Rossi's new
"run to the middle" TV-spot with his actual State Senate record. Where
DO the Republicans find these phoneys ??

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: - Contact: Kirstin
Brost

Date: August 31, 2004 - - - PH 206-281-9124

The Great Disconnect - Rossi Sells Bio: But What Did He
Learn?

SEATTLE – Today, real-estate salesman Dino Rossi took his
sales pitch to the airwaves, launching his first round of
television advertisements statewide. In his new ad, Rossi
talks about his life, his parents, and his work waxing
floors (before his current work waxing over his record).
A man’s bio can tell you where he came from, but where did
he go with it?
For your benefit we’ve put together a little side-by-side
comparing what Rossi says in his ad, his life experience,
with how he legislated.

LIFE EXPERIENCE: ROSSI INTERPRETATION :

DINO ROSSI: “I was really blessed to have wonderful
parents.”

DR LEGISLATION - When the Christian Coalition began pushing
model “parental rights” legislation, Rossi responded by
sponsoring just such a bill in Washington State, SJM 8004.
Opponents of such legislation warned it could “promote suits
against school boards and social service agencies and hinder
child-abuse investigations.”[SJM 8004, New York Times,
1/15/96]

DINO ROSSI: “My Mother was from Alaska—left a difficult
situation. Ended up in Holly Park projects. “

DR LEGISLATION - Rossi voted against a bill that would give
unemployment benefits to domestic violence or stalking
victims who must leave their jobs. [SB 5189 3/8/01,
Spokesman Review, 3/9/01]

DR LEGISLATION - Rossi voted against granting a temporary
welfare work exemption to parents with an infant less than
12 months. The measure required parents to attend parenting
or job-skills classes once their child was three-months old.
[HB 1144 3/7/02]

DINO ROSSI: “She worked as a waitress and went to beauty
school and worked her way out of the projects. She never
shied away from hard work.”

DR LEGISLATION - Rossi voted against a measure to allow
welfare recipients to attend college. [SB 6296 3/3/00,
Seattle Times 3/10/00]

DR LEGISLATION - Rossi voted to undermine a voter-approved
initiative that allows the minimum wage to increase each
year with cost-of-living standards. Rossi voted for a bill
that would freeze the wage increase when the state
unemployment rate is above the federal jobless rate. [SB
5697 3/12/03, Associated Press 3/13/03]

DINO ROSSI: “My father was a Seattle public school
teacher.”

DR LEGISLATION - In his 2003 budget, Dino Rossi:
o Undermined a voter-approved initiative to provide
annual cost-of-living increases for teachers. [The Olympian
6/5/03]
o Gave only a fraction of the funding to reduce class
size that public schools were slated to receive under
voter-approved Initiative 728. [The Olympian 6/5/03]

DINO ROSSI: “My dad taught me patience.”
Unable to outlaw a woman’s right to choose in 1991 by
working against Initiative 120, Rossi has patiently chipped
away at women’s rights during his time in the Senate.
DR LEGISLATION -
o Rossi voted against funding for low income
family planning services. [SB 5465, 3/16/99; SB 5186,
3/9/01].

o Rossi pushed to fund an abstinence-only sex
education program. [SB 5592, Seattle PI 3/17/97, Seattle
PI 7/24/97, SB 5592 3/15/97]

o Rossi voted twice to mandate parental
notification before abortion. [SB 6290 2/16/98, Seattle
Times 2/17/98, SB 5255 3/19/97, Seattle Times 3/19/97]

o Rossi vote allowed insurance companies to
discriminate against women. [SB 5512 3/9/99, Seattle PI
3/10/99]

DINO ROSSI: “My folks couldn’t afford to pay for me to go
to college. So I decided to work waxing floors at the space
needle to make it through school.”

DR LEGISLATION - Rossi’s 2003 budget cut operating funds for
all public higher education institutions by $131 million.
[The Olympian 6/5/03]

DINO ROSSI: “That experience taught me that hard work . . .
pays off.”

Rossi has worked hard to advance the Bush agenda in Washington state. His pay
off? A visit from Dick Cheney that raised over $100,000 for his campaign.

DR LEGISLATION –

o As Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Rossi
pushed two memorials that supported President Bush’s
economic agenda. One memorial supported Bush’s 2003
economic plan which analysts said “overwhelmingly
benefit[ed] the wealthy” and would particularly hurt
struggling state governments. The other memorial supported
a repeal of the estate tax, a measure that would drive up
federal deficits by at least $162 billion over ten years in
order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. [SJM
8006 4/7/03, Washington Post 1/8/03, SJM 8005, New York
Times 6/19/03]

o Rossi co-sponsored and voted for a memorial that
urged the US Senate to confirm Bush’s controversial judicial
nominee, Miguel Estrada. US Senate Democrats had delayed
Estrada’s confirmation because the Bush administration
refused to provide documents on Estrada’s legal work which,
according to Joel Connelly at the Seattle PI, reportedly
showed views “as far to the right as those of Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia” [SJM 8020, Seattle PI 5/14/03]

o Rossi is “opposed to legal abortion.” Rossi’s
position on choice is identical to that of President George
W. Bush. [Washington Law & Politics April/May 2004,
Spokesman Review 12/10/03, New York Times 4/22/04]

VOICE: “Paid for by Rossi for Governor, GOP”

Who pays for Rossi? Rossi's campaign is financed with over
$10,000 from the pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps this
industry remembers how Rossi voted with them to kill
legislation that would give the state bargaining power to
control the escalating costs of prescription drugs.
[www.pdc.wa.gov, SB 6368 2/18/02, Associated Press 2/19/02)