Gregoire, Sims launch TV messages

OLYMPIA – With less than a month left before the Sept. 14 primary, Washington’s two Democratic contenders for governor have launched their first TV ads.

Pushing ahead with his high-stakes political gamble, Spokane native Ron Sims is running a 30-second spot touting his tax-reform plan.

Attorney General Christine Gregoire is featured in three ads – one of them tailored to Spokane viewers – which focus on her rural upbringing, family and career.

Sims’ ad is running in Puget Sound and will start running in Spokane soon, campaign manager Tim Hatley said.

“We believe we have a much stronger message than she does,” Hatley said.

The ad shows Sims seated on the steps of a front porch, flanked by Adirondack chairs and petunia-filled flowerpots.

“It’s no secret that Washington has the worst tax system in the country,” Sims says, “with working families paying three to five times more of their income than the wealthy.”

His plan, he says, would cut taxes for 78 percent of the state’s families. It would end the state’s business-and-occupation tax and erase the 6.5 percent state sales tax “once and for all.”

“It’s smart, it’s fair, and it’s time,” Sims says.

What is not mentioned in the ad is the cornerstone of Sims’ plan: a new state income tax. Washington voters and courts have repeatedly rejected such a tax, despite more than half a dozen attempts since the mid-1930s.

The reason the income tax isn’t mentioned, Hatley said, has nothing to do with the fact that it’s a political hot potato.

“It’s a 30-second spot. You can only say so much,” he said. “We’re not trying to hide from it or anything.”

The new state income tax would range from 4 percent to 10 percent, depending on earnings. Under the plan, a family of four with a household income of $50,000 or less would pay nothing. (Idaho’s state income tax is 7.8 percent for people earning approximately $33,000 or more.)

The Sims ad will run in fewer markets: Spokane, Seattle, Yakima and the Tri-Cities. According to the most recent campaign finance reports, Sims had raised only about $1 million to Gregoire’s $2.7 million, although she’s been spending faster than he has.

“You’d always like to spend more money,” said Hatley. “But our (ad) buy is big enough that we can hit the voters we want to hit.”

Gregoire is running three statewide ads that focus more on her life story than on issues.

All show her in a denim jacket, standing beside a farm fence.

“Growing up on a farm in Auburn, Chris Gregoire knew she’d have to work hard. And she did,” an announcer intones.

A farm in Auburn? Land of sprawling auto dealerships, factories, a concert amphitheater and an outlet-store “supermall”?

Yup, said Gregoire spokesman Morton Brilliant.

“It was a smallish farm” of about five acres, he said. But Gregoire grew up feeding calves and chickens, he said, and tending the family’s vegetable plots.

The ads also talk about how Gregoire’s mother was a short-order cook, and how she worked her way through college and law school. Gregoire was the first in her family to graduate from college.

The Spokane version includes a clip of a pickup driving down a dusty farm road.

“I’ll never forget Eastern Washington,” says Gregoire, who got her law degree from Gonzaga University and went to work in Spokane for the state attorney general. “It’s a special place. I started my career here, and Mike and I started our family in Spokane.”

Although Gregoire has held a strong lead in polls, both campaigns said they’re optimistic.

“Chris’ plans are getting a good response,” Brilliant said. “Things feel good right now, but we’re not taking anything for granted.”

“A lot of folks didn’t think we’d even be where we’re at now,” Hatley said. “We’ve got a real clear game plan about what we’ve got to do to win, and the ball’s in play.”