Governor’s money race

SEATTLE – Democrat Christine Gregoire has raked in more out-of-state money than her rival, Republican Dino Rossi, in the race for the governor’s mansion.

Donors from outside Washington state have given $1.4 million directly to Gregoire, and $189,000 to Rossi.

Both candidates together have raised about $12 million in direct contributions, a new record and nearly double the amount raised in 2000 by Gov. Gary Locke and his Republican challenger.

In addition, the Democratic Governors Association has spent about $2.4 million supporting Gregoire, the Seattle Times reported Thursday, while the Republican Governors Association has spent about $1.7 million on Rossi’s behalf.

Including the money spent by those two national groups, about half of Gregoire’s support has come from out-of-state sources, versus a quarter for Rossi. The contributions from the governors’ groups also include money from Washington-based companies and people.

Gregoire’s earlier prediction that national Republican groups would descend en masse upon the state to support Rossi’s campaign has not come to pass.

“They’re going to come at us with $9 million,” Gregoire told the state Democratic Party convention in June, exhorting the audience to “show them Washington state will not be bought.”

On Thursday, Rossi tried to turn Gregoire’s words against her, criticizing her reliance on out-of-state money.

“These donations from the national Democrats appear to be a last-minute ploy to try to buy this election,” Rossi said in a news release. “Well, let me paraphrase Christine Gregoire’s own words and say that the people of Washington are not for sale. They can’t be bought off by the attorney general’s sleazy Southern lawyer friends.”

Much of Gregoire’s out-of-state support comes from EMILY’s list, a national organization that works to elect pro-choice Democratic women, and from lawyers who worked with Gregoire on the national tobacco settlement.

Gregoire’s campaign spokesman, Morton Brilliant, said people from outside Washington state have good reasons to contribute to Gregoire.

“Christine is getting support from pro-choice voters around the country who are scared by Rossi’s extreme record on choice,” Brilliant said. The tobacco attorneys who have donated to her campaign, he said, “have worked with her and they know she would be a great governor.”

Gregoire was lead negotiator in the 1997 tobacco settlement, in which major tobacco companies agreed to pay $206 billion to 46 states, including an estimated $4.5 billion to Washington.

Richard Scruggs, a prominent Mississippi attorney who represented several states in the national settlement, gave $200,000 to the Democratic Governors Association earlier this month. He has also contributed directly to Gregoire’s campaign. Scruggs said his firm made about $1 billion in fees on the tobacco litigation.

The Democratic Governors Association is spending money on races around the country, and it’s impossible to link Scruggs’ donation directly to Gregoire’s campaign. But Scruggs said Gregoire was uppermost in his mind when he gave the money.

“She was one of our colleagues and close friends in the tobacco wars, and I’d certainly like to see her get as much of it as possible, but it is not my call,” Scruggs said. “I feel like (Gregoire) is a great public servant and she did a great job for the state of Washington … in the tobacco litigation.”